On Wednesday 28^th June we were thrilled to welcome our prospective Year 12 students to Sixth Form for our Taster Day. In recent years Etone College has enjoyed many successes out of our Sixth Form provision including a record number of applications, continued strong results, prestigious destinations. Most recently we have celebrated with our Football Education Academy as they have succeeded in winning the WBA Challenge Cup for a second year in the row.

As the day began, we were greeted with the excited faces of our outgoing Year 11 pupils who are eager to rejoin us in September along with some new faces from pupils joining us around the Nuneaton area. Each student received their individual welcome pack including their very special limited edition Etone pen and their individual timetable for the day. Following the gifting Miss Churchard, Head of Sixth Form welcomed our students for the day and delivered some key messages about the fantastic opportunities the next two years will hold for them.

With that our pupils then got the chance to explore life at Post 16 with some truly inspiring taster sessions such as developing an understanding of the psyche of a serial killer, taste testing best loved brands against supermarkets own and constructing code in Computer Science. Whatever subjects our pupils selected for their options they were extremely enthusiastic about the experiences of the day and now anticipated results day with a yearning to arrive at Sixth Form ready to start Year 12. With just the Year 11 Prom left to go we can’t wait to see you all in the new year!

On Saturday 17th June a small group of students attended the university open day for South and City College in Digbeth where there is a university degree in Popular Music. The course is different to traditional music degrees as it has a focus on developing musical skills relevant to the music industry while providing opportunities for students to work in the industry as they study. Students were able to visit the university’s own venue where students are able to organise and perform in their own gigs as well as visit the recording studios. Highlights included visiting the area around the college and seeing the art and incredibly we were allowed to have a close look at a mixing desk donated to the college by Metallica

For more information on the course itself, you can find it here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/popular-music-ba-hons-2023-24

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.