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Staff enjoy Wellbeing Challenge

The ‘Wellbeing Challenge’ for staff and students was created to bring
in a little bit of fun through lockdown and half term, and also to
encourage acts of wellbeing in support of
Mental health Awareness week.
The challenge encouraged students and staff to
take part and share inspirations, creations and
achievements personal to them. Kelly Atkin,
Wellbeing Keyworker, said, “It was a real joy to
share in putting these together for all to see.
everyone who entered really enjoyed doing it
and are looking forward to the next one.”
The students received praise points and prizes,
and their work will be on display to support
welcoming our students back to College.
We would like to mention the wonderful staff
entries, especially Maria hale, who created a
beautiful written piece entitled ‘lockdown: Silence in the Forest’. Claire Davidson, who shared some
wonderful wild swimming photos and Sara hull, who crafted an amazing life size dress out of newspapers!
They were all presented with flowers during our World Book Day celebrations.
News 5

Students and Staff Smash Read-a-thon Target!

The learning Resource Centre has been running a ‘Read-a-thon’ in association with
Read for good, a charity that funds author visits and books for children in hospital.
The Read-a-thon is open to all students and staff and they can log how many
minutes they read for.
The learning Resource Centre began the term with an initial target of reading for
100 hours that they hoped to reach by Thursday, 1April - that target was smashed
within a week! They have now increased the goal to 500 hours of reading, and as of
Wednesday, 10 March, they are currently at a whopping 19,565 minutes or 326 hours!
oliver in Year 8 said, ‘It’s a good way to get people who wouldn’t normally enjoy reading to read through a
challenge, I think more people should do it!’ Matthew, in Year 7, added, “The reading challenge
has given me the extra motivation to read. I am now trying to read a wider range of genres. As well
as enjoying the challenge I hope that I am able to read enough to be in the top five readers.
Celebrating World Book Day

Despite the country being in lockdown and children learning from home, nothing will stop the
College from celebrating World Book Day! Staff enjoyed a day of fancy dress, with a wonderful
variety of book characters across all departments.
The learning Resource Centre ran a 500 word short story competition for students. There were so
many great entries into the World Book Day Short Story Competition this year, it was very hard to choose a
winner. The stories ranged from action-packed lion chases, to a utopian city in the trees, and bittersweet tales
of love.
The College was very fortunate indeed that children’s author, Andy Briggs, was able to
help with the judging.
‘Starry Night’, by Chantal in Year 10, was voted by Andy as
his favourite story. he said, “Starry Night is so well written, full
of heart, with beautiful descriptions.
”Millie, in Year 8, won the
librarian’s Choice for her
story, ‘My Marigold’. The
librarians thought ‘My
Marigold’ was beautiful and
heartfelt with a bittersweet
ending that will stay with you
for a while.