In The Loop

Dear families,

As we draw to the end of an exceptionally busy half term, I would like to thank all members of our community for your continued support. It has been lovely to see the pupils and staff wearing pink, red and white today as part of non-uniform day and I am pleased to share that this, combined with the Year 11 pupils’ organisation of Valentine’s gifts, has seen the Year 11 prom committee raise just over £1000. Should you not have already done so, please remember to make your contribution for non-uniform day on ParentPay.

There have been a number of events and trips this week including a book fair in our library, the careers fair for pupils in Years 11 and 12, and trips to the University of Oxford for Year 12 pupils, to the musical Hamilton for History pupils and a sports leaders trip to support the Panathlon for Year 10 pupils. I am grateful to our staff who consistently go above and beyond to offer these experiences for our young people and I was delighted to receive feedback from the organisers of the Panathlon, who recognised that our pupils are ‘certainly the best leaders we have had all year…so confident, they listened, they delivered with strength…everyone was very impressed with them’. I echo their words as the pupils here are consistently impressive, which is why leading CCF is such a privilege.

I am pleased that CCF is part of Barnet’s smartphone-free childhood initiative. The local authority is asking schools to join together and commit to not allowing students to use smartphones during the day, which is already part of our behaviour policy, and asking new cohorts from September 2025 to only have ‘brick’ phones to delay the time when children get smartphones until they are at least 14 years old in order to reduce the negative effects of smartphones and social media on young people.

Finally, I wish you all a lovely half-term break and I look forward to welcoming pupils back on Monday 24th February 2025.

Kind regards,

Dr Ruth Hill