At Etone College we are committed to developing a partnership with parents/carers with the shared aim of ensuring our pupils make progress in everything they do.

Following the continued success of our programme we would like to announce our next session aimed at all parents and carers. The goal of these workshops is to look at one element of school life and consider how best our pupils can be supported both in school and at home. Through a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions, we will look to develop links between home and school and provide support in a number of areas.

All materials from these sessions will be uploaded to our website and can be found using the following link after the event: https://bit.ly/3gm0kqo

We would like to invite you to the next event as follows:

Parent/ Carer Support Workshop:

Location: Date: Time:

Supporting Wellbeing and Promoting Good Mental Health for our Pupils

Online, Microsoft Teams

Wednesday 10th May 2023

5:30pm-6:30pm

See you there!

On Friday 17^th March Comic Relief held their annual Red Nose Day. Whilst we are always eager to support good causes wherever we can at Etone we were having a fantastic time with our Careers Day. However, not one to shy away from active citizenship we made sure that we did our bit to raise fund for the charity.

Launched in 1985 by Sir Lenny Henry and Richard Curtis the charity aims to raise funds through comedy for good causes across the world and within the UK. During the last week our pupils have considered how raising funds helps those who are less fortunate than us and consider how this links to our Etone Values of being ‘caring’ and ‘courteous’. One of the case studies we looked at was how food banks in the Coventry area have benefitted from a scheme where funds from Comic Relief are used to help those in areas close to us live a normal life. Since it’s inception it has raised over £1.5 billion for these causes.

Over at Etone we wanted to continue to add to our last years total and increase our current Charity Total of nearly £2,000 since the start of the academic year. This started with our non-uniform day. With an aim for pupils to donate whatever they could and wear their own clothes it was great to see the effort pupils made including the theme of wearing bright colours, particularly red. 

Following this we were delighted to host our cake sale with donations of cakes from our staff, Sixth Form pupils and a generous donation from ASDA and their community support team. With these amazing donations and some great contributions from our pupils including some RAF themed delights from O George we were bursting at the seams when it came to the event. With Kipling, Cadbury and even MINI EGG cakes on offer there really was a sweet treat for everyone. 

Although the total has yet to be announced we are confident this could be a school single day record! We are so proud of all of our pupils and staff and want to say a huge thank you to everyone for supporting us!

After 6 weeks of intensive rehearsal, the Etone Choir performed at a concert alongside the Grammy Award winning group the King’s Singers at St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Warwick on Thursday 16^th March. The opportunity came via Warwickshire Music who put Etone College in contact with Armonico Consort.

Armonico Consort is a Warwickshire based music group, founded by conductor Christopher Monks and, as part of their Choir Creation programme, musicians Caius Lee and Richard Hughes came in to work both with our Etone Choir and our staff. In sessions students were able to learn a selection of African choral pieces as well as the “Suitcase of Songs” by British composer Toby Young with lyrics by Jennifer Thorpe. “A Suitcase of Full of Songs” tells the story of how it feels to move to a new country and explores the emotions that are experienced at such a challenging time. Aidan B in year 10 said that “this has given us the chance to do something we wouldn’t normally do – the type of music we are learning thorough the project isn’t what we’d usually learn anywhere else and it’s pushed us out of our comfort zones”. Elliott in year 9 said “This project has given use the opportunity to be more than just our choir – we’ve got to meet so many other awesome people in the music community.

On the day of the concert itself our students travelled by coach to Warwick in our smart matching t-shirts to take part in the rehearsal directed by Christopher Monks and alongside the King’s Singers. The tone of the day was set when the King’s Singers began their warm up and rehearsal by treating all the students to a performance of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the Lion King as well as some other pieces from their repertoire. The rehearsal took most of the day and Etone students worked alongside students from Nuneaton and Armonico Consort’s own chamber choirs. The concert itself took place at 5pm with Etone students proudly standing in the Choir stalls and also being given the prime role of Djembe drumming!

For a number of the students it was the first concert that they had performed it and, we were made to feel extremely special when the King’s Singers took the time to come and talk to our students (there were a few high fives too!) after the concert. Students have commented on the programme giving them an opportunity to work on teamwork, communication skills and their resilience – as well as feeling a boost to self-confidence and to their mental health. Students also commented on how good it was to meet professional musicians as it shows that you can do music as a full time career.

To quote from our performance piece, “A Suitcase of Full of Songs; “What is sweeter that this choir?” – nothing! They were already asking about the next concert on the way home!

On Tuesday 21^st March our year 7 and 8 students had the opportunity to experience this year’s BAE Systems workshop. This year the theme was ‘From the depths of the oceans to outer space’.

Students enjoyed a series of interactive activities throughout the hour, including racing to put planets in order and testing their communication skills. Overall the workshop was a fantastic way to engage students about the world of engineering and how it links into their Science lessons.

After the big launch of the exciting football activators role we now have a team of our girls working hard each week and taking part in workshops that develop important skills. We have our marketeers who are working hard to develop skills on how to design and promote girl’s football. We also have our deliverers who are working hard to develop the skills required to successfully lead and deliver to others. All of them have a key role to play and we are looking forward to seeing what they create.

On Tuesday 14th March a group of Etone pupils along with welsh champion Mr Kitching paid a visit to the All England Badminton Championship, the “Wimbledon of badminton”.

As the worlds oldest and most prestigious tournament our pupils were in awe of the talent displayed as they watched a mixture of doubles, singles and high stakes matches with pride and titles on offer for the successful players.

Not only was it fantastic for our pupils to see sporting at its peak level but it was also an opportunity to see what sporting events had in offer with stalls, interviews and of course some excellent freebies on offer. 

Underpinning our Etone Values and Employability Skills, the championship consolidates the need for pupils to develop this skills and resilience and show the integrity expected of sporting professionals.

The event was enjoyed by all and we can’t wait for the next one!

On Monday 20^th March – 31^st March we start our Easter themed attendance competition – EGGcelent Attendance Fortnight. During the two weeks we have issued the challenge to all pupils to achieve a full two weeks of attendance to propel themselves and their Houses to glory. 

As you will be aware, the best way for your child to make use of the opportunities at school is for them to be present each and every day. By being in school they are exposed to our enriched curriculum that ensures each pupil makes progress and prepares them for a successful future. As a school, our expectation remains that pupils attend 100% of the time they are scheduled to. Imagine education as a jigsaw puzzle, easy day at school is another piece earned. Without excellent attendance, the picture will never be complete.

Therefore over the course of the fortnight, we will be promoting why attending each and every day is important. Those who are able to achieve the challenge will then receive a choc-tastic prize and an entry into an end-of-term prize draw.

 At Etone College, we are committed to making sure we deliver the very best curriculum to our pupils. To that end, we are extremely proud to play our part in engaging with the latest educational research, supporting our external partners with training educator and sharing our practices across other schools.

On Wednesday 8th March we were delighted to host a visit from the Department for Education for them to explore best practices within schools which can then be shared across the country.

The day started with our guests touring the school as they looked to see what a day in the life of Etone College would hold. Just like a normal day, there was a real buzz in school with an environment that was focused on learning. The visitors were extremely impressed and commented on how engaged pupils were in their learning. Whilst we would always expect this, it was great to show external visitors what being an Etone Learner is all about.

As part of the day, our visitors met with Matrix Academy Trust CEO – Lynsey Draycott, Headteacher Mr Smith and Etone staff to share some of those fantastic practices from both Etone and the Trust and consider how these could impact other schools.

Finally, our guests met with Etone pupils to explore what life at Etone was like for our learners. Whilst already complimentary of Etone, the visitors were overwhelmingly impressed with our pupils and commented particularly on their “dedication to learning and the intrinsic value they see in their education”.

With such positive praise for both Etone college and Matrix Academy Trust, it is clear to see why we are so proud of Etone and particularly our amazing pupils.

Etone College have created an event which was open to year 10s and 11 who are interested specifically in the Armed forces as a career prospect. We had 25 participants including all the Year 10 and 11 RAF Cadets from Etone, 2 Cadets from the local area of Nuneaton that attend Etone and a group of year 10 who had volunteered to find out more about the Army and RAF.

This particular week was the Army Surge week programme. This involved 3 outreach teams from different cap badges in the Army coming together to put together an excellent programme for out group. They started off with the Infantry regiment creating Satalight towers with MKa STEM Kits, They received a talk about what the infantry does and all the different roles you can do in the Infantry E.g., Guarding the Royal Family, Frontline and the Parachute regiment. They then moved onto to a brief from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical engineers. They had to build a Car out of kenex pieces that will hold an air tube. The Reme LCpl would fill the tube up with compressed air for it to travel across the hall at some speed. Some groups where successful and some fell apart but the groups got time to rectify the problems before trying again. After that they received an In-depth brief which was really interactive all about the 7 career sections of the Army and the pathway in which to gain this career.

In the Afternoon the RAF Careers advisor Sgt Chambers did an excellent Personal development session in which the 25 Students had to work as a team to complete simple tasks. The tasks increased in complexity as we went along and this created Team Cohesion within the group and developed their communication skills. We will be inviting Sgt Chambers back in the future for More career’s sessions with our Year 10s and 11s as we do have a lot of students who are interested in Piloting and engineering in the RAF.