Weekly Bulletin
Please see the weekly bulletin from Mr Solly below...
Dear UCC Families
We have started the second half of the autumn term superbly, with students slotting straight back into school routines for learning after the 2 week break. As I have previously signposted to you, we are only one of six schools nationally to be selected for the Improving Teaching Programme with leading education consultants and former headteacher John Tomsett and Tom Sherrington, and as part of this project we have been completing regular learning walks each day to evaluate how successfully we implement the teaching strategies which help us assess how well students have understood the key concepts in lessons. The standards of teaching and learning observed have been superb, and we look forward to welcoming John and Tom back to UCC later in November where we will work with them to further refine our approaches.
There has been a real buzz around school today as we launched the first ACE Day of 2022-23. The Additional Curriculum Enrichment Days are meticulously planned to support students in their personal development, whilst supporting the social, moral, spiritual and cultural elements of our curriculum, as well as developing students' awareness of the fundamental British values (democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance).
You may have noticed that work has started on our refurbishment of the former nursery building. This is part of our Mainstream+ project with Rutland County Council, and we are benefitting from a substantial investment from the local authority to refurbish this tired facility into a learning space which will look and feel similar to our Enhanced Resource Provision. In the long term, we will use this facility as a base for delivering a number of vocational qualifications which we will introduce to complement the already successful, but very 'GCSE heavy' Key Stage 4 curriculum that we have always offered. Everything is progressing well with this project and it is due to be completed by the end of term. The other capital project update is that we will have a different set of contractors on site from 21.11.22 at the other end of the school, as work begins on the new teaching block. This new facility will contain 5 Modern Foreign Language classrooms, 2 MFL speaking rooms, 2 staff work rooms, a Business Studies classroom, 3 SEND Mainstream+ classrooms, as well as toilets for staff and students. We've managed to combine the Conditions Improvement Funding money, alongside further funding from RCC (as part of our Mainstream+ project) to create this new facility and work will begin in the new calendar year with a completion date of April if everything goes to plan!
It was lovely to see Year 7 families visiting the school this week for their first parents' evening with their child's Form Tutor. We gave Year 7 the opportunity to also show their families around the school, which some of them did, and I am grateful to our Year 11 Student Leadership Team who gave up their time to support this event.
Next Wednesday is our Presentation Evening for the UCC Class of 2022. What a turbulent time these young people went through, in pursuit of their GCSEs! They rose to the various challenges superbly though and were a magnificent cohort; I am very much looking forward to welcoming them back to UCC to collect their GCSE certificates and any prizes their teachers nominated them for.
Finally from me, I'd like to remind all families that you can view the curriculum offer for your child by visiting the relevant section on our website, or (for KS3 students) view the Curriculum 'Microsoft Sway' document online by clicking here. It is useful to see what your child has been learning and what they are moving onto next, and this information can help start positive conversations about what they have been learning at school.
Please take the time to read through the Newsletter, so you can see what has been going on at UCC throughout this week.
I hope you have a great weekend
Mr B Solly