What an honour it is to feature at the front of the Nuneaton News with the hard work of our Community Champions recognised in the paper this week. Get your copy now whilst you can!

A group of 54 Year 11 pupils from Etone College recently had the opportunity to visit De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester. The day began with a tour of the campus, where our pupils explored state-of-the-art facilities, including the impressive Vijay Patel Building, known for its creative arts courses. They visited several faculty buildings, gaining valuable insights into the wide range of courses and specialist academic environments on offer. A talk on student finance provided clear advice on managing university costs and accessing support, ensuring pupils felt informed about this important aspect of university life.

Whilst on tour pupils were an introduction to the university’s student support services, such as the Student Gateway, which offers help with money matters, welfare, and additional needs. Pupils discovered the variety of clubs and societies available at DMU, underlining the importance of extracurricular activities in shaping a well-rounded university experience. They also learned about different routes into university, including foundation years for those seeking alternative pathways. An informative Q&A session with current students gave pupils the chance to ask questions and hear first-hand about life at university, leaving them inspired and better prepared for their future education choices.

On Wednesday we welcomed over 100 year 7 and 8 parents to the Etone College to attend our annual Mince Pies and Carols event. The performance is always well attended and this year was no different. With the choir singing some festive treats along with an audience rendition of Last Christmas there was fun aplenty. Whilst the joys of the singing were going on our Community Champions were being their amazing selves and delivering mince pies and yule logs to our guests, all the while raising funds for Save the Children. Bringing our total raised to over £350 for the charity this year. The event is an important aspect of our calendar as it helps to support our pupils and parents whilst raising funds and festive cheer all around. Thank you to all of those in attendance.

Don’t forget about our upcoming reward trips and events:

Since starting in September the Etone Gardening Club have worked hard to achieve our School Gardening Level 1 Award from the Royal Horticultural Society.

To achieve this award we have had to start gardening, create accessible gardening spaces inside and outside and understand the benefits of gardening. We have focused on growing plants that we can take care of in our classroom as well as preparing some planters with bulbs ready for the spring. We have explored our school site and chosen areas to begin a vegetable garden in the spring months, and have ensured that all can take part in Gardening by preparing raised beds and growing on our Windowsills.

The gardening club are reaping the benefit of gardening. It is a great chance to get outside, and be active which is great for our mental health. We also enjoy chatting whilst planting seeds and taking care of our plants.  We are enjoying seeing plants grow from tiny seeds and are very close to having our first harvest of garlic! 

We were awarded our Level 1 Gardening award in December and have received some seeds to help us keep growing and a book for the school about how gardening is good for wellbeing.  We are now starting to work towards level 2.

We are delighted with the engagement with reading that pupils in Years 7&8 have shown this academic year. In their lessons, they are reading and quizzing and as a result their reading  is progressing. 

To celebrate their achievements, we are rewarding the top 4 classes with a trip to Nuneaton Library through our partnership with them. Pupils will be accompanied to the library during an English lesson to take part in a scavenger exploring all that the library has to offer. There will prizes for the teams who work the best. 

This term you may have been following Etone pupils as we seek to show our active citizenship. Considering the core Etone Values with a focus on caring out pupils have taken part in lots of charitable and goodwill activities. 

In the run up to Christmas it was no different as we launched drives to collect toys and gifts on behalf of the Nuneaton Salvation Army and Food for Nuneaton Foodbank. 

The Salvation Army are global charity who, within this initiative, provide a little Christmas cheer to those around the world who may otherwise suffer during the festive season. Across the past few weeks pupils have brought in toys, games, books and trinkets that will make fantastic gifts for children and strengthen their belief that Santa never forgets a child. Mrs Elliot has been inundated with goods, even needing an overspill donation point to store them all. The Salvation Army have been especially impressed with Etone efforts describing them as “Truly incredible and heart-warming to see young people care so much about others. It really highlights our own values of caring and showing community spirit.”

With a haul of over 250 individual gifts it is our biggest contribution yet to the Salvation Army and shows just how far we have come since 2021.

This term you may have been following Etone pupils as we seek to show our active citizenship. Considering the core Etone Values with a focus on caring out pupils have taken part in lots of charitable and goodwill activities. 

In the run up to Christmas it was no different as we launched drives to collect toys and gifts on behalf of the Nuneaton Salvation Army and Food for Nuneaton Foodbank. 

The Nuneaton Foodbank are a local charity who provide those in our surrounding area with the basic food and toiletries essentials that we take for granted every day. Throughout our drive we have collected and have been overwhelmed by the amount of goodwill our pupils and parents have shown. Donations have included the essentials such as toilet rolls, tins of food and packets of biscuits but also luxury festive treats such as mince pies, puddings and chocolate which will surely go a small way to helping other feel the seasonal cheer. Quoting the Nuneaton Foodbank “It is heart-breaking to hear the stories of those who need help for the basic we all take for granted on a daily basis. Although we can only provide as much support as possible, we need as much help from others to get the job done. The pupils, parents and staff at Etone have been so generous it is great to see these young people doing their bit for the local area.”

Once again thank you to all of our pupils, parents, carers and staff who have donated and have a very Merry Christmas!

We were once again overwhelmed to receive over 250 tins, 60 packs of mince pies and a host of selection boxes. Good work Team Etone!