Assemblies this week were led by Ms Coupland, who talked to the students about overcoming setbacks using the inspiring story of Ed Jackson, who worked his way back from a life-changing injury to climb Snowdon. Years 7 to 10 were challenged to think about how they can set smaller, cumulative targets to reach their own goals.

On Monday, both our Year 8 and Year 9 netball teams played Archbishop Tenison. Year 9 won their match, with our captain Amara being selected as player of the match. Year 8 was not as successful, but Betsy was selected as player of the match.

Yesterday, the Year 8 boys’ football team played Lanfranc School as part of the Croydon Schools Football League. The team won 4-0, extending their unbeaten run so far this season with goals from Trey, Divine and Caleb. The Year 8s have gone from strength to strength and this game should give us confidence as we prepare for the Croydon Cup game vs Shirley High, which is sure to be a thrilling fixture!

12 students in Year 8 participated in the Faraday Challenge with the Institute of Engineering and Technology, held at Coombe Wood School, planning and engineering a product to solve a problem. Each group presented their ideas brilliantly and the audience were very impressed with their presentation skills. They demonstrated all of Orchard Park's key values, with other staff commenting on their manners and excellent behaviour. Well done to Evie, Lola, Faustas, Yusuf, Ayobami, Elias, Niall, Ellie, Nived, Lasksman, Kayla and Shay. Thank you to Ms King for organising the experience.

This week, Year 9 and 10 students attended a talk from Birkbeck University. The students learnt about the different routes into higher education, university life (social and academic) and the personal development opportunities university may present. Thank you to Mr Afriye for arranging this. A particular ‘well done’ goes to the Year 9 students who stayed after the session to ask even more questions. It was lovely to see such drive and ambition.

For this week’s Fun Friday we celebrated Global Belly Laugh day. Students were challenged to share their best jokes to staff during lunchtime. If they made the staff laugh, they were given Character points and chocolate. Thank you to Sophia and Micah in Year 8 for assisting with the organisation.

Ms C Moran, Headteacher