Next week our Theme of Collective Worship will be Remembrance Day and in school we will mark the two minutes silence. Anyone in Army, Sea or Air Cadets, Scouts, Boys/Girls Brigade,etc, is invited to wear their association uniform to school on Monday 11th if they wish.

Tuesday is Odd Socks Day and the school community are invited to wear odd socks on this day to kick off the start of Anti Bullying Week. It’s an opportunity to encourage people to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique! The theme of anti-bullying week this year is RESPECT.

This week marks the 3rd year of Green Careers Week. This initiative is designed to raise aspirations, support diversity, challenge stereotypes, and promotes real opportunities for young people to have a career that will genuinely make a difference. A green career can be any job, role or occupation that contributes to preserving or restoring the environment and our planet. It can be any industry, not just those seen as ‘green.’ Green skills are abilities, attributes, values, attitudes, knowledge, and technical skills needed to adapt services, processes and procedures to support climate change.

In 2024, LinkedIn reported that, “By 2050, there will be twice as many jobs requiring green skills as people qualified to fill them if today’s trends continue…. Job seekers with green skills or titles see a 54.6% higher hiring rate than the workforce overall.” This report also highlights the fastest growing green skills in the UK:

• Building performance
• Decarbonisation
• Low carbon
• Responsible sourcing
• Environmental studies.

In addition, according to a report by Hays, leading specialist in workforce solutions and recruitment: “Overall, a third of employers (33%) said they expect the need for sustainability specialists and green skills to increase over the next 12 months.” Furthermore, they state that “97% of those hiring sustainability professionals have experienced skills shortages in the last year.”

To continue to promote our Careers Education in school, Year 7 have been invited to visit Mrs Brakes in the Careers Room so that they are familiar with the resources and support available to them in regards to careers at Dyson Perrins and a house challenge google classroom quiz on green careers has been launched. In addition to this, key information and ideas about Green jobs have been shared to students.  Perhaps this might be something that Year 10 will consider when looking at securing Work Experiences places for the summer term or Year 11 when looking at courses for life beyond Dyson Perrins. This is something they may want to ask our providers who are currently coming into school over the coming weeks to talk to them in assembly about post 16 education and opportunities.  

We want all our students to feel well supported and educated when it comes to careers and this is why we are committed to promoting lots of opportunities as part of our Personal Development programme.

The following resources may be helpful to students and parents if you would like to find out more about Green Careers that have been shared by our Careers school advisor Clare Gilks.

Explore green careers | National Careers Service

Green Buzz - National Careers Week

GreenJobs, Environmental Jobs and Renewable Energy Jobs in the UK

Find your green role - Green Careers Hub

We are really pleased to be able to share with you that some of our students participated in a joint endeavour with Worcester Cathedral Youth Choir and performed at Evensong in the Cathedral on Saturday.  It was a tremendous occasion and certainly a new experience for our students.  From processing in through the entire length of the Cathedral (and out again!), to singing in four-part harmony with a Jazz band and reading to the congregation from the lectern, it was a fantastic experience and we are incredibly proud of them.  

We were delighted to have invited Rev James into school on Friday 11th October to deliver our first Eucharist Service of the year. Students from all year groups chose to come to the Chapel and take time to reflect and receive Holy Communion during this short service. Some of our students had never attended a Eucharist Service before and found it to be very peaceful. As part of this service, Rev James also blessed our Harvest Food Drive donations as we cotninued to reflect on the theme of Harvest.

Thank you to Vanessa, our Chaplain, Rev James and all the students who took part delivering parts of the service- you displayed our belief and trust values briliantly!

Last Thursday, we handed out yellow stickers in registration to all our school community to wear to raise awareness for young peoples mental health as part of Young Minds #HelloYellow intiative. In addition, we held activities over lunchtime to promote good mental health and wellbeing. I was out on the tennis courts running the Cornhole Challenge- this very popular activity returned for 2024 and was very well supported by our students who were keen to win points for their Houses. After some excellent efforts and after totting up the totals the scores for this activity are:

4th Place FOLEY
3rd Place BALLARD
2nd Place MORGAN
and 1st place......ELGAR!

Mrs Davis ran daffodil bulb planting and a community art project in the wellbeing garden encouraging staff and students to take a break from the pace of everyday life and take a moment in nature to be still and tap into creative skills. This intiaitve was so well received that she opened up the activity for a further lunchtime by popular demand. We look forward to seeing the yellow dafodills bloom in the Spring as a further reminder about mental health.

Vanessa, our Chaplain ran a #Helloyellow photo booth in the Chapel as well as a number of games that gave students the opportunity to reflect on their own mental health and wellbeing and things that are important to them and up in the Library, Ms Chapman promoted a whole host of mental health and well being literature. Students were encouraged to learn more about these texts whilst also enjoying a freshly decorated yellow cake!

Thank you to everyone who took part. 

A big thank you to everyone who donated to our Harvest Food drive to support the Community Fridge and Malvern Food Bank. We had lots of fantastic donations brought to us over the course of the week and these will be taken to the charities shortly to help those in need in the community. Our school community really have lived out our vision of ‘Life in all its fullness’ through this House Challenge- thank you all for your generosity.

Year 7 members of Bunny Book Club recently had the opportunity to spend the day at Hay Festival. Whilst there they listened to Phil Earle, best selling author of 'Until the Road Ends', speaking about his new novel 'Northern Soul'. Following his book signing, Phil very kindly gave several of our students signed posters, and even donated his famous Hay Festival paper flower to Chloe in Y7!

Here are some of our students' reviews of the day:

Chloe Bowyer

I really loved going to Hay Festival.  It was a bit of a long drive but it was really worth it as Phil Earle, the author that we were seeing, was super funny and it turns out he has an addiction to Frazzles!  We also went to his book signing and we got tons of freebies like signed posters and bookmarks!  We also went round the festival to look at the gift shop and there was this really cool badge that said ‘Hay Festival Reader’ which totally made my day.  It was probably the best school trip ever.

Evie Garfield

What did I think of Hay Festival?  Good question.  It was amazing!  First of all it was free and second of all we got to spend a whole day just talking about BOOKS.  Phil Earle is a really funny and kind hearted person who has a really big obsession with Frazzles.  He even included a song he wrote when was a teenager in his book Northern Soul!  I mean how great is that.  I absolutely loved my day at Hay!

Harley Harrington

Hay Festival was amazing and I enjoyed it.

Alexis Carroll

Hay Festival was worth it and very enjoyable.  The staff were adorable, along with Phil Earle.  He appreciated small book clubs, and was very upbeat and kind.  The lay out was a touch bit confusing but you can find your way round with land marks.  It was very popular, and the shop had small Knick-knacks, which was quite cool.  The items included rubbers, pencils, and badges.  They had places for food, including ice cream.  There were places to sit and relax and eat lunch.

Logan Morgans, Y7

It was an amazing trip.  I had fun talking to Phil Earle and climbing the Hay sign.  I had fun buying a lot of ice cream.

Anusha Jackson

Hay was an amazing experience and Phil Earle was so funny.  He is an amazing author and writes great books.  He is so kind and a fun guy with a great childhood and background story.  He shared his addiction for Frazzles and how he was originally going to be a footballer and had no interest in books.  He was so nice about signing all our pictures and books and we had so much fun spending time with him.  I loved his sense of humour and we love the time he spent to make our day amazing.

Over half-term, 30 students in Year 9 and Year 10 embarked on a trip to the Mayenne region of France. For 5 days, they embraced the French culture and art de vivre.

On Monday morning, students had the opportunity to visit an animal refuge. In the afternoon, it was time for them to push their limits with the zip line, the archery workshop and the night line. Most of them were very brave and have faced up to their fear of heights!

In the evening, Mrs Griffin, Mrs Palmer and Mr Robinson were still full of energy and played hide and seek with the students.

Tuesday was a busy day with a visit to Fougères market, St James cemetery and the beautiful Mont Saint Michel! Students enjoyed trying saucisson at the market as well as baguettes.

Heading to St James cemetery, Mrs Griffin and Miss Chaminade had prepared the reading of a poem, Liberté by Paul Eluard, to commemorate the American soldiers who gave their lives to save Europe from the Nazis. Facing the crosses of the soldiers, each student read a verse in French and English and paid their respect to the soldiers. All the teachers were very impressed by how solemn the students were.

Finally, it was time to head to the Mont St Michel. For the whole afternoon, students enjoyed wandering around the shops and they also appreciated the beautiful view of the abbey on top of the mount. The weather was very nice and made the walk easier. In total, everybody walked an average of 22k steps!

In the evening, staff at the chateau tested students’ French knowledge with a degustation of escargots (snails), crepes and fromage. After dinner, students showed off their knowledge with a French culture quiz and they all did very well!

Wednesday was a rainy day but it did not stop our Frenchies from visiting Fougères castle. Students liked seeing reproductions of the castle in the middle ages and truly embraced history. After that, it was time for a bit of shopping at the hypermarket. Well… some of the boys had to comply with the French rules and bought some not very fashionable trunks for the swimming pool!

In the afternoon, teachers and students had a great time playing water polo. The competition was very hard and the lifeguards were watching carefully but did not need to intervene. They even recruited a little French boy to play with them.

For the last evening, Miss Chaminade entertained all of our students with French dances and traditions. A ceremony where certificates were presented to the students was held to close this fantastic trip.

Finally, on Thursday morning, it was time to go back to England. It was sad but students were all tired (and so were the teachers!) They stopped for a rainy picnic (still very enjoyable) before napping for the rest of the journey back home. The French police officers commended them for their behaviour and their use of French greetings.

A big thank you to Mrs Griffin, Miss Chaminade, Mrs Palmer and Mr Robinson for organising this fantastic trip.

Fifty students to competed in the District Athletics before half term, of which twelve were then selected to represent the District, in the Hereford and Worcester Track and Field County Competition in Stourport.

We had some notable succes:

• Ellie Hooper reached the 100m final
• Ollie Williams finished 2nd in the Triple Jump which means he has qualified to compete for the County in Stoke
• George Owen finished 2nd in the High Jump – he has also qualified to represent the County

All students did incredibly well to compete at such a high level and were fantsatic representatives of our school.