It has been a real pleasure to see all of our pupils and families happily getting back into the swing of school after the Christmas holidays. I hope that you all managed to enjoy some rest and quality time with your families over the festive period. A very warm welcome also to the new pupils and their families who have started at TPS this term – we are delighted that you have come to join us!
As you will know, our whole school mission is to ‘Challenge, Nurture and Inspire’. In Monday’s assembly we focused on the word ‘Effort’ and how this links to ‘Inspire’ and ‘Challenge’. Pupils who are inspired try very hard. With the pupils, we discussed how this means doing things to the best of their ability, being self-motivated, organised, punctual, and being keen to discover how to do things to an even higher standard. Our staff have also reflected on how, by giving the pupils challenging things to do, our boys and girls will need to put in excellent levels of effort if they are to be successful.
As a school, we have reward systems which inspire and recognise high levels of effort, such as Housepoints, ‘Learner of the Week’, Rolls of Honour, Attitude to Learning grades and ‘Learner of the Term’. Equally important is the work that our Form Tutors (and all staff) do on a daily basis to foster outstanding effort, such as checking that the pupils are up-to-date with their homework and that they have all of the required equipment.
This week, I have, as usual, been very impressed by the levels of effort which I have seen across all areas of school life. To focus on just one, our Year 7 and 8 girls and boys made us all exceptionally proud in their Cross-Country fixture on Wednesday. They pushed themselves to the limit during the run, they were respectful and polite and they encouraged each other beautifully. Well done to all of our senior runners!
Finally, I am delighted to announce that we now have a Boys’ Choir. The repertoire of music which they will sing is being carefully chosen to provide maximum enjoyment and fun for boys. There is no audition and boys of all ages and experience are very welcome. Practices are on a Thursday lunchtime, and please do contact Mrs Hornsby if you would like any more details about this very exciting opportunity for our boys.
I wish you all a very happy and rewarding Spring term.
Andrew Edwards
Headmaster
