Welcome back after the holidays, I hope that you all had a lovely Easter and students managed to have a well-earned break after the busy Spring Term.

During the Easter holidays, 46 Year 8 to 10 students and five members of staff jetted off to America for the annual Perins Ski Trip. The group flew to Boston on the 28th March and then head to the Sunday River, Maine, which became their base for the next five days. The students had a fantastic time skiing in the mountains and I am pleased to report that they all managed to escape with no injuries! On Sunday 3rd April the group then travelled to New York where they visited many incredible sites including, the Rockefeller Centre, Times Square, Hard Rock Café, Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero. After a trip of a lifetime, students and staff returned home on 5th April to rest before the start of term. The students inform me that they had an incredible time and have made memories that they will never forget.

This year a large number of students expressed interest in additional GCSE revision sessions. As such, a small scale revision camp was held over the Easter holidays for Drama, MFL and Maths. Thank you to the teachers who led these sessions and to the students who came in for extra revision over the Easter break! It was a great opportunity to reinforce their learning and to introduce new revision techniques which will prove very useful in the weeks to come.

My congratulations go to all Year 10 students who were awarded with a Positions of Responsibilities (POR) at the end of last term. Newly appointed Head Girl, Lydia Anson, and Head Boy, Oliver Defelice-Hubbard will lead a group of prefects, peer support leaders and Creative Arts leaders, all chosen because of their ability to act as strong role models to their fellow students.

Congratulations to Year 10 student Robert Tassier who represented Perins to win the under 19 disability category one group at the National Schools Trampoline Championships in Wigan last month. Roberts's younger brother, Alex, representing Sun Hill Junior, also took gold in the under 14 disability category one group. Both brothers had successfully made their way through two earlier rounds in order to qualify for the championships. My congratulations go to Robert and his brother for their fantastic achievements and I look forward to hearing about their future successes.

This week, the science department took 48 pupils from Year 7 to 9 to 'The Big Bang @ Solent Fair' in Southampton. It was a very inspiring and exciting learning experience for all students, full of interactive science, engineering, and technological activities!

Over the Spring Term we have completed a thorough review of 1:1 Days as concerns were raised that they prevent teaching and learning time. Recently, we have changed the format of our parents' evenings by introducing this event for all year groups. We have also developed a strong programme of evening events for Year 7 parents in the autumn term which helps us to develop home-school relationships at the start of the students' time at Perins. With this strong programme in place, we have decided that we will no longer hold 1:1 Days which will regain some valuable lesson time. Students will continue to work with their tutors to review their progress and set themselves targets and parents are of course encouraged to contact tutors at any time if they have any concerns.

As mentioned previously, I have spent every given opportunity observing all aspects of the school day in order to address any areas in need of improvement. The safety of our students is paramount and as such we have concerns around the open nature of the school campus. Since September a full review has taken place on site security and I am pleased to announce that we have exciting developments taking place throughout the school grounds over the upcoming months to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Further information and full details of the Site Security Improvement Plan will be sent to you in due course.

We have many exciting activities and events taking place over the Summer Term and I look forward to sharing news with you over the upcoming weeks as plans develop.