Message from the Principal

Dear Parents,

Sibling admissions

With the ever increasing popularity of the school, the demand for places continues to be at a premium. We like to show loyalty to our current families so at this stage in the academic year, we look to offer the opportunity for families to indicate if they have brothers or sisters of current students’ who are likely to want to come to Britannica next academic year or even earlier. This helps us to prioritise their applications. If you are a family who have additional children who will want to come to Britannica, please do contact the admissions office, as soon as possible.

Parent Survey’s

Over the next few weeks there will be two surveys coming out for completion by parents. There is the annual Orbital Education parent survey and also, following the highly successful CIS Preparatory visit summarised in last weeks’ Newsletter, the CIS Community Survey. I look forward to hearing your views about the school and your recommendations for developing the school further in future years.

Staffing

Since half-term, Woody River has joined our secondary English department as a replacement for Alex Sarran. On behalf of all of the community, I would like to welcome Woody. I am sure she will enjoy working at Britannica with our fantastic students, staff and parents!

In other news, congratulations go to Richard Roberts from our Science department, who was successful in gaining promotion to Key Stage 5 Coordinator. This is an important role overseeing and leading our sixth form provision. We wish him every success.

School Teams

One of the most exciting developments this year has been the growth in the number of sports teams at Britannica. I know the teams are featured in other parts of the Newsletter so I wanted to thank the PE staff for their time and effort in establishing these and also the staff who have voluntarily given up their time taking them to tournaments and matches after school and at weekends.

The girls’ team had an excellent time in Bratislava last Saturday and also yesterday afternoon in Budapest, competing against teams who have been together for several years, gaining valuable experience and improving every game. This week, it is the turn of the boys who are travelling to Vienna on Saturday morning. We wish them luck.

Events

With only 40 days until Christmas, we are in the final stages of planning a number of exciting events. The last day of term (20^th December) sees our annual ‘Brilliant Britannica’ Christmas Fayre. I will send out a specific parent letter about timings but please do ‘mark’ it in your diaries and calendars.

Also coming up are our fantastic Primary and Secondary Music assemblies, which look set to be spectacular with a whole range of student and adult performances.

The year 13 Ribbon Ceremony will this year take place in the wonderful Military Museum function room in the Castle District on the 7^th December. I know the students and parents are really looking forward to it!

Have a great weekend

Kind regards

Neil McGarry

Principal