As you will know, last week as part of our Wellbeing Week we were out on the gates raising funds for our House Charities. These four well deserving organisations support our local community in various ways, from bereavement counselling to helping those without a home or shelter. It is the efforts of these charities that provide the core of what our community means to us. At Etone we hold our values in high esteem and it is with those values we look to support these initiatives.

Just last week we raised over £140 to be split equally, just from spare change in pockets people were willing to donate to.

To read more about our House Charities check out our page here: https://www.etonecollege.co.uk/house-charities/

In celebration of careers week, we are hosting our annual careers day event on the 22nd March.  We can’t wait to welcome over 40 employers into school and take four trips out to university.

Our year 9 students will be taking part in work experience as a part of this event.

During careers week each department developed careers starter activities to use in lessons to further students understanding of careers in each subject area.  

During this term each form group in KS3 have taken part in a day’s work for a day’s pay activity, linking attendance and careers.  We look forward to choosing winners next week. 

On Friday 15^th March the flagship charity event of the year was celebrated at Etone College as we raised funds once again for Comic Relief. Building up to this day our pupils had the chance to understand the importance of the charity through our annual assembly. This year delivered by Mr Bowley the focus of the assembly was sharing how small actions can have big impacts. 

For example for just £100 this can fully train a mentor in Africa who can support young children in keeping them safe. An interesting question to think “how much is our safety worth?” with all Houses agreeing much more than £100.

On the day itself it was fantastic to see the efforts of the Etone Community Champions as they descended onto the school gates to help collect for our Non-uniform day. With the vast majority of pupils showing their giving side the buckets were already heaving.

However, more was to be added after a phenomenal cake sale at breaktime which ensured record donations were made. We have yet to release the total but watch this space.

This week we as a whole school community we have focused on our wellbeing.  We have promoted our five top tips for wellbeing through a variety of activities. Our top tips our:

Connect with Others

Keep Active

Take Notice

Give to Others

Keep Learning

Pupils have been able to take part in wellbeing drop in sessions all week and learn new hobbies such as craft activities.  We have also focused on the importance of Giving to Others and are raising money this week for both our House Charities and Comic Relief.  We are also looking forward to welcoming Guest Speakers from our House Charities next weeks.

Pupils have donated spare change for our house charities, there has been mindful colouring taking place at lunch and break times along with brew Monday where pupils have the chance to chat, craft, colour and create Lego models. Thursday saw pupils enjoy meditation sessions lead by Miss Goode and on Friday pupils joined in the just dance at break which was a huge success. All pupils have enjoyed being part of our wellbeing week.

Additionally as part of our celebrations our staff were involved in an Early Easter prize draw for some chocolate treats, with the Eggcellent Attendance set to start next week it was a prime opportunity to start the rewards.

Don’t forget as part of our celebrations for World Book Day our Scholastic book fair is in town. All pupils will have the opportunity over the week to browse the books and decide on their next read. If you would like to purchase a book this can be done by following the information on the letter shared here

We are really excited for our Comic Relief celebrations to take place tomorrow. This year we are hoping for a record amount raised. In addition to the support from the yourselves for cake sales and non-uniform, we are thrilled to share our Red Nose Menu. The next in our series of themed menus to celebrate key events across the school. 

Make sure you join us tomorrow for some red and round delights as we get into the spirit of being ‘Funny for Money’.

On Friday afternoon, 24 year 7 pupils visited Nuneaton library to borrow ‘human books’ to celebrate the end of Careers Week.  They had an amazing time listening to the books’ stories and also took the opportunity to explore the library, speak to librarians and learn as much as possible.  They borrowed various books including 

Jason Buck: ‘Fantasy Storyteller for Adults and Teenagers’

Kim Hackleman: ‘Shout Out for the Arts Coordinator’

Hareena: ‘Family Learning Co-ordinator’

Ele Haddon: ‘Operational director performing arts charity’Emily Jeffcott: ‘Diary of an Apprentice in the Arts’

Well done to year 7 and a massive thank-you to Anjna Chouhan for organising the event.

Over 465,000 girls took part in the Biggest Ever Football Session on Friday 8 March. To coincide with International Women’s Day, a record-breaking 465,000 girls from 5000 schools across England took part in the FA and Barclays’ third Biggest Ever Football Session, as part of the ‘Let Girls Play’ campaign.

This year, the Biggest Ever Football Session saw more registrations than ever before, with 71 per cent of the schools who have signed up having never done so before, highlighting the ever-growing demand for girls to play football. 76 per cent of schools who have taken part in the previous sessions have stated the activity has influenced equal access in their school. The commitment to increase participation was delivered thanks to campaigning and this was on the back off the EURO 2022-winning Lionesses and an open letter they addressed to prospective Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss which looked to increase the chance for girls to play the game in school with participation at only 63 per cent in 2022.

This was Etone Colleges second year involved with the initiative and we made sure it was bigger than last year with the help of the Etone Football Education Academy. This year saw the Academy players both Male and Female delivering sessions to a range of Girls across Year 7 and 8 with a variety of warm up, skill based activities and game scenarios to give the pupils an experience of all areas of the game. During the day the academy delivered high quality sessions to over 150 Female students. Well done to all involved.

After a cancellation of a flying session at the end of Jan and the re-tasking of the staff at Cosford who conduct the flying for the CCF, we thought we would not be able to fly for a few months. However, due to a delay in the re-tasking activities we are able to secure six places for a last minute day of flying on Tuesday the 5^th March. Although the day started gloomy with fog and low cloud cover forcing the flying start later than usual the pilots worked their magic and all six of our young people form the school got in the air in what turned out to be a beautiful bright sunny day. All the cadets were able to take control and fly their aircraft and many of them experienced negative G forces and had ago at some acrobatics.

On Thursday Etone was out in force to celebrate World Book Day 2024. The initiative started in the early 90’s to support getting the world reading after reading ages dipped to an all time low. Flash forward over 30 years, now the day is celebrated around the world as the flagship event in the literacy calendar.

To show our own support Etone took part in a number of initiatives to get the whole school involved. First of all our staff raided their costume boxes to dress up as their favourite literacy characters. This year our team had some truly genius offerings with story book characters, real life role models and of course Winnie-the-Pooh. This year the PE team decided to show their true colours, by spotting up as a group of the 101 Dalmatians. Mrs Oakley of course led the team as a terrifying Cruella Deville, whilst the MFL department wowed with fairytale favourites. To tie this in with our pupils’ fun, they were tasked to find out interesting facts about each of the characters, with one interesting fact being from Mr Bowley, whose idol (Richard Branson) started his first business – the magazine Student – to get more students in the country reading.

Next up our Year 7 Form Teams descended to the Hall to take part in this years edition of The Big Book Quiz. A cornerstone of our celebrations, Phoenix once again steered towards victory to make it a second year in a row. Check out the results here.

Finally, our day ended with a scavenger hunt challenge to find out which staff member’s favourite read was on their list. With the results yet to be declared, we await next week for the award.

1. 7P1 – 54 POINTS
2. 7C2 – 49 POINTS
3. 7P2 – 45 POINTS
4. 7C1 AND 7D1  – 40 POINTS
5. 7G2 – 33 POINTS
6. 7G1 – 25 POINTS