As parents and carers we all want our children to be happy and safe, and it is natural to worry about bullying – particularly if we have experienced bullying ourselves or think our child may be more vulnerable to bullying. The good news is you are not alone! The Anti-Bullying Alliance and its members are here to work with children, families, and schools to help keep children safe.

Every November schools throughout the United Kingdom take part in Anti-Bullying Week. This is an opportunity to spotlight bullying and consider the steps we can take together to stop it. Anti-Bullying Week 2024 will take place from Monday 11th – Friday 15th November, with the theme: Choose Respect.

With our Etone Values we pride ourselves on our pupils being caring, supportive and showing mutual respect. These are character traits that we encourage each and every day at Etone College. We are also a Telling School and encourage our pupils to talk to a trusted adult if they are ever concerned about themselves or a peer. For Anti-bullying Week pupils will be receiving assemblies, taking part in form time activities, wearing their Odd Socks on Monday 18^th November and taking part in random acts of kindness as part of World Kindness Day.

As a parent or carer, you are a vital piece of the puzzle in tackling bullying. You have a unique role to play in guiding and supporting your child through their school years and there are many positive steps you can take to help keep your child safe from bullying and harm.

If you are worried about bullying and need some advice or support you can contact the Kidscape Parent Advice Line. You can find out more on the following link http://www.kidscape.org.uk/

Some of Etone’s CCF cadets were out supporting our heroes and assisting the Royal British Legion selling poppy’s in Nuneaton Town centre at the weekend.

This helps raise awareness of the meaning or Remembrance and also assists our local community.

Well done to everyone who took part.

On Friday 6th December we are delighted to once again be supporting Save the Children as part of our community outreach initiative.

Over the past two years our pupils and families have done amazing things to raise funds for local causes and national charities, edging ever closer to our £15,000 target.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Friday 15th December marks our traditional Christmas Jumper Day. As part of this event pupils are invited to donate £1 and wear a Christmas jumper instead of their blazer. All of the money raised will go towards Save the Children, looking to support individuals in real need.

Last year we raised over £300 and we are hoping for a similar amount again.

We encourage all appropriate Christmas jumpers and can’t wait to see what festive cheer you have in store. Mr Bowley already has his prepped to go!

Please remember that it is uniform as usual and where there are infringements these will be treated as usual.

Every year, the Salvation Army organise a toy drive within Nuneaton community to collect and distribute presents for disadvantaged children, to help them celebrate Christmas. All donations are gratefully received and ensure Christmas joy is spread to those who are experiencing hardship. Children aged between 0 to 16 years of age are supported in this toy drive.

Etone College are actively participating in this by challenging forms to co-ordinate and donate as much as they can. There is no expectation to buy new goods, although this is welcome. Still boxed and packaged toys, nearly new books and boxed toiletry gifts are being donated by both students and staff to support the Salvation Army and to show students what a difference they can make to the community by engaging in active citizenship. All unwanted gifts are in perfect condition to become the perfect present for a child or teenager in our community. 

All form members and form representatives will be given house points for donations and organisation of donations. House point records will be made by form tutors and Heads of House and the winning form in each year group will win a class prize. Most importantly, our toy drive will show how positive an Etone Learner is in engaging with active citizenship via teamwork, communication, organisation, initiative and showing how caring and supportive they can be. Donations need to be taken to the stage on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December to ensure they are taken to the Salvation Army.

This term Etone College students have really shown Active Citizenship and highlighted the Etone Values with; raising money for Children in Need, and celebrating remembrance. However, it hasn’t stopped there. Each year we collect food on behalf of a local food bank to provide some basic essentials and festive treats to those around Nuneaton who are in need of a little Christmas spirit.

It is at this time of year that we are incredibly thankful for what we have and spend time considering those in less fortunate positions. So we are asking for donations to the Nuneaton Foodbank, which do a fantastic job of serving the community and making sure the food and items get to the people who need it most.

If you are able to take part please bring your food in on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December and give it in at reception. The list of accepted items are on our poster. Our fantastic Charity Committee will be taking the food on Monday 8th December to the Foodbank to do the handover.

Thank you to all of our amazing Etone pupils, parents and staff in advance.

Over the course of this week our pupils have been busy considering how they show active citizenship as part of our Theme of the Week assemblies. Hand in hand with our Attendance Matters week the pupils have been focused on what they do to impact and support the community around them.

From our Year 11 Prefects to our Year 7 Student Council Reps our student leadership roles enable pupils to take an active part in the development of Etone College, helping to support our local and wider community.

As part of the assembly pupils had the chance to thank our Community Champions who were very well received as they described their role in supporting Etone with our community mission.

The assembly was also an opportunity to highlight some of the events that will be taking place on Friday 15^th November in support of Children in Need. During the day pupils are invited to wear non-school uniform and donate a suggestion of £1, provided they come fully equipped for a normal school day (including their PE kit).

Well done to all of our Etone pupils for showing their active citizenship and ‘Being Supportive’ as they showcase our Etone Values.

We were delighted to welcome so many parents to our ‘Supporting your Child to Read’ session on Tuesday evening.  Described by parents as, ‘very informative’, ‘an excellent session providing some very useful information’, and ‘an excellent presentation which covered all of the key reasons why reading is so important and gave parents/carers great information and ideas in which to support our child.’ we can’t wait to see Etone pupils engaging in even more reading including collaborative reading at home.

On Friday 18^th October, we had 15 incredibly enthusiastic Year 6 pupils from Wembrook Primary School join our Descriptive Writing Workshop with Miss Benfell.  Pupils enjoyed looking at the Myth of Icarus, which warns us that sometimes parents know best!  They were then guided to write some wonderful paragraphs, using some ambitious vocabulary and sophisticated language techniques such as personification (Miss Benfell’s favourite).  The session ended with some well-deserved orange juice and flapjacks and of course they couldn’t leave without their certificates and bookmarks.  A special shout out to our fabulous Year 12 Literature students, Dalida and Hanna, who supported pupils throughout the session.  Pupils left feeling excited and were heard saying ‘it was amazing’.  

At Etone we encourage a deep culture of reading. As part of that our challenges are key to developing keen young readers.

To celebrate this we have asked our staff to share pictures of their book shelves. See if you can guess whose shelf is whose.