As we draw the school year to a close we are enjoying three days of celebration.  It started on Wednesday 20 July with a day of Celebration Assemblies recognising our students' hard work, attendance and achievements.  Through the year we praise and reward our students to help reinforce our values and expectations. 

Yesterday, Thursday 21 July, was our 10th Annual Celebration Day when students enjoy a day of activities either in school or on an out of school trip in glorious sunshine. This year students had a choice of 20 trips including the Year 12 trip to the cinema – all requiring even more organisation than last year. 

Trips this year have included going to London to see ‘Stomp’, Indoor Skiing in Milton Keyes, Wicksteed Park, Drayton Manor, Cadbury’s World, Harry Potter World and the newly opened trampoline centre ‘Bounce’ in Peterborough, just to name a few.

As you can see from the attached newspaper ‘JHS Today’, written by students for the students, on the day of the excitement, there was a lot of fun had by all.  As well as some students being journalists for the day there were plenty of activities going on in school including,  African drumming and dancing for Year 8s, Year 9 and 10s were having fun with team building and motivation activities and bug hunting, code breaking and treasure hunting for Year 7s.

Once again Celebration Day was a hit – despite some of the students experiencing long tiring days – everyone had a good time.  Read 'JHS Today' to find out more about all that went on during the day.

On another bright and sunny last day of term, staff and students enjoyed organising and taking part in activities raising money for charity at the annual ‘Big Finish’. This annual event gives students the opportunity to enjoy the last day of term whilst helping others raising money to support charitable organisations. This year they were raising money for Sue Ryder's, Thorpe Hall.

The event brings out the entrepreneurial spirit in the students, as all 84 tutor groups are given the challenge of raising money by organising activities, competitions or selling items at the huge Annual Fete that runs from around 11am until 1pm when they pack up ready to leave at lunchtime.  Each form starts with a kitty of £5 to fund their activities.

Once again we were really lucky with the weather, despite the rain early morning it turned into a lovely warm day so all the activities were able to be held outside. On offer were lots of games and challenges including football shoot out, wet sponge throwing, tin can alley, sweet and cake stalls and once again there was the favourite disco in the Black Box drama room.

Once again Mrs Urciuoli-Hill and Mrs Tuck attracted quite an audience for their hotdogs dressed in their ‘Hotdog Chef Hats’.  Head of House, Mr Davison and English teacher Mr Westall had a steady flow of clients paying to throw wet sponges at them.  This year the ice cream and Indian food stalls attracted a lot of customers.

 “This is a great way of raising money for local charities and today we were lucky with the weather.  The students are very motivated and have some very enterprising ideas.  Once again it was a great way to end the term and the students have done a fantastic job and I can’t wait to see what has been raised after all the pennies are counted at the end of the day.” said Head of House, Mrs Buckley.

Well done to all staff and students for their hard work and donations.  We would also like to say a big thank you to the local companies that have responded to student requests by supporting them with their generous donations.  This year we have raised a fantastic

£2,655.67!

Well done to Kennedy who raised the most on the day of the Big Finish however the final winner was Mandela raised additional money through plant sales to put them in the lead raising over £633, so congratulations to them.  And the form with the most was MABE (Ms Brace) who raised over £165 from various activities including running the very popular disco in the Drama room – the Black Box.

We hope all our staff and students enjoy a fantastic summer and we look forward to seeing them in September.

To see more pictures visit our Celebration Day Gallery and Big Finish Gallery