With this being the first of three consecutive short weeks it was always going to be a very busy run in towards the oncoming term 3 examinations. One of the obvious highlights was our interhouse volleyball event that culminated in a very well fought out competitive match with the Blue house crowned as our champions this term.

I need to remind parents and learners about the importance of punctuality and attendance. I am sure all parents are aware of the morning start time of 7:45 am. I am also aware of the issues that are sometimes created due to the volume of traffic near this time in the morning, however it is vital that all learners are on time for registration and with all their stationery ready and prepared for the first lesson start time of 8:00 am. This term's examinations will mean that its even more important to ensure that all learners are punctual and in school to take the appropriate examination.

This year we have stretched out the Key Stage 3 examinations over a period of two weeks to ensure enough preparation time is given to learners and these will begin in October. The Year 10 examinations will also be over a 2 weeks period starting at the end of September. In all cases teachers have started the preparation towards this and feedback will be available to all parents following all completed marking and moderation. The Year 11 IGCSEs begin the first week of October and are spread out over a number of weeks, ending in the middle of November.

The extra Year 11 IGCSE English classes continue on Wednesdays and Thursdays and are well attended. It is great to see the hard work that learners are putting in towards this exam and I know teachers are being quite positive about the learners expectations.

Kylie Teh in Year 11 made a comment in her report about preparing for the IGCSE examinations and specifically about how the Quantum Learning "8 Keys of Excellence" are helping her to prepare;

"Academics aside, in my opinion, the 8 keys of excellence which the school introduced to us earlier this term was very effective in terms of motivating students like me. The one key that particularly had a positive impact on me was "Failure leads to success". After mocks, I was pretty upset with some of the careless mistakes I made during the exams. This key of excellence had encouraged me to learn from my mistakes and also view failures as feedback that provides me with the information that I need to learn, grow and succeed"