Earth Day, marked globally on 22 April, is a day for individuals and communities to come together in support of environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is no celebrated by over a billion people across more than 190 countries each year. The theme for 2025, “Our Power, Our Planet”, focuses speeding up the transition to clean, renewable energy and calls for the global community to triple clean electricity generation by 2030. You can learn more about this year’s theme and Earth Day’s global mission at https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025. Have a look at their Earth Hub page to learn more about how individuals can make a difference https://www.earthday.org/earth-hub/ .

There are many ways to get involved locally and nationally. Earth Day encourages individuals to take the Earth Day Pledge, organise clean-up events, educate others, or donate to trusted environmental campaigns. In the West Midlands, the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum is hosting a special Earth Day event on 22 April 2025. Families can enjoy “Out of the Deep Blue,” an outdoor performance in the Science Garden featuring Eko, a 13-foot Sea Giant puppet that interacts with audiences to raise awareness about climate change and marine conservation. Performances are scheduled at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Entry is included with museum admission. Full details can be found at https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/events/earth-day.

Making a difference doesn’t always require big changes or large investments—small, everyday actions at home add up. Try switching off appliances at the plug when not in use, air-drying clothes, or using natural light during the day. Try meat-free meals once or twice a week, reuse containers instead of buying new ones, and start a small windowsill herb garden. Sharing, repairing and repurposing items instead of discarding them can also reduce waste. Even simply educating friends and family about sustainable choices can have a ripple effect. Every action, however small, contributes to a healthier planet.

So far in April our school community has been actively engaged in showing acceptance for those with autism.

On Wednesday 2^nd, staff and pupils all donned a blue item to show their acceptance and this week our pupils in Years 7 to 10 have been busy making pledges to show how they can demonstrate their awareness of the needs of those with autism as well as their acceptance.

Pupils have pledged a range of things including ways to be more inclusive in paired and group work, showing recognition of sensory needs as they move around the school and in becoming more attuned to when those with autism may need peer support.

Pupils in Key stage 3 took part in a fact hunt around the school and entered a prize drawer to show their recognition of autism facts and misconceptions.  Rueben in Y8 was the winner and Sid (Y7), Brandon (Y8), Elle (Y7) and Lily-Grace (Y7) were runners up. 

We will continue to show our acceptance for those with autism after the Easter break by completing a collaborative 5km for the National Autistic Society.  Each house is challenged to complete the 5km walk whilst also donating spare change to the National Autistic Society charity.

On Thursday 10^th April Etone College had the delight of welcoming Nuneaton MP Jodie Gosling and Deputy Mayor, Councillor Bhim Saru to the school in order to celebrate our recent win as Community School of the Year.

As you will be aware the award win is historic for many reasons including our first national award in recent memory. The award presented to the school in London is a great reward for our pupils for all of their hard work.

Over the course of the visit pupils had the opportunity to enjoy a sit down discussion with Jodie and Bhim as they shared the tremendous work they do in building links between the school and the community, discussed how the Community Champions could further support Nuneaton and brainstormed future plans for the town and the school.

Upon discussing the wider community impact of Etone and the importance of our win on our community Jodie had some kind words of inspiration for the pupils to share stating “It is a great opportunity to come in and congratulate your win. This is big news not just for you but for the community as it is a key focus of our goals to regenerate and celebrate the area. The pride you have in your community and school is truly amazing.”

Our pupils were particularly enthused when discussing plans for a local Youth Council and the opportunities to be involved in the regeneration of the town centre. Mr Saru also shared his journey into politics with the pupils and his pride of being the first Nepalese Councillor, Deputy Mayor and Mayor-elect along with heaping further praise onto our team of young leaders agreeing “it is really important that we share this, the community is such a special place. Having settled here it is what brings us together and helps us to understand each other. A big well done to Etone College.

As the session drew to a close there was an opportunity to tour our visitors around the new Tanner building and share some of the sustainable features whilst discussing some of the ideas the Community Champions would like to implement in the town.

Finally, we were honoured to be invited to attend the Civic rooms at the Town Hall for a meet and greet with the Mayor-elect in the following term.

We set our pupils and students a challenge of attending every day for the last two weeks of this term. This is a time when everyone is tired, but we all need to demonstrate resilience (one of our six Etone Values). Nearly three quarters of our school population maintained 100% attendance to be in the draw.  Congratulations to the lucky 36 winners of Chocolate Eggs. 

We wish all pupils, students and their families a wonderful break and look forward to everyone maintaining excellent attendance during the Summer Term. 

All schools across our Trust have been working collaboratively to recognise and celebrate key dates in the PSHE calendar. These are in addition to other events that will also be taking place in our individual schools. We are very proud to share our Matrix Academy Trust Personal Development Calendar which gives details of the events where our schools have come together to produce a wide range of activities for our pupils. These events will be recognised through a combination of assemblies and form time activities as well as their importance being widely publicised through our social media platforms and in schools through displays, posters and TV screens. For some events, there will be additional activities planned such as competitions to engage our learners in the real meaning of these days.

There is a wide range of days recognised to acknowledge different faiths and groups as well as promote very important themes such as equality, diversity, wellbeing and British Values. This project epitomises the real spirit of collaboration in our school as well as our commitment to ensuring that our pupils have the knowledge and skills to not only keep themselves safe but be ready and able to make a valuable contribution to society.

This week, our two highest quizzing classes in Year 7 and Year 8 will become detectives in a puzzle packed 'whodunnit' mystery. Someone has stolen the 'Little People, Big Dreams' books from Etone's library but who could it be?

From searching for clues to solving them, pupils will work through gradually eliminating the suspects. They are racing against the clock and each other to see who can solve the mystery first.