On Tuesday the 25th April a group of Etone pupils took part in a special master class at Coventry University.  With the title being: Spies, Sabotage and Assassinations in Sociology., the event was set to be a thrilling epic.

The pupils got a chance to explore the campus of the university as they look to explore their futures beyond school and experience the best out careers curriculum has to offer.

During the actual sessions pupils got a chance to explore what life as a university student would feel like with talks from the Student Union team and Student Help team.

Pupils also got the chance to look at what the world of Sociology has in store for them as the completed activities that looked to challenge them and their skills.

This is the third in a series of visits to the university this year as we strengthen our partnership with Coventry and develop our links. 

A big thank you to Coventry University, we can’t wait to come back.

Etone Football Academy 4 – 2 Aston Villa Football Academy
Education Football League
Venue: The Pingles Stadium

The first half was a quick start with Villa creating some chances in the opening minutes. The first goal came in the 25th minute when it went 1-0 to Villa from a well-worked play down the wing. It then became 2-0 shortly after, when the Villa striker latched onto a through ball from the halfway line to poke it home from 18 yards away. Half time 2-0 to Villa.

During the break our team re-grouped as they focused on creating their own opportunities.
With a prep talk the second half began with Etone having the wind with them which helped to pin the Villa lads in their half and use it to their full advantage. Scoring 2 goals in quick succession in the 65th minute and the 70th minute with 2 great passages of play took the score to 2-2. With 10 minutes to go the team pushed forward with changes off the bench bringing in some fresh play. Another two in quick succession brought the total to 4-2.
Great second half and a show off our Employability Skill or resilience as the team showed the determination to power through and bring home a win. 
Final score 4-2 

Goal scorers:
Josh A – 2
Tom S – 1
Tyler M – 1

The month of April marks National Stress Awareness Month led by the National Institute of Health. Launched in 1992 the aim is to raise awareness for the causes and impacts of stress on people and provide some useful tools to prevent and reduce stress.

With stress and poor mental health being one of the biggest public health change sin recent times, at Etone College we make sure we take our role seriously in supporting pupils to reduce their stress and promote positive mental health and the activities that can support this. 

With the exam season upcoming and naturally brining a close to what Year 11 have been working hard towards the timing for Stress Awareness Month has never been more apt. Running across the term our Theme of the Week continue to run with the themes lending themselves to activities and assemblies that support and promote positive mental health and ways to relieve stress. In addition to this we have our weekly Wellbeing Club where pupils can come for ‘Time to Talk’ with peers and teachers, take part in games and activities or just do some relaxing drawing. The aim of the club is to provide a dedicated time to relax and provide a space for pupils to check in on their mental health. 

Remember the five top tips at Etone to support your Mental Wellbeing:

• Try to connect with others
• Keep physically active
• Try a new hobby or interest
• Focus on the present
• Give to others

During the Easter break we were delighted by the enthusiasm our Year 11 and Sixth Form pupil’s showed by attending our Easter Revision Sessions. With a range spanning all subject areas this was the opportunity for pupils to complete work and kick-start or continue their revision as they build up to the summer exam season. 

With the last few years being unpredictable in education it really is important that our pupils are making the most of every opportunity they are given. By attending these sessions those pupils have done just that to ensure they secure the best results possible in the summer series. Whilst our revision events are usually well attend this year we have set record breaking figures. With the vast majority of the cohort turning up to revise maths, humanities, English to name just a few it will be clear to see the impact in the summer.

Look our for our next set of Revision Events taking place in the May half term break.

As if by magic the Easter break is over and we look forward to the start of the summer term. As the days grow longer and the sun shines brighter it’s time for us also to consider which of our Etone Values is the spotlight for this half term.

Each half term we focus on one of our six key Etone Values which along with our eight Employability Skills make up the Etone Learner. Across our broad curriculum and pupil’s school life there are endless opportunities to learn, develop and consider those skills and values with these planned intrinsically within lessons, extracurricular clubs and thorough our Form Time and Theme of the Week programme. This half term the focus is on Trustworthiness. As a value it is an extremely important one. Any pupil at Etone is relied upon to be honest and accepting of their roles in making the school the very best it can be.

For example with us set to launch our Year 10 Prefect application process in the coming weeks it gives our Year 10 pupils the chance to take on a key leadership role within the school. As part of that role our prefects are the ambassadors of our school, through providing tours and guidance to visitors of the school and supporting their peers the role requires a great deal of self-belief but also trust. To that end we can’t wait to show the trust we do have I our pupils. Across this half term each week pupils will get the chance to earn the Student of the Week in their form by showing how they have recognised the value of Trustworthiness. These pupils then receive a certificate and are applauded in assembly for being ambassadors of Etone Values. 

Coupling our awards across the term our Theme of the Week each week will link to the value of Trustworthiness as we head into the final weeks prior to the summer holidays. We TRUST you are as excited as us.

To round out the term our Year 9 and 10 Girls’ Football team delivered an impressive win at the Girls Football Tournament. Taking place across two nights the fixture saw all of the schools in the local area compete for the local glory.

Going into the second event our total standing was second however with impressive wins and some premier class moves Etone College overturned the lead and led the way to glory, taking first place.

Although we are proud of all of our pupils these girls showed true teamwork and communication skills as part of the Employability Curriculum and despite their meteoric success remained kind in success to fellow teams.

It was particularly impressive to see our youngest member who stepped up to join the Year 9 and 10 teams from Year 8.

Well done and may we enjoy more glory in the future!

At Etone College we are committed to developing a partnership with parents/carers with the shared aim of ensuring our pupils make progress in everything they do.

Following the continued success of our programme we would like to announce our next session aimed at all parents and carers. The goal of these workshops is to look at one element of school life and consider how best our pupils can be supported both in school and at home. Through a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions, we will look to develop links between home and school and provide support in a number of areas.

All materials from these sessions will be uploaded to our website and can be found using the following link after the event: https://bit.ly/3gm0kqo

We would like to invite you to the next event as follows:

Parent/ Carer Support Workshop:

Location: Date: Time:

Supporting Wellbeing and Promoting Good Mental Health for our Pupils

Online, Microsoft Teams

Wednesday 10th May 2023

5:30pm-6:30pm

See you there!

On Friday 17^th March Comic Relief held their annual Red Nose Day. Whilst we are always eager to support good causes wherever we can at Etone we were having a fantastic time with our Careers Day. However, not one to shy away from active citizenship we made sure that we did our bit to raise fund for the charity.

Launched in 1985 by Sir Lenny Henry and Richard Curtis the charity aims to raise funds through comedy for good causes across the world and within the UK. During the last week our pupils have considered how raising funds helps those who are less fortunate than us and consider how this links to our Etone Values of being ‘caring’ and ‘courteous’. One of the case studies we looked at was how food banks in the Coventry area have benefitted from a scheme where funds from Comic Relief are used to help those in areas close to us live a normal life. Since it’s inception it has raised over £1.5 billion for these causes.

Over at Etone we wanted to continue to add to our last years total and increase our current Charity Total of nearly £2,000 since the start of the academic year. This started with our non-uniform day. With an aim for pupils to donate whatever they could and wear their own clothes it was great to see the effort pupils made including the theme of wearing bright colours, particularly red. 

Following this we were delighted to host our cake sale with donations of cakes from our staff, Sixth Form pupils and a generous donation from ASDA and their community support team. With these amazing donations and some great contributions from our pupils including some RAF themed delights from O George we were bursting at the seams when it came to the event. With Kipling, Cadbury and even MINI EGG cakes on offer there really was a sweet treat for everyone. 

Although the total has yet to be announced we are confident this could be a school single day record! We are so proud of all of our pupils and staff and want to say a huge thank you to everyone for supporting us!

After 6 weeks of intensive rehearsal, the Etone Choir performed at a concert alongside the Grammy Award winning group the King’s Singers at St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Warwick on Thursday 16^th March. The opportunity came via Warwickshire Music who put Etone College in contact with Armonico Consort.

Armonico Consort is a Warwickshire based music group, founded by conductor Christopher Monks and, as part of their Choir Creation programme, musicians Caius Lee and Richard Hughes came in to work both with our Etone Choir and our staff. In sessions students were able to learn a selection of African choral pieces as well as the “Suitcase of Songs” by British composer Toby Young with lyrics by Jennifer Thorpe. “A Suitcase of Full of Songs” tells the story of how it feels to move to a new country and explores the emotions that are experienced at such a challenging time. Aidan B in year 10 said that “this has given us the chance to do something we wouldn’t normally do – the type of music we are learning thorough the project isn’t what we’d usually learn anywhere else and it’s pushed us out of our comfort zones”. Elliott in year 9 said “This project has given use the opportunity to be more than just our choir – we’ve got to meet so many other awesome people in the music community.

On the day of the concert itself our students travelled by coach to Warwick in our smart matching t-shirts to take part in the rehearsal directed by Christopher Monks and alongside the King’s Singers. The tone of the day was set when the King’s Singers began their warm up and rehearsal by treating all the students to a performance of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the Lion King as well as some other pieces from their repertoire. The rehearsal took most of the day and Etone students worked alongside students from Nuneaton and Armonico Consort’s own chamber choirs. The concert itself took place at 5pm with Etone students proudly standing in the Choir stalls and also being given the prime role of Djembe drumming!

For a number of the students it was the first concert that they had performed it and, we were made to feel extremely special when the King’s Singers took the time to come and talk to our students (there were a few high fives too!) after the concert. Students have commented on the programme giving them an opportunity to work on teamwork, communication skills and their resilience – as well as feeling a boost to self-confidence and to their mental health. Students also commented on how good it was to meet professional musicians as it shows that you can do music as a full time career.

To quote from our performance piece, “A Suitcase of Full of Songs; “What is sweeter that this choir?” – nothing! They were already asking about the next concert on the way home!

On Tuesday 21^st March our year 7 and 8 students had the opportunity to experience this year’s BAE Systems workshop. This year the theme was ‘From the depths of the oceans to outer space’.

Students enjoyed a series of interactive activities throughout the hour, including racing to put planets in order and testing their communication skills. Overall the workshop was a fantastic way to engage students about the world of engineering and how it links into their Science lessons.