Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Redhill!

As the end of term draws near, there has naturally been a sense of excitement and festive joy around school; despite the dark and frosty starts to school, which have often been broken with moments of sunshine on our site - turning it into a winter wonderland!

The buzz began with the announcement that our student Sophie Howell would be walking 15 miles in support of Cash for Kids Mission Christmas, who raise money to buy gifts for less fortunate children who may wake up with nothing on Christmas morning. The walk took her 6 hours and 20 minutes and so far she has raised £690, with even more donations to come in! Well done Sophie!

Our festive themed non-uniform day at the beginning of the month was a huge success raising £1010.93 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Thank you to all staff and students who entered into the festive spirit all through school!

DT Club finished up for the term and their festive project! The students from the club created Christmas USB lights from acrylic shapes and wooden stands and every week they brought such enthusiasm! The outcomes are particularly effective when plugged in and lit up. Thank you to the DT staff who make this club possible.

This term we did a Christmas collection for the Black Country Food Bank, collecting and donating 21.8kgs of food and 10.3kgs of no-food, an amazing amount! This is enough to provide 44 meals and 10 toiletry packs. Well done to the Pastoral Team for such an amazing job!

Our fantastic music department have been working with our talented students to produce some brilliant performances for our Christmas Carol Concert, which was on the 14th December.

Mr Clayton shared, “The evening was a wonderful success, with acts from Grade 6 and 7 musicians, group performances, alongside extracts from the school production. The warmth and appreciation from all was wonderful, as was the concert.”

Mince pies and mulled wine were served by our students, who were extremely hospitable and represented the school very well. Thank you to all who helped make this an evening to celebrate and be proud of, especially the music and drama staff. Students then repeated their performances to all year groups in our end of term praise assemblies today, bringing the Christmas atmosphere all through the day, well done!

We are very proud of our students who went to spread some festive joy to a local care home as well today, you represented Redhill wonderfully and were a joy to those who you visited. Mrs Jones, who took the students, said: “It was so lovely, one of ladies who was 96 got involved with the singing and everyone enjoyed it. They were all were very grateful - one lady said it had made her Christmas.” Well done!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Have a fantastic Christmas break, stay safe and see you in 2023!