On Tuesday, as part of International Women’s Week celebrations, we were treated to a fantastic performance by local singer, Leiyah. She performed five songs, including three of her own, in front of the whole of Year 7, our Music High Achievers and GCSE Year 10 music class. Leiyah was taught music by Mr Sahl-Taylor in Years 7-9 before going to Brit School. She has a degree in music and spoke warmly about her educational journey and how she got into the music business. After the performance she gave the students advice on how to get management and what to expect in the industry. Once again we were proud of the questions our student asked, such as ‘how do you write songs?’ to ‘how do you get over nerves when singing in front of people?’.

This week, Ms Ongley has led our assemblies focused on International Women's Day. The assembly highlighted the need to ‘accelerate action’ linked to the 2025 IWD theme given that the World Economic Forum tells us that at the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158 to reach full gender parity. This week, students and staff have made individual IWD pledges and taken part in a number of different IWD themed activities and fundraisers.

Sports fixtures updates

Netball

The netball winning streak continued this week with both the Year 7 and Year 9 teams beating Coombe Wood. Year 7 was a close game, with the team only winning by two goals finishing on 3-1, and the Year 9 game was the stronger performance, which they won 8-2. The Year 7 player selected was Amelia and the Year 9 standout performer was Kayla.

On Monday afternoon, our Year 7 and Year 9 teams both played Shirley High. Year 7 beat them 10-4, with Pier selected as player of the match, and Year 9 beat them 16-4 with Kelly selected as the standout performer.

Football

On Tuesday, the Year 7 football team played Quest. It was a performance to be proud of, winning 8-1 with Trey scoring a hat trick and Miran scoring a free kick. This result meant that they carried on their unbeaten streak as well as only conceding four goals for the entire season. A special mention goes to Theo. Well done to all the players involved.

On Wednesday, our Year 7 girls’ football team took part in a fiercely contested seven-a-side tournament at Coloma School, finishing as runners-up.

The tournament began with a dramatic 1-0 victory over Coombe Wood, with Layah scoring. Despite a 2-0 defeat to Riddlesdown in the group stage, the team progressed to the semi-finals, where they faced Oasis Shirley. The game went to penalties. Layah, Ava, and Brooke confidently converted their spot-kicks, while Brooke made three brilliant saves to send us into the final with a 3-1 win.