Dear Parents and Carers
Following the Ransomware attack last Autumn, we faced a lot of rebuilding; the curriculum, all lessons, our internal database and pretty much everything else. As we got started we did vow to build back better (pretty sure I’ve heard that somewhere before). Our curriculum is now closer aligned to our school values, something put to the test very robustly in our recent Ofsted visit. The staff have done a fantastic job of rebuilding everything whilst maintaining delivery but it is an ongoing piece of work; keeping in mind that these hackers had managed to get through everything, also destroying our back-ups.
When I look around the school at what has been achieved since this attack on 12 September 2022, I am extremely proud of the staff and grateful to our kids and parents/carers for their patience. This all occurred to me again on Wednesday evening when I was strolling around our careers event for upper school students. It was great! There were training agencies and employers setting up stalls and discussing routes into their worlds with kids and parents/carers. The atmosphere was lovely and the conversations had that different tone as we begin to talk with kids about what they might want to do in the future. These relationships differ to that of teacher/student and are very welcome. I would say however that nothing demonstrates building back better than our careers work which was completely lost in the attack. Our new Careers Lead, Colette Wedgbrow, working together with Julie Stevens, Director of our Sixth Form, have completely reinvented our careers education. It is looking better than ever and will continue to improve, starting on one of the strike days next week when Year 7 will be introduced to Unifrog, the universal destinations platform which provides career guidance (strike plans will be sent to parents today, Friday 10 March). My thanks go to all involved in careers planning and delivery and a huge well done.
Best wishes
Andy Perry
Head Teacher