Dear Parents and Carers

It is that time of year when we allow ourselves to begin to think ahead to Christmas, and Christmas events in School. We look forward to seeing parents and carers at our Carol Service which will be held at St Mary Redcliffe Church on Monday 15 December at 7:30pm.  

Ikoba Visitors

I am delighted that we will have a member of staff and a student from our partner school in Uganda (Ikoba Girls Secondary School) with us for the week commencing Monday 1 December 2025. Our partnership started in 2006, and this visit is one of the many events we will be holding to celebrate this rich partnership as we approach our 20^th anniversary.  My thanks go to everyone who has been involved in making this visit happen.

We will be sharing updates via social media, and we know this will be an incredibly rewarding experience for all those involved. You can find out more about our partnership via our website here

Activities Week 2026

Activities Week will take place during the week commencing Monday 6 July 2026. More information will be shared by Miss Hale (who is our lead for Careers and Activities Week) in the new year.

The Alive Offer

We have been reviewing our enrichment provision in terms of content and how it is communicated with stakeholders. In the New Year we will provide an update to parents, carers, and students about what this offer, which ware calling ‘The Alive Offer’, will look like moving forward.

Year 11

Well done to Year 11 for engaging so well with the mock examinations. They have acquitted themselves with real distinction. Staff will be marking the mock papers and will use this information to refine our support for each student.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s tutor.  

Policies and Procedures

Do remember that you can access our School procedures/policies here on our website.

Wake up Wednesday

Every week we send out our 'Wake Up Wednesday' (WuW) safeguarding update, which covers a range of topics and themes that empower and equip parents/carers with the confidence and practical skills to engage in conversations with young people. These topics have included online safety, mental health and wellbeing, and climate change. Previous editions of our updates are available here. We know that many parents/carers find these updates helpful. Do take a look!

PE News

Mrs Hall (PE) reports that we have many strong girl football players in the younger year groups, and she is therefore proposing to enter them in the National Schools Cup for the first time.  She also has contacts with the Bristol City Foundation who would like to come in and take some sessions for the teams, which would be an excellent opportunity for our players.

Our Year 7 girls’ netball team had another victory recently, winning 6-0 against the Bristol Cathedral Choir School team.  Congratulations to them.

Drama News

I have sent an email to all those students who took part in the fabulous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on 20 to 22 November.  The students’ effort and commitment to this wonderful production was clear to see, and I know that staff and parents/carers were proud of them all.  My thanks go to all those who work behind the scenes to create such memorable experiences.

Community News

We said goodbye to Miss Fox (Sixth Form Attendance Officer) on 21 November, as she moves to a new post at another school.  Mrs Owen (Senior Attendance Officer) will be taking on some of the Sixth Form attendance responsibilities, and we are very grateful to her for taking this on.  A new LSA, Mr Paice, joined us recently, as did our new Music Technician, Miss Engle.  We have another new administrator as part of our Administration Hub, and welcome Mrs Hampton to the team.

We have some staff retiring, going on maternity leave, or moving on to new posts at the end of term, and we will update you then.

Do keep a look out for any teaching or support staff posts we may be advertising.  These are all posted on the Eteach recruitment website and often on LinkedIn, and you can set up an alert so that you know when we have posted a vacancy.  We welcome applications from our wider community of parents/carers and places of worship, so do let your friends and family know.

Please visit the website regularly if you don’t already as it is a useful source of information.  Ms Ward, my PA, monitors the enquires@ email address and will forward any emails that come in direct, or via the ‘contact us’ form on the website, to the most appropriate member of staff.  If you are emailing about a student absence, then you can email our attendance team directly. Do encourage your children to speak to their Tutor, Head or Deputy Head of Year, subject teacher, or a trusted adult in school (e.g., the Year Group Learning Mentor and our Chaplain, Mr Newton whose office is on C Floor), if they are concerned about anything or just want to ask a question.

• We thank God for the time shared with staff and a student from our partner school in Ikoba. We pray that God will continue to bless, strengthen, and deepen this friendship.

• We pray for perseverance and resilience for all staff and students as we move into the final weeks of term.

• We lift up our Year 11 students who have recently completed their mocks, and our Year 13 students as they begin preparing for their January assessments. May they experience focus, peace, and encouragement.

• As we enter the Advent season, we ask for moments of stillness to recognise God with us, and for the grace to encounter Him even in the busyness of this time

Chaplain Josh 

Contents

The first few weeks of Term 2 have seen our first set of Year 11 mocks. The students’ attitude towards the mocks has been excellent, both in terms of their attitude to preparing for the exams, through comprehensive revision, but also for the way students have supported one another as they gather in the gym before entering the exam hall. It has been great to see students in groups and sometimes even huddles, offering one another last minute encouragement or praying for one another; living out our Alive values of Faith and Interdependence.

Away from exams, our Key Stage Three students have been bringing their learning to life by participating in a dramatic interpretation of Shakespeare’s 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.  Thank you to the many parents and carers who supported this production.  To see so many students recite their Shakespearean lines so well was excellent.  Thank you to Ms Russ and Ms Bloor for all of their hard work to make this happen.  Thank you also to Ms Dyer, Ms Foster and the staff who helped behind the scenes.

Our last day of term will include our usual Christmas Service at the Church and an early finish after period 4.  Lunch will not be provided on the last day of term as students go home at the start of lunch, although any students on Free School Meals will be able to pick up a packed lunch before they leave.  

We will be doing our termly ‘Lockdown’ drill on Wednesday 3 December during morning registration.  It is important that we practice drills during the year to ensure we are prepared for every eventuality.

We intend to finish the winter-term celebrating the contributions and efforts of our students. This will be achieved in several ways: 

• Distribution of the House themed Alive postcards. Staff are being encouraged to hand these to students to recognise exceptional progress, effort or contributions.  

• Each year team will deliver a celebration assembly in which certificates will be distributed for best attendance, punctuality and most Alive Points.  Names will go into a prize draw for Amazon Vouchers. 

• At the end of term service, a trophy will be awarded to the House with the combination of best Alive Points, Attendance Points and scores in House competitions.

Linked to celebrating success, our Heads of House and House Leaders have been working hard to build House competitions into our Alive Offer to promote positive ethos and strong identity.  Below are the competitions for this term, and there are many more lined up for terms 3-6.

• Christmas jumper competition  

• Redcliffe's Got Talent  

• Poetry Competition 

• Faculty End of Term quizzes

• PE - Bench Ball competition 

• Christmas Card Competition - This will be run during extended tutor-time on 2nd December. The best cards will be printed and staff and students will be encouraged to share them to 'thank a teacher' and 'thank a pupil.

Liddell House had their Eucharist this month.  Our theme was ‘perspective’.  We considered the difference between zooming in and zooming out on our lives and some of the challenges we face.  We considered the importance of zooming out and how that can help us to see the bigger picture from God’s point of view.  We plan to follow a similar theme with each House Eucharist this year.

Our student chaplain applications will close soon.  Although we have had a lot of applications already, please encourage your child to apply if you think they might enjoy it and find it helpful. 

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.

We have a number of different lunchtime and after-school clubs happening on different days throughout the week.  Here is a link to our website where you can find out more: https://www.smrt.bristol.sch.uk/students/clubs-activities

On Thursday 13 November, we held our second poetry event of the year in the library at lunchtime. The number of students who took part was excellent and there was a superb range of beautiful poems read out by the following students: Jack, Isaac, Oliver, Matty, Austin, Ellie, Nevein, Maryam, Christy, Maya, Esthie, Seren, Norah, Noah, Fiona, Cece, Della, Kaelan, Aimee.

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

Mr Boswell

Earlier this month we commemorated Remembrance Day with some assemblies that were written and presented by some year 10 students.  Michael and Reuben led assemblies with Year 7 and year 8 about the importance of Remembrance Day as well as what they do as army cadets.  We also held a 2-minute silence across both our main school and sixth form sites to remember those who lost their lives to give us freedom.

Our Ugandan visitors arrive in the UK on Saturday 29 November and will be staying with us until Monday 8 December. We have a fun-packed itinerary.  They will be in school for most of the first week of December, and we hope to gain a lot from their wisdom as we share teaching styles and approaches to learning.  Our partnership is 20 years old this academic year, and we aim to continue working together.

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

Greeting Parents and Carers,

It has been a busy month in Learning Support. 

Our KS3/4 study rooms continue to provide support to children to complete work and catch up.

Our next block of intervention is due to start in January a sign-up sheet will be sent out w/c 8 December, do talk these through with your children and encourage them to take part. 

To parents of Year 13 students, please remind your son/daughter that Megan Davis is running two exam troubleshooter sessions in preparation for the January mocks - see below:

To sign up they can email 6thformlearningsupport@smrt.bristol.sch.uk or just drop into room 305 and book in with Megan/Lisa.

Tuesday 6 January P3 (revision and organisation)

Thursday 8 January P4 (exam questions and timings

We want to congratulate our Year 11 students who worked really hard during the Year 11 mocks both in their revision and completion of the exams.

Following parent feedback, we have changed the time of our next session to after school. Our next support meeting will be Tuesday 9 December 3.30pm-4.30pm in the school library.

There will be a guest talk from Katherine Meredith, Mental Health Lead, on anxiety wellbeing and how to support our young people.

Please don't forget to keep LSAs that are key workers for students with EHCPs up to date with any issues or concerns. I hope you find this weekly contact useful and supportive.

As ever, if you need any further advice or guidance, do email Learning Support. the LearningSupport@smrt.bristol.sch.uk

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 AGM this month in which there were reports from both Mr Planter (Headteacher) and Stephen Brooke (Chair of Governors).  The Friends will be providing refreshments at the carol service on Monday 15 December.  If you are able to help with this please mail: friendsofsmrt@gmail.com

The next Friends meeting will take place on Tuesday 20 January 2026