Achievement | Diversity | Respect
Keep us posted - It would be great if parents/carers could let the school know of any student achievements outside of school. We would like to find out what students are doing in their own time and celebrate their achievements.
Email us: weeklymailing@cotham.bristol.sch.uk
Week commencing Monday 10 March 2025 is Week B
Standing Items are located at the bottom of the mailing
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please find our weekly mailing which I hope you will find both useful and interesting!
With very best wishes for a relaxing weekend.
Kindest regards,
Ms Jo Butler, Headteacher
Email Received
"Thank you so much for helping my child and am glad to know he is making progress, I will ensure that he continues reading and improving his ability to read."
Kind regards,
Parent of Year 7
Dear Madame Kennedy,
" I just wanted to say once again how thankful I am for all your work in teaching French to my child over the past few years. The improvement and amazing achievements are a testament to your excellent teaching. I also appreciate your humility in acknowledging that it's a collaborative effort between student and teacher, I love that!
Thanks again, and we will do our best to support our child in achieving the best results for his GCSEs."
Parent of Year 11
Thank you
Award winning author Rachel Delahaye came to Cotham and talked to the whole of Year 8 and Year 9. She introduced her brilliant books as well as giving an exciting and thought provoking talk about how many futuristic and dystopian books can sometimes predict the future. The questions asked by the students were particularly impressive and Rachel felt that they were really engaged. Rachel came to the library at break to talk to students and also signed some books! Read her books in the library NOW.
National Careers Week (NCW) is a one-week celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. Our aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people develop awareness and excitement about their future pathways. Displays on screens, visiting speakers and a live Newsletter of events to take part in here in the attachment here.
Please read the email below which outlines transport offers available in Bristol. This includes:
Existing travel offers: Up to £100 of travel offers for everyone who lives, studies or works in Bristol and are 18 years of age and above. Apply for your free travel offers.
Households within the trial area on a low income, that meet the eligibility criteria, will also be able to choose between an extra £250 of First Bus tickets, a £150 voucher to buy a refurbished bike, or a 12 month exemption to the trial’s bus gates if they need to drive for work.
Please see the below information and thoughtful insight on "Embracing Equity".
Happy International Women’s Day.pdfIf you are reporting the absence of your child, you must notify attendance on a daily basis. Please fill out the Year 7-11 absence form which is on our website. Absence must be reported by 9.00am, otherwise it will result in an absence message still being sent home. If there is no response to the message, a follow up letter requesting reason for absence will be sent home.
All students can come to the library and choose 1 FREE World Book Day book. We have also allocated £1 book tokens to everyone, so students can come to the library and collect a token if they have not received one from their tutor. With this token they can either get £1 off any book or choose another World Book Day book at participating bookshops and supermarkets. Staff have also shared their favourite childhood books and the majority can be found in the library for students to take out. See below for info.
Hello everyone! Our students have created an assembly about the Cakes4Syria campaign. They would like everyone to support this fantastic initiative, and raise vital funds for those affected by the ongoing crisis in Syria. Cakes4Syria demonstrates how even small, individual actions can create a powerful wave of positive change.
Our student Digital Leaders and Post 16 student have been collecting orders for cakes this week. Thank you to everyone that has ordered!
If you would like to order a cake in school, please get your child to talk to Mr Ahmed or a student in the Student Digital Leadership Team.
Cakes will be ordered on the Wednesday 12 March and will be delivered to school on the Monday 17 March.
Andre 7KMA is a member of Threefold Theatre and has the exciting opportunity to perform at Bristol Old Vic Theatre - well done Andre.
The Cotham School value that we are focusing on this term is “Diversity”. Year 7 will be exploring how diverse we are as a year group. During a tutor time activity they will be finding out the following:
Our class is from….. different continents
Our class is from ……. Different countries
…. of us were born in a country other than the UK
We speak …… different languages
….. of us are bilingual
….. of us a multilingual
….. of us celebrate Christmas/ Eid/ Diwali/Chinese new year ???
We will be sharing our findings with the rest of the school.
Well done to the Year 7 students who took part in the pancake flipping competition organised by the Yr11 student Prom committee. Students had 30 seconds to see many times they could flip a pancake. It was very close and the winner was Oluwatomisin who managed to do an impressive 40.
This week we were fortunate enough to have the talented Rachel Delahaye come in and speak with Year 8 - She told some inspiring stories, and students engaged and participated throughout!
Our Year 9s have shown good focus in class this week—impressive considering many are fasting! 🏆 A huge well done to them.
We also kicked off our termly Resilience Group on Wednesday, supporting students in building confidence and coping skills. If you'd like more info, feel free to email Mr Lawrence! 📩
To all observing Ramadan, wishing you a blessed month. 🌙✨
Thank you for supporting your child in the submission of their Year 9 options. From Monday 17 March - Wednesday 19 March, we will be meeting with all the students individually to confirm their choices. This is for you information only and involves only the students. It will take place during the school day. Your child will receive a sticker next week indicating their time slot.
Author Anika Hussain talked to the whole of Year 10 about her thought provoking new book Desi Girl Speaking. Anika talked us through the process of how and why she wrote this Bristol Teen Book award nominated book. We found out that the story is based in Bristol which has intrigued a lot of the students to come and check the book out. More copies are available in the library now.
We have a number of shout outs for Year 10 this week!
Anayah for always working hard in school - Ms Knight
Phoebe for supporting others in her tutor group - Mr Cook
Dawud, Phoebe and Lila for asking engaging questions during our Year 10 World Book Day assembly Q&A with a local author.
Mr Arnold
A reminder that Year 10 GCSE mocks will commence on Wednesday 23 April when students return from the school holidays.
Students will begin preparations this term from the 23 March.
Students can use the library after school to support with their revision as well as extra curricular clubs such as Math's Homework Club.
Year 11 will have a non school uniform day on Friday 14 March.
Students will need to bring in £1 and this will be collected in tutor time by the student prom committee.
All money raised will go towards their Year Book and Prom.
We have noticed numbers fall in Period 6 which is very disappointing as this is valuable learning for students in supporting their GCSE's. Period 6 is compulsory for the students who have been selected.
If your child is unable to attend please let Mrs Arnold know.
Period 6 will be cancelled on the following dates:
Thursday 20 March - Year 12 Parents Evening
Thursday 3 April - Year 8 Parents Evening
Year 11 will be making a tutor video for their final leavers assembly in June. This is to celebrate their time here at Cotham. Students will need permission for social media. Any student who does not have this permission will be given a letter for you to sign and return, if you give permission for them to be part of the video. Any student who does not want to be in it will need to let their tutor know.
We are incredibly proud of Faysal and Karina (Year 11) who took on the role of Panel Hosts for a national online panel talk hosted by Discover Creative Careers. The event brought industry experts from across the creative sector to discuss AI and the future of creative careers. Our students led the conversation with confidence and professionalism, representing both themselves and the school brilliantly. They received fantastic feedback from industry professionals and attendees alike.
Thank you to everyone who supported the Year 11 Prom pancake sale.
It was a great success with lemon and sugar being the favourite topping.
Huge well done to Martha, Selena, Bella, Trudi, Katra for running the event. Special thanks to Ms Bunka who supported the team.
Drama star of the week is Pablo for always striving to do better.
A huge thank you to Shyam and Kuldeep who have shown kindness and support to our new starters in year 11.
Well done the the students who attended the Revision Workshops that were put on for them over the last two weeks. Behaviour was very good and the students who I spoke to found it useful.
The presentation is linked here.
We are excited to welcome a special visitor on Tuesday 25 March - a therapy dog named Jade and her carer Jennifer! Jade will be here to provide a calming and positive experience for anyone who is in need of it.
Spaces are limited so please encourage your young people to sign up using the form emailed out by Mx Sciubba earlier this week.
Year 12 mocks will take place between Monday 31 March and Friday 4 April. Monday 31 March is an INSET day but anyone with a mock that day will need to come in for it. Timetables were emailed out last week, please direct any questions to a member of the Post 16 team.
The booking system is now open. Parents and Carers can book up to seven appointments with subject teachers for a 5-minute appointment.
Please see the letter for booking details.
Y12 Parents' Evening Full details letter.pdfOur Year 10 art students have embarked on an exciting and delicious journey, delving into the world of mark-making through their "All You Can Eat" project. This project isn't just about food; it's a deep dive into the diverse textures, forms, and transformations that food offers as a source of artistic inspiration.
Year 8 are continuing to learn the importance of fibre in our diet by preparing a simple recipe of Moroccan Cous Cous. Adding "Ras El Hanout", a Moroccan spice, gave it an extra tasty aromatic flavour.
Great knives skills were also used to prepare the vegetables and by adding low cost products such as raisins and chickpeas then topped with pomegranate seeds gave the dish extra texture and little bursts of flavours. Well Done Year 8!
In November the Year 11 students studying the Cambridge National Sports Science course visited Bath University.
The visit started with a tour around the impressive Sports Training Village where the facilities included an Olympic-sized swimming pool, sports hall, indoor tennis courts and indoor and outdoor athletics tracks.
Once the tour had finished we visited the Sports Science labs where Nassim completed the VO2max test on a treadmill and Sabour completed the cycling performance test. Well done boys for putting yourself forward for this and working to your maximum!
Next stop was some sports conditioning where the students were taught the correct ways of performing different exercises such as press ups and squats.
We then stopped for lunch which gave us time to explore the university as a group.
After lunch we were very lucky to meet two GB Olympic rowers. They talked to us about their very busy but rewarding training schedule. They also spoke to us about how they balanced university, training and life.
A massive thanks to Mr Book for sorting out funding for the trip.
We are excited to offer access to Digital Theatre Plus! This subscription provides students with world-class productions, study guides, and learning resources to enhance their understanding of Drama and English Literature. It’s a great way to bring the magic of theatre into their studies.
Access to Digital Theatre+ is included for all students. Please log in using your Cotham email address and password.
I am thrilled to announce that we will be hosting a Staff vs. Student Basketball game on Friday 28 March 2025. This is such an exciting event that not only promises to be a fun-filled showdown but also supports a great cause as we will be raising money for Cancer Research UK. I can’t wait to see everyone come together for this unforgettable day.
It was fantastic to see the Omega Finest students enjoying their trip to Bristol City FC! A huge well done to all the winners for their achievements.
It was fantastic to have staff participate in our staff sports event. I hope to see even more of you joining in next time. Your involvement makes these events truly enjoyable!
Mr Sebana will be meeting with all the Omega student leaders and prefects. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss our plans and fundraising initiatives, as well as to share our vision for Omega House. Your input and leadership are essential as we work together to create a positive impact within our House.
Ms. Forbes will be running two sessions to create decorations for the Grand Iftar on Thursday 20 March and 27 March (day of the Grand Iftar) after school in her room C005.
Please come along and create for the Grand Iftar!
Ramadan Al-Mubarak!
On Thursday, 6 March, we celebrated Ramadan with our House Chocolate-Covered Date sale. Students enjoyed delicious dates covered in rich chocolate, perfect for breaking their fast. The dates were packaged for easy take-home, allowing everyone to enjoy them at home with their families. All profits went to Islamic Relief, supporting those in need worldwide. The event was organised by Heads of Houses and Student Leaders, reflecting the true spirit of giving. Thank you for making it a success!
To celebrate International Women's day on Saturday 8 March students have been creating posters about women they admire! They could be historical, from any country, or even a member of their own family. The eight winning entries will be displayed, and winners will receive a badge and chocolate. We have had many fantastic entries ranging from Taylor Swift to Florence Nightingale. Winners announced next week!
Well done to Gamma House for securing the highest attendance!!!
We're thrilled to share some exciting developments that are empowering our students to take initiative and make a positive impact, both within our schools and in the wider community.
Developing Confident Leaders:
Recently, 54 student leaders from across 13 schools participated in a valuable coaching skills training session led by SSAT. They are now tasked with independently applying these skills within their school environments.
Become Peer Coaches:
They can utilize their newly acquired skills to support classmates with academic work, offer guidance, or facilitate study groups.
Enhance Communication Skills: The training also encouraged students to practice public speaking by giving presentations, receiving constructive feedback to further develop their communication abilities. Parents can encourage their children to practice these skills at home.
Making a Difference Through Independent Volunteering:
We're also proud to announce the launch of our Student Social Action Volunteering pilot project, in partnership with four local primary schools. This initiative offers Year 12 students from Bristol Free School, Cotham, Clifton College, and Badminton the chance to engage in meaningful community service. Specifically, students can independently:
Serve as Reading Buddies: Help younger students improve their literacy skills.
Lead Science Activities: Spark an interest in science among primary school children.
Provide After-School Mentoring: Offer guidance and support to young girls.
Introduce Sports and Teamwork: Lead engaging "Try it out" sessions.
These opportunities allow our students to develop crucial life skills, build confidence, and experience the satisfaction of contributing to their community. We encourage you to discuss these opportunities with your Year 12 children, and support them in taking the initiative to participate.
'KUR-tuh-see '
Meaning:
The showing of politeness in one’s attitude and behaviour towards others. (noun)
Example:
Holding the door open for someone is a kind courtesy.
To show courtesy think before you speak.
Waiting your turn is a form of courtesy.
Synonyms:
Polite, respect, good manners, affability
'joo-DISH-uhs-lee'
Meaning:
Example:
Choose your snack judiciously before running a marathon.
To get full marks in your English exams you must choose your quotes judiciously
The chef judiciously added spices to create a balanced flavour to the dish.
Synonyms:
Wisely, prudently, sensibly, intelligently, shrewd
You should be at least 13 years old to have an Instagram account.
Algorithms can create an echo chamber on social media or start showing us too much of one subject that no longer appeals to us or as a parent, you feel your child is viewing too much of. Instagram now offers the ability to reset recommendations, which will clear recommended content across Explore, Reels and Feed.
To reset recommendations, go to your Profile, tap on the menu icon (☰) in the top-right corner, select Content Preferences and then you can reset suggested content.
You can find out more here:
https://about.fb.com/news/2024/11/introducing-recommendations-reset-instagram/
Instagram have also published this article detailing how they are helping to keep teens safe:
https://transparency.meta.com/en-gb/policies/age-appropriate-content/
