Weekly Message 295 – 6 March 2026
6th March 2026
World Book Day
It has been another busy and successful week in school. Our Year 11 pupils have taken a number of exams in our Spring examinations series, the final set of practice exams before the summer. They approached the week with focus and determination, and staff will now begin the important process of marking and preparing feedback so that pupils know exactly where to focus their efforts in the weeks ahead.
Alongside this, we enjoyed celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, which brought plenty of enthusiasm for reading across the school. We have also been delighted to see pupils representing the school at the Hampshire Schools Cross Country Finals, showing fantastic commitment and determination. Year 9 pupils also took an important step this week as they begin to think about their Key Stage 4 options, with an assembly to help guide them through the choices ahead.
Looking ahead to next week, our Year 10 pupils will be heading out on their week’s Work Experience. This is always a valuable opportunity for them to gain insight into the world of work, build confidence and develop important life skills. We wish them every success and look forward to hearing about their experiences when they return.
World Book Day
This week we celebrated World Book Day across the school, and it was fantastic to see so many pupils getting involved in the activities.
Throughout the week, pupils took part in a range of events designed to celebrate reading and creativity. Tutor groups enjoyed the challenge of identifying staff voices in our “Masked Reader” activity (with some impressively accurate guesses and some very confident but slightly less accurate ones) and tested their literary knowledge in a whole-school quiz. Pupils were also invited to create a comic strip based on their favourite moment from a novel, and we were very impressed by the creativity, effort and artistic flair shown in many of the entries.
Staff also fully embraced the spirit of the occasion by dressing as their favourite literary characters. The corridors featured an unusual mix of witches, Wallys, and Wonkas. The costumes brought a lot of smiles and created a wonderful buzz around the school.
It was lovely to see such a positive atmosphere around books and reading, with pupils sharing favourite stories, debating quiz answers and attempting to work out which member of staff was hiding behind the voices in the Masked Reader challenge.
Thank you to all the pupils (and staff!) who took part and helped make the week such an enjoyable celebration of reading.
World Book Day – Maths Department
For World Book Day, the Maths Department took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland to create a themed learning experience for pupils. The corridors were decorated with playing card bunting and quotations from the story, while activities were designed to highlight the link between literacy and numeracy within Lewis Carroll’s work. Pupils tackled logic puzzles and problem-solving tasks inspired by the characters and events of the book. Staff also joined in by dressing as familiar characters, helping to create a fun and engaging atmosphere. The theme provided a fantastic opportunity to show how mathematics can connect with stories, language, and creative thinking.
Pi Day Bake Off
On Friday next week we will be celebrating Pi Day. Our celebrations will also include a “digits of Pi recital”.
Any staff or pupils who think they might know the most digits of pi in Cams Hill School should come to Ma6 at break on Friday to show the Maths Department what they can do.
British Heart Foundation – Heart Month 2026
During February, we spread a little love and kindness around the school by offering a ‘sweet’ way for pupils to share their appreciation for others. Pupils were able to anonymously send a small bag of heart-shaped sweets to someone in the school.
Thanks to this initiative, we raised £170 for the British Heart Foundation. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported this venture and helped make it such a success
Sports Results
Year 8 boys’ football lost 1-0 to Bay House
Year 8/9 girls’ basketball won against Henry Cort 38-26 and finish 3rd in the district competition
Cross Country Success
The school took 10 pupils to Basingstoke to compete in the Hampshire Schools Cross Country finals this week. Approximately 100 pupils ran in each race from schools across Hampshire with the top 16 qualifying to represent Hampshire in the next round. We are pleased to say that we had three pupils qualify to represent Hampshire in a few weeks time.
K Tata and N Tata finished 7th and 8th in their race and F Smith finished 9th in his race. This is such an incredible achievement. Congratulations to them all.
Hampshire Schools’ Football Tournament
Our Year 7 and Year 8 girls played in the Hampshire Schools Football Tournament on Thursday. The teams went undefeated in their opening group, finishing top and progressing into the top league.
They continued their unbeaten run in the next stage as well. Unfortunately, with several matches ending in draws and every crossbar and post in the SO32 area being hit, we finished in 3rd place. Despite this, the girls performed exceptionally well and even drew against the eventual winners, where they were arguably the stronger side, once again hitting every part of the goal but the net.
Naturally, the team were a little disappointed not to reach the semi-finals, but they should be extremely proud of their performance and the way they represented the school.
Congratulations to all involved.
Whole School Letters Published This Half Term
Below is a list of letters emailed to all parents/carers this half term together with the date and time they were sent. If you are unable to find any of the communications, please email office@camshill.com and we can send you a further copy.
Jazz Café – Thursday 19 March 2026 – sent 4/3/26 1600
Non-School Uniform Day Friday 6 February 2026 – sent 29/1/26 1514
Upcoming Gas Works – sent 21/1/26 1014
Menu – w/c 9 March 2026
Free Easter Holiday Activities for Pupils on Free School Meals
Statistics
Positive Behaviour Points Averages per Pupil for This Week
Year 7 – 5.78 points
Year 8 – 3.63 points
Year 9 – 2.77 points
Year 10 – 2.24 points
Attendance
This week – 94.1%
Same week last year – 94.0%
Sparx and Educake
These are two online resources that we expect pupils to be accessing routinely with homework set by teachers and independently to support their progress in Maths, Science, and other subjects. We ask parents/carers to check in with their child to see whether they are accessing these resources routinely and to encourage the best use of them.
Sparx – Maths
Over 50% in Maths Homework
Year 7 76%
Year 8 58%
Year 9 68%
Year 10 65%
Over 75% in Maths Homework
Year 7 75%
Year 8 56%
Year 9 61%
Year 10 56%
100% in Maths Homework
Year 7 70% *
Year 8 47%
Year 9 46%
Year 10 35%
*For example, this figure means 70% of Year 7 got 100% in their homework tasks.
Figures in green indicate maintaining or an increase from last time.
Year 11 are working independently with revision homework.
Maths Homework Support is open to all Years on Wednesdays in ICT2 until 4pm.
Next In-Class Assessment
Year 8 – w/c 23/3/26 – calculator test
Year 7 – w/c 13/4/26 – non-calculator test
Year 10 – w/c 20/4/26 – Year 10 exams
Year 9 – tbc
Calculators and other equipment for sale
Casio fx-83GT scientific calculators can be bought via Arbor and collected from the Finance Office. Prices of these and other items for sale are shown below:
Casio fx-83GT scientific calculator- £9.00
Pre-packed pencil case – £2.50
Pair of compasses – 29p
Protractor – 9p
100 blank flashcards – £1.00
A range of GCSE Maths revision materials for KS4 use – See Arbor for details
Educake – Science
Percentage of Questions Answered Correctly This Week
Year 7 70%
Year 8 71%
Year 9 68%
Year 10 72%
Year 11 71%
Highest number of questions answered by one pupil this week
Year 7 200 questions
Year 8 330 questions
Year 9 115 questions
Year 10 307 questions
Year 11 1153 questions