Thank you for your support of the School during an enjoyable and successful term. Staff and students have worked extremely hard, and everyone is looking forward to a well-earned break.  I hope you can get some form of rest and family time during the half-term holiday. 

Admission to Year 7 (September 2026) 

A final reminder that if you are making an application to SMRT for a younger sibling and you are applying with faith criteria, please ensure you have:

• Completed the Local Authority application form Apply for a new year 7 secondary school place (bristol.gov.uk)  giving your three preferences of school.
• Completed the School supplementary form St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School - Admissions (smrt.bristol.sch.uk) to enable us to apply faith criteria to your application.

Closing date for both forms is midnight on Friday 31 October 2024.

If you do not have a Bristol postcode, you will need to apply to us via your own local authority.  There are links for Bath and Northeast Somerset, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire on the Admissions page.
 

Admission to Year 12 (September 2026)

Our first Sixth Form opening evening took place on Thursday 16 October, and was very well attended.  We were grateful for the support of some of our current students, and our sixth form team and teachers, in making this such a success.  We have another open evening on Wednesday 5 November.

Details about how to apply are on the Sixth Form page of the School website (Applying to Us).

Year 11 Mock Exams

Year 11 have their mock exams from Monday 10 November to Friday 21 November.  It is important that students revise for these exams as they are excellent preparation for the summer external exams and will help with predicted grades and, for some subjects, tiers of entry.
 

Exam Results (updated figures following re-marks)

In September we shared our KS4 and KS5 exam results. We have now had most remarks back, and I am pleased to share the updated KS5 figures here.  KS4 figures remain unchanged.

• KS5

The percentage of A and A* grades this year is now 28.5% (provisional figure was 26.9%) up from 26.2% last year (2024) and from 23.6% in 2019. 

The percentage of grades awarded at B or above is now 58.3% (provisional figure was 57.1%) compared with 57.8% in 2024, 54.3% in 2023, and 49.5% in 2019.

The percentage of grades awarded at C or above is now 82.9% (provisional figure was 82.4%) compared with 79.3% in 2024 and 75.2% in 2019.

• KS4

The percentage of students achieving a standard pass (L4+) in both Maths and English this year is now 76.9% (provisional figure was 76.5%) up from 72.8% last year (2024), and 71.8% in 2019.

Mobile Phone Policy

Our new policy on student use of mobile phones in School is working well, with a very positive response from both students and their families.  We value your support for this.  We appreciate what an emotive subject access to electronic devices is for our whole community, and we hope that our enhanced guidance about phones not being ‘seen, used, or heard’ is helpful in ensuring that our young people are protected from some of the more unhelpful aspects of our digital world and enjoy more quality time together.

Friends of SMRT

We are very grateful to the Friends of SMRT group for the fundraising that has allowed for some very lovely seating to be added to our Learning Resource Centre (library).  Our Main School Librarian, Mrs Garmston, is thrilled with the new seating.

The Friends are also committed to supporting the purchase of some netball kit for our teams to wear. We are seeing netball go from strength to strength at SMRT and I know our students will feel incredibly proud to wear the new kit.

Netball Success

Mrs Lochrie and Ms Hall (PE) have supported our students in numerous fixtures this term. Well done to each of our teams who represent our School with pride, commitment, and skill!  Massive thanks to all the staff who made this possible.

SMRT v St Bernadettes

Year 7 Won 13 v 6 POTM (Player of the Match) Diana

Year 8 Lost 16 v 5 POTM Bea

Year 9 Won 10 v 4 POTM Navya

Year 11 lost 11 v 3 POTM Poppy

SMRT v St Bedes

Year 7 Won 6 v 1 POTM Martina

Year 8 Draw 8 v 8 POTM Bea

Year 9 Lost 6 v 5

Year 10 Won 14 v 3 POTM Mimi

SMRT v Fairfield

Year 7 Won 11 V 0 POTM Kornelia (GK)

Year 8 won 7 v 6 POTM Bea (GD)

Football Success

Last month our Year 9 boys played in the first round of the national cup for school football. This was a tough game for the boys, going 2-0 with 5 minutes to play, however they really pulled together with 2 very late goals to get back to 2-2 and then win on penalties! SMRT has not entered the national cup in around 15 years, and so this is a massive achievement for the boys who represented our School so well.

Well done to Josh for having the game of his life including getting one of the goals and a couple of goal line clearances, King for the late equaliser, Theo for captaining the squad, and Isaac for two incredible penalty saves in the shootout! Congratulations to the entire squad and to Mr Freeman and Mr Penrose for their support for this group.

Our Year 9 Squad is Isaac, David, Ben, Josh, Donald, Szymon, Kenzie, King, Hansi, Theo, Jan, Kuba, Paul, and Makai.

LZ7 Illuminate Tour at SMRT

Last week the band LZ7 visited SMRT as part of their Illuminate tour. The aim of the tour is to share a message of hope, faith, and self-worth through music.  It was a very positive experience for the students (and staff).  Seeing so many of students smiling and happy with a sense of belonging was a real joy.  Thank you to Chaplain Josh for all his hard work behind the scenes to make it happen.

BS1 Alive Cradle to Career Hub

We are delighted that students and the community are beginning to benefit from the work of the Hub. Upcoming events include:

• Jamie’s Farm Residential.
• The Brazilian Ju-Jitsu enrichment club.
• Year 11 Mentoring with partners including Bristol Robins and Creative Power Town.
• Kintsugi Hope Youth Wellbeing Programme.
• Wrestle for Humanity –Therapeutic Community Programme.
• BS1 Alive Cricket Community Hub with Gloucester Cricket Foundation.
• Crunchtime Healthy Cooking Programme.
• Music in the Street - Weekly live music performances in our indoor-outdoor space ‘the street’.

Relaunching and broadening the SMRT breakfast club provision and early morning provision is currently under review with the support of BS1 Alive Partners.

You can find out more about BS1 Alive here.

Free School Meals (FSM)

We know that the circumstances of many parents and carers change, and if you are not already registered for free school meals and think you may be entitled, please do register. This also helps the School as some of our funding is allocated on the percentage of students on free school meals. You can apply for free school meals if you get any of these benefits:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.  If you do not qualify for most benefits (also known as having ‘no recourse to public funds (NRPF)’) your child may still be eligible for free school meals.

Children in households with NRPF may be eligible if their household income is less than:

• £22,700 for families with 1 child
• £26,300 for families with 2 or more children

The Local Authority website, has all the information you need and you can apply ‘on line’.  Please contact our FSM Administrator, Mrs Cooper, if you need more information or support with your application.

Community News

We said goodbye to Ms Barry, one of our Learning Mentors on 17 October.  I know that the students and families she worked with were very appreciative of her support and we wish her well in her new Deputy Headteacher post.  We have been busy with recruitment this term and look forward to welcoming three new LSAs next term.  They are replacing Miss Sawczenko, who leaves this week for a new post, Mrs Porter, who is leaving due to family commitments, and a part time post that we were unable to fill before the school holiday.  Our new Clerk to Governors, Mr Mitchell, has started the process of familiarising himself with our School, and joins us with a wealth of experience.

Ms Garrard (English) will be returning from her maternity leave on a reduced timetable after the October holiday. We are looking forward to having her back with us.  Mr Tallack will continue in his current post but on reduced hours, and Ms Garrard will increase her hours after the Christmas break.

All our vacancies are advertised on the Eteach website and you can find links from the School website.

Source of Important Information/Website

Please visit the website regularly if you don’t already as it is a very strong source of information. 

In the Parents/Carers section, you can find contact details for our Attendance Team (to report an absence), and also our useful page on everything relating to our Management Information System (MIS), called Bromcom, with a whole section of frequently asked questions, e.g. issues with access and notifications.  There is also a section at the bottom of this page dedicated to ‘specific options’, i.e. homework, Alive points, viewing and updating personal data for you and your child, exam timetables, and additional sources of advice and information.

We give thanks to God for His presence and guidance throughout the first eight weeks of the school year. We’re grateful to see our Year 7 students settling in well and our whole School community finding its rhythm again as an ALIVE community.

We thank God for the Illuminate Tour and the inspiring sessions led by LZ7. We pray especially for the students who have chosen to take part in the Alpha Course, as they explore life’s biggest questions.

We lift up our staff and students as we approach the half-term break. May it be a time of rest, refreshment, safety, and joy.

We remember our Year 11 students as they prepare for and begin their mock exams in November. May they have focus, confidence, and peace as they study and sit their exams.

Joshua Newton

School Chaplain

Contents

Term 2 marks the start of mock exams for our Year 11s, the bulk of which begin on November 10th. To help families prepare for this, on Wednesday 22 October, we had our Year 11 study skills evening. Over one hundred parents, carers and students attended. Mrs Jakubowska did a sterling job filling in for members of staff who were unable to attend due to illness and delivered some really helpful inputs on revision techniques, study skills and revising for Maths GCSE. We also had Mr Eve explaining how best to prepare for the English mock and some really useful information from Ms. Sainsbury (the Head of Year 11) about the importance of regular attendance at School, in addition to this, she shared some useful insights on student well-being during the exam period, which can be a challenging time. The information and presentations from this evening have been shared via email to Year 11 students and their parents and carers.

Some parents and carers have asked for some suggestions of additional resources which might be useful for supporting GCSE revision for Years 10 and 11. Mrs Jakubowska has put together a helpful list of suggestions of additional texts provided by subjects. These are very much an additional resource and it is absolutely not essential for any student to have these revision guides; we try and provide all of the revision resources a student might need in school (usually via SharePoint) free of charge. However, some parents and carers have asked us to recommend additional texts and we are happy to oblige. The list can be accessed here. The links on the list will often take you to the publisher of the text or to Amazon. In my experience it is possible to source much cheaper, second hand copies of these resources on Ebay or in the ‘Used’ section of Amazon.

Also in response to parental feedback, we have added an “Exam Boards by Subject” section to the Exams page of our website so that students and their parents and carers can see exactly which exam board is being studied for all GCSE and A Level subjects.

Lastly, just a reminder that the end of term 1 marks the last point at which students in Year 10 can change their GCSE options subjects. As our Curriculum Policy states: ‘Requests to change subjects that are made after the end of Term 1 will not be considered except where there are exceptional circumstances (for example a medical reason supported by a doctor’s letter) and will be at the discretion of the Head Teacher.’ Hopefully, by now everyone is settled into their respective options subjects and enjoying the challenge of their GCSEs.

Ian Taylor

Deputy Headteacher

Curriculum, Standards and Outcomes.

You will have seen a letter that Mr Pike sent home last Friday, reminding parents and carers about the importance of Firework Safety.  We have heard that in our local area young people are playing with fireworks in the evenings.  We do recognise this does not reflect directly on our students and that it may well be happening elsewhere too.  PLEASE make sure that these conversations are held at home to reinforce what is said in School about firework safety.   Our pastoral curriculum has been covering this over the past week.  Further guidance can be found here.

Our House themed assemblies were postponed this week due to a faulty projector in the Hall, we will be delivering them early in Term 2 instead.  

Our House badges are live on the website and House Leaders have been busy planning activities for the year to shape our House ethos and culture. See this press release from Bara Studios, who designed the badges. 

Mr Mansell is leading on our House ethos and culture alongside Mr Roberts (Muller), Ms Bellinger (Franklin), Ms Hall (Equiano), Ms Murfin (Johnson) and Ms Blakemore (Liddell), we are currently recruiting Student House Leaders to spearhead the students’ influence in this project. 

Students continue to show a really positive and respectful attitude towards the mobile phone policy.  A recent School Council forum shared that students felt the policy was working well, and our day-to-day experience is much the same.  We have had an average of approximately 8 phones/smart watches/headphones confiscated per week this term.  It’s a reasonably small number, but it would be better to have none.  Students are very good at ensuring their phones are away and off as they enter School; they are welcomed and reminded on the gates every day.  We would recommend that items are left in lockers so as to avoid temptation and distraction.  Thank you for your support in ensuring the policy is kept to and enforced.  Please note that we have adapted our email communication home when phones are confiscated in response to some parent feedback, so if you ever receive a text message to say that a phone has been confiscated, please do read the email too. 

No newsletter would be complete without a reminder about uniform, here is the link to the page on our website that provides all information.  As the weather gets colder it’s worth reminding that hoodies are not allowed to be worn on site at all.  If a student is without a coat and needs one, please ask them to see their Head of Year who may be able to support with some secondhand items that are available.  Please also ensure that correct School trousers are worn (not leggings) and that shoes are ‘plain, black and polishable’, not only are they smart but also more practical for the time of year.  Jumpers and ties are compulsory items and should be worn proudly every day. 

Mr Morgan

During October we were asked to lead a service for the AASSH (Anglican Academy and Secondary School Heads) conference that took place in Bristol.  This is an annual conference where senior leaders from Church of England Secondary Schools meet together to learn from each other and further develop strategies that they can use in their schools and academies.  The conference starts with a worship service which was led by our students at St Mary Redcliffe Church.  We themed the service on the story of King David and how we he chose to lead with worship and not just be a king with lots of pomp and ceremony.  Our student chaplains led the service with readings prayers and music   The conference continued on to the second day where we were able to lead a session for the senior leaders around student chaplaincy and how they might introduce it to their schools.  It was a privilege to be able to represent the School in this way.  All of our student chaplains did an excellent job and were such great ambassadors for our school.

We hosted the band LZ7 as part of the Illuminate tour.  All year groups were able to attend a session in the hall where they danced and had lots of fun whilst also considering some key messages around hope, identity and faith.  Lindz West spoke to each year group about the importance of being community and knowing your purpose in life.  Each session was uplifting and thought provoking.  The tour culminated with a gig at Woodlands Church.  Many of our students attended this event and we will be starting a youth alpha course with them after the Half-Term break.  We value your prayers for this.

On 19 November we will be having our next after-school student led worship event.  It will start at 3:30pm and finish by 5pm.  Students have already been emailed details of how to sign up to attend the event.  We will be in touch if you child has signed up so you are aware that they will be staying after school.

Mrs Duzinak

Every week we run a worship session in our tutor groups, and make these available on our website for parents and carers to view.

Each newsletter will feature a Weekly Worship we would like to highlight from the previous month.

On Thursday 2 October, we marked National Poetry Day by holding a wonderful event in the library at lunchtime. The number of students and staff who attended was excellent and there was a superb range of beautiful poems read out by the following students:

Aimee B
Jack F-H 
Oliver K
Ellie G
Kyle F-H
Florence R
Thea V
Annie F
Bluebell S-S-W
Norah K
Esther D
Noah L
James P
Della B
Patryk K
Isaac R
Karel L
Rimes B
Aria W

They were a credit to the School and it was a fantastic occasion.

Mr Boswell

The house point totals as we reach the end of this month are as follows:

It has been a very busy half term in the Learning Support Department.

We have started our Year 9, 11 and 13 annual reviews, it has been such a pleasure to see how students are progressing in their different subjects and to hear about their aspirations for the future.

LSAs have been developing their support for students in the classroom and updating pupil passports to ensure we support students to enable them to access the School curriculum.

We are preparing arrangements to support student in Year 11 with their mock exams.

It has been fantastic for me to go into classes in Year 7 and 8 to see so many students with SEND settling into School life and engaging in learning.

We will share some staffing updates after the holiday, we have some fantastic new members of the team to introduce.

The next Parent/Carer SEN meet is on Tuesday 9th December 3.30pm-4.30pm. Our Mental Health Lead Katherine Meredith will be running a session on managing anxiety.

Have a great half term...

 

Each fortnight we send a 'Wake Up Wednesday' (WuW) safeguarding update to parents and carers. These cover a range of topics and themes that empower and equip parents and carers with the confidence and practical skills to engage in conversations with young people. We also make WuWs available on our website.

Here's the WuW update we are highlighting this month.

Link

We held our first meeting of the year earlier this month.  A big thank you to the Friends for supporting the School.  We now have some lovely seating in the library.  The Friends have also agreed to pay for netball kits for our School netball team.  The next Friends of SMRT meeting will include the AGM.  This is taking place on Thursday 13 November at 7pm.  Do come along if you are able, the meeting will take place in the School library (Learning Resource Centre).

At the end of last year, the Friends of SMRT very kindly agreed to support the Main School library’s bid for some new furniture. We ordered 6 sofa’s that have created a more relaxed, welcoming and reading friendly environment. The students were very excited when they arrived, and they are very popular. It has been so lovely to see how much the students have enjoyed using them to sit and read and chat during their free time.

We took delivery of the furniture at the end of September and can already see that it is having a positive impact on the overall environment and atmosphere in the library.

This is just in time for the National Year of Reading in 2026, this initiative aims to engage children, young people and adults to read for pleasure and create change in reading culture for good.

We would like to say a very big thank you to all those at the Friends of SMRT who made this possible.

Julia Garmston (Librarian)