On Monday Etone College had the joy of hosting our Primary School Football Festival for primary schools within the Nuneaton and surrounding area.

Over the past term Miss Taylor has been leading Year 8 and 9 girls on the Football Go Lead programme. Each week the pupils showcase their Employability Skills by using teamwork, organisation and problem solving as they develop their coaching techniques. As part of this our girls have been running their own football club after school as a precursor to our pupils preparing to lead the primary festival after school last night.

After welcoming our guests to the fantastic facilities Etone has to offer, the pupils split up into smaller groups ready to begin the coaching. The festival started with come simple dribbling skills and passing techniques before moving on to some games. We are incredibly proud of our pupils and want to say a massive well done to all involved.

This year we have been thrilled by the response to our Parental Support Sessions. These events have been well intended with the purpose of the programme to provide key information to parents and carers on key themes or areas around the school. So far we have covered; Careers, Work Experience, UCAS, Literacy and Numeracy, Revision Strategies and many more. 

On Wednesday it was the final support session of the year, Supporting your child with SEND. As part of the virtual event Mrs Smith our SENDCO and assistant SENDCO Miss Sandilands shared some key information about how we support all of our pupils at Etone to ensure they received the same enriched and balanced curriculum as everyone else. 

The session was an opportunity to promote our values that every child deserves to achieve the best they can and underline our vision of ‘Progress for All’. At Etone College we make sure every child is treated as an individual and to that end we endeavour to meet their needs wherever these are presented. In the changing times since the COVID 19 Pandemic the needs of pupils have differed vastly to prior and working hard with our research advocates and organisations such as the EEF we have developed our responses.

The session was well attended and it was a great opportunity for Mrs Smith to share our vision for all pupils and answers any questions parents may have had. 

We would like to thank everyone in attendance and particularly Mrs Smith and Miss Sandilands for their work in preparing and presenting the session.

To find out more or see the materials for this event or any of our previous events check out our Parent Support Page: https://www.etonecollege.co.uk/parent-carer-support-workshops/

You may have heard that the Knife Angel has made it’s way to Nuneaton. The Knife Angel is a sculpture created in 2018 from knives collected through 200 amnesty Knife Banks in the UK along with some seized by the police force.  The contemporary sculpture formed of 100,000 knives was created by artist Alfie Bradley and the British Ironworks Centre, based in Oswestry, England.^[1]

The aim of the sculpture is to raise awareness of knife crime and provide education that looks to prevent further crimes from happening. The sculpture has been in Nuneaton for the month of June and those who have visited it have found the impact to be quite striking.

With this terms Etone Value being Supportive it was great to consider how we as a community can support the aims and values of the project. To highlight this we were thrilled to receive a visit from Stephen Crowshaw, Community Safety Project Manager for Warwickshire County Council and the Nuneaton Justice Centre. As part of the workshop Stephen was able to give an overall explanation of the Knife Angel, it’s importance and ask pupils about what they felt after visiting it. After a brief history of what the Knife Angel stood for and how it was mad, welded onto a steel structure so they cannot be removed and will remain in perpetuity. 

Following this Stephen was kind enough to give our Criminology pupils a separate session discussing his own experiences as an ex police officer dealing with knife crime cases including how social media and peer pressure is often used in joint enterprise cases. 

We would like to thank Stephen for his involvement and for providing our pupils with an opportunity to find out more about the impacts of knife crime. If you would like to find out more about the Knife Angel or visit it check it out here: https://shorturl.at/avA19

On Monday our Year 10 historians travelled Worcester to visit the Worcester Infirmary and Medical Museum. The aim of the visit was to broaden their understanding of Health and the People the first topic in their History GCSE.

Across the day pupils were given a tour of a Georgian infirmary, including the old site of a morgue, spotting graffiti from as far back as 1867 – a testament to the age of the infirmary.

Following this pupils explored the interactive history of Worcester’s contributions to medical developments in Britain. To see the developments that have occurred was incredible and striking to our pupils, the historic dress up was a particular hit with the year ten boys.

After the initial look around the days main event took place. Pupils partook in a Victorian surgery workshop by recreating a surgery before and after the development of anaesthetics in 1847. Students acted as patients, surgeons, dressers (to hold the un-anaesthetised patient still!) and eventually anaesthetists which was fantastic. It was great to see them really getting involved and showing the values we expect from our Etone Learners. With a final chance to learn about the role of criminals’ bodies in the development of anatomy and saw close up real death masks of such criminals, it was time for our pupils and staff to depart back to Etone.

As always behaviour was outstanding and our group was complimented by members of the museum, with plenty of volunteers and pupils eager to ask questions and get involved it was an extremely enjoyable day.. Well done to all!

On Monday 19th June our Attendance May-tters Rewards Breakfasts kicked off with our winners from Year 7.

7P1 were the lucky group to snatch the prize of highest attendance in Year 7 for the final two weeks of term between May 15th – May 26th. Joining Mr Kitching the pupils had the chance to enjoy their special breakfast treat of hot chocolate and toast whilst discussing the importance and the reason they all attend school.

Whilst the group clearly enjoyed the breakfast treat, we were proud to hear our pupils answers were focused on the importance of school, education and enriching their life opportunities. At Etone College the emphasis of our curriculum is on the skills and values that our pupils develop as lifelong learners. 

This term our Etone Value is to be Supportive and through the support 7P1 have shown as a form group they have demonstrated this skill brilliantly. Both Mr Kitching and Mr Baggot, Phoenix Head of House, were proud of the group and it was a lovely start to the week of rewards. 8P1 – Don’t forget your treat tomorrow!

The Etone Create faculty lead a Celebration and Concert in the Etone hall on Thursday 15th June to share with our families our incredible students have been working on this year in Art, Photography, Technology and Music. A crowd of 200 joined us to enjoy a curated art exhibit from our students, including a display of work from Miss Fernandes, as our resident artist for the evening along with some of our very talented pupils, a showcase of photography, a display of products from technology and a showcase of musical talent (as well as a few ice lollies to enjoy in the heat!).

The Etone Choir took to the stage to show a mix of what we had learned working with Armonico Consort and The King’s Singers ranging to the 4 Chord Song by the Axis of Awesome (which had been added to by Mrs Kaye-Shepheard to include a few of their favourites). A wide range of solo singers took to the stage as well as lots of our in-house bands including the Tuesday Rock Band, the Mega Band and our year 10 group the M.L.W.D.S. (pronounced “Mulwoods”) showing all of our Etone values in the process.

Mrs Beasley, head of the Create faculty, also gave out certificates for dedication to the creative subjects to a number of our students (we need to get those 10,000 hours for mastery in!).

In true Etone College style, our students had barely taken their bows before checking that rehearsal was on tomorrow and asking when the next event was!

It was a fantastic evening for both the school and our dedicated Create department, made up from subjects including Art, Design and Technology, Music and Photography. These subjects play an important role in developing our pupils to be creative learners. In exploring what it takes to be an artist, designer or composer the curriculum offered to all pupils is broad and give our learners the chance to experience the best of the creative industries. 

All that is left to say it a big thank you again to everyone who attended and thank you to the following staff in particular: Mrs Beasley, Ms Byrne, Miss Hyland, Miss Fernandes, Mr Davis, Mr Lochab, Mr Barclay-Elliot, Mr Hodgson, Miss Foxon and Mrs Kaye-Shepheard.

We are delighted to be involved with Active in Mind Athlete Mentor Programme. This programme is  designed to help promote the importance of staying active in helping to improve and keep positive mental health.

On Monday 12^th June Etones’ Active in Mind programme got underway with the Sixth Form Mental Health Champions working with our professional athlete mentor, Yasmin Clark.  Yasmin is a former professional tennis player who competed at Junior Wimbledon in 2005/2006. She now coaches tennis to people of all ages and abilities in Derbyshire.

The Mental Health Champions took part in a number of tasks throughout the morning including learning all about what it takes to become a mentor and planning activities ready to deliver to our year 7 – 9 students. During the afternoon the sixth formers worked alongside Yasmin to teach the lower school pupils the importance of good physical health and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to support positive mental wellbeing. 

Our sixth formers are looking forward to continuing this programme and leading a series of sessions with our pupils, aiming to give them lots of knowledge about keeping active and leading healthy lifestyles. Taking part in this programme is an important aspect for use at Etone College as staying active is one of our 5 Top Tips for taking care of your wellbeing. We would like to thank Active in Mind for the fantastic day enjoyed by all involved.

On Monday 12^th June we said our bittersweet farewell to our current Year 11 cohort as we held our Leavers Assembly. During this term we have been incredibly proud of our Year 11 cohort who have truly shown all of our Etone Values and Employability Skills throughout their examinations. Whilst the focus is on achieving the best results possible to give our pupils the most options for them in their futures, we know just how much effort goes into each exam season from our pupils. To that end it is especially impressive considering the interruption of the previous years and we are confident our pupils will have achieved the very best that is possible.

During the event our pupils were met with an emotional presentation from our Pastoral and House team which looked to highlight the past five years at Etone as they look forward to what the future may hold for them. There was also an opportunity to share their final ever Progress Praise following Progress Report 3 with our winners receiving entry into their final prize draw. It was a lovely moment to reward those in the cohort who have put their very most efforts into achieving all they could in their exams.

Finally with the formal aspects out of the way there was the opportunity for our pupils to collect their leavers hoodies, sign their shirts and get stuck into the plethora of goodies provided by Mr Smith. All that was left was for the obligatory group picture. It has been a delight to see our Class of 2023 as they have flourished from the bright eyed Year 7’s into well rounded Year 11 students ready for what their futures will hold. All that is left for us to say is… See you on PROM NIGHT!