These Year 7 boys are brightly dressed in red for Red Wednesday today, March 15.

We should have the total amount raised later on but staff and students have been really supportive.

You’ve no doubt heard of Throwback Thursday and Black Friday but have you ever heard of Red Wednesday?

Next Wednesday, March 15, has been declared a day of wearing red by our School Council in a bid to raise awareness and raise money for the ‘Aid to the Church in Need’ charity.

Students don’t need to wear top to toe red to school but it is a mufti, non-uniform day when all staff and students are encouraged to participate.

A pair of red socks, a red jumper, red tie, scarf or  red shoes are all ways of joining in and raising awareness.  A minimum donation of £1 is needed to support the charity that highlights the plight of Christians around the World who are being persecuted and killed for their faith.

It promises to be a bright day!

These students were the worthy winners of the Giant Scrabble challenge this week that took place in the library organised by librarian Miss Masset.

 The 9 Forest boys won chocolate goodies and dictionaries for their wordpower prowess.

It was great fun and a good way to enrich the boy’s vocabulary skills.

Miss Masset added: “The Scrabble board took ages for me to make but it was all worth the time and effort. The boys loved it and we will be using it a lot from now on to encourage their literacy skills.”

Twenty four students are at Cambridge University today, February 28, with Mrs Burke and Miss McNulty for the launch of the Brilliant Club initiative.

We look forward to hearing how they get on in the coming weeks after their tutorials and specialist lessons.

Khalif Edwards from 10 Heath found out yesterday that he had won the January Jack Petchey award in school.

Khalif is a valued member of school who takes a very active role in school life. He is a member of the CAFOD team and is a talented dancer. He performed at the Easter Passion Play ‘Born For This’ and the Music Art and Drama summer showcase for the last three years.

Talented dancer Khalif is a positive role model for younger students and he was instrumental in ensuring the streetdance after school club continued after a staff member left. He went to see the Headteacher  to argue his case why he thought the club should continue and the many benefits it brings to students. Mr Halliwell says he was impressed with Khalif’s maturity and reasoning and he was won over by his passion for the streetdance club adding: “Proactive students like Khalif who are passionate make my heart sing.”

15-year-old Khalif is deciding how best to spend his £250 award money.

Students from Years 8 and 9 had a STEM masterclass  yesterday, February 9, delivered by an expert, Nick Naylor,  from ‘Tomorrow’s Engineers’.

The workshops were a mix of practical and paper-based activities around the topic of engineering.

The areas covered included a session called ‘Our World, Your Future’ that looked at the implication of the increasing world population whilst ‘The Energy Mix’ covered renewable and non-renewable energy.

They particularly enjoyed the section on Kinetic Energy as they had to build a solar powered car which they found challenging and fascinating.

Mrs Larkin is the school STEM Co-ordinator and commented: “The boys enjoyed the workshops so much that many commented to me that they would really like to pursue the possibilities of a career in engineering which is tremendous.”