Friday's Reflections

We have now made it to the last push. Our last half term starts on Monday. There are seven weeks to the end of the academic year. Congratuations to those of you who have got confirmation of college places and those of you who have received a 4 or above for you English, Maths and Statistic. You are over the line and won't have to do that again for a long time.

So far, since September 2020 we have answer 103,579 maths questions and 95,835 English questions. Not much time left to reach the end of the maths. Most year groups have completely finished the Gramma sections, the reading section and only have the writing bits left in English. This week we will be focusing on letter writing. Not much time left to reach the end of the maths units for almost everyone. It looks like for most year groups we will be starting the next years group work early. Year 7 will be starting Y8 English on Monday.

We have two competitions running. Competition 1 The Tallest Sunflower and Competition 2 The sunflower with the Most Flowers. This time, so we all have a chance – the same chance - I have bought all the seeds.

Not everyone in the competition has indoor space to plant and nurture the seedlings ahead of time, so we are all planting outside. In order not to be disappointed, what with the weather being so poor during April and May, we will all plant our seeds on the same day in June.

Everyone will get both types of seeds. Sow them where they are to flower. Sow them 1.5cm deep, directly into finely prepared soil which has already been watered. Sow two seeds together - every 45cm apart - if you have more than two. Remove the weaker plant and transplant elsewhere. Water the plant until your plant is well established. Where you grow your sunflower (but it must be in the ground or a very big pot) and how you support your sunflower is down to you.

Planting day is the first day we return to learning for the summer term - this Monday the 7th June and we will measure for the tallest of them on the 20th September. With the second competition you will need to photograph your sunflower with the flower heads on, when you think is has reached its peak. The photograph them must be submitted. I am happy to call around during the summer holidays to verify the number of blooms on your sunflower if you think you have the winner plant.

We will be continuing on as we are with the covid forms, virtual lessons in the morning and face to face lesson in the afternoon. You will notice that there will be sections of some of the weeks that are blocked off. That is for some course's that I have to do for CPD. Now many of you have past your exams it opens up some of the for me to go off and do some professional development courses but also to do my Trustee work for the charity Action for Carers (Surrey), to do some work with Diabetes UK. So, your lessons may move a round a little bit as we race towards the end of year.

Keep up the good work!