The Bulmershe Bulletin – Issue 42
19th September 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
I want to share my message from my assemblies to students last week. We talked about having a superpower… Not one that needs a cape or a mask, but one that is inside all of us: aspiration.
Aspiration is the strong desire to achieve something great. It is more than just wishful thinking; it is the fuel that turns a simple thought of ‘I wish’ into ‘I’m working on it’. We talked about how this superpower can be used every day to help students make positive choices and push themselves outside of their comfort zones. It is the force that helps them ask for help when they are struggling and to try again after they do not succeed.
Aspiration gives us direction, fuels our resilience and inspires those around us. My message to all of our students was simple: you do not have to have everything figured out right now. All you have to do is aspire. As a school, we are here to support you, challenge you and cheer you on as you work to become the best version of yourselves. Aspiration forms a large part of the ethos here at Bulmershe, and it is something I will be talking about with prospective families at our Open Events, which reminds me:
Don’t forget! School will close at 12:20pm next Thursday, to allow us to prepare for our Open Evening.
Thank you to all those students who are joining us that evening as Tour Guides and Departmental Helpers. We couldn’t run this event without you and you are all incredible ambassadors for the school.
Amanda Woodfin
Headteacher
Upcoming Events
Mon 22nd Sept – Year 11 GCSE PE Moderation at Palmer Park
Thu 25th Sept – School closes at 12:20pm to prepare for Open Evening
Tue 30th Sept – Year 10 Curriculum Evening in the Auditorium
Tue 30th Sept – Duke of Edinburgh Celebration in the Auditorium from 6pm (invite only)
Thu 2nd Oct – Year 13 Curriculum Evening in the Auditorium
Tue 7th Oct – Year 12 Curriculum Evening in the Auditorium
Tue 14th Oct – Year 8 Curriculum Evening in the Auditorium
PARKING ON SITE
We encourage all students to try to take public transport, walk or cycle to school. Our on site carpark is for staff only. We have no dedicated area near the school for dropping off or picking up students by car, as the area at the front of reception is reserved for buses and disabled visitors only.
If you have to drive your child to/from school, please arrange to meet them in a safe place off-site. Please be respectful of our neighbours and do not park on yellow lines or block driveways.
Attendance Matters
A quick reminder about Punctuality and Lates: Students who arrive to school after 8:30am will be marked as L (“Late”) and given a detention after school the next day. Students who arrive after 9:00am will receive a U code, which denotes unauthorised absence for the morning session. If your child receives 10 “U” codes within a 10 week period the local authority can issue a penalty notice. Please email the Attendance Team to let them know if there is any reason for the absence as soon as you can.
After School Clubs
It’s our hope that every child in our school will find something they enjoy in our Autumn Term Clubs timetable and decide to get involved. We cannot stress enough how much these extra-curricular clubs benefit students; from making new friends to learning new skills, they are a fantastic addition to school life.
They also look great on a CV or university application later on, and are a lot of fun! As an extra incentive, your child will be awarded Achievement Points for every club they attend.
The full clubs timetable for this term can be found on our website under the Parents & Carers section. We encourage you to take a look with your child and see what’s on offer.
Website Icons
Have you spotted we have a helpful “Week A” or “Week B” lozenge on the top of all our website pages? We hope this helps keep everyone on track as to which cycle week we are on:
We have also just launched a brand new Accessibility icon, which you will see on the top right-hand corner of each page of our website. When visiting our site, you can now click on the button to choose how you want to see the content. It will allow you to change the font type, the font size or the contrast colours to suit your own preferences. There’s also a ruler to guide content if you wish to use it. We hope this helps make our site more accessible for all.
Tips for keeping your teen safe online
In today’s world, our teenagers spend a lot of time online, both for school and for fun. While the internet is an amazing tool, it’s also a place with potential risks. Just like teaching your child to cross the road safely, giving them the right tools and knowledge is key to helping them navigate the digital world. The most effective way to help your child stay safe is through a combination of practical steps and open, ongoing conversations.
Here are some key tips to help you and your child:
- Be Practical: Make sure your child’s devices have reliable software to protect against online attacks. It’s also important to remind them to protect their physical devices by not leaving them unattended in public places.
- Be Smart with Wi-Fi: Public Wi-Fi networks can be risky. Encourage your child to be careful when using them, especially for any activities that involve personal or sensitive information.
- Focus on the What, Not the How Much: It’s easy to worry about how much time your teen spends online, but it’s more important to understand what they are doing. Focus on making sure they know the risks and how to take the right precautions.
- Keep Talking: This can be the hardest part, but it’s the most important. Create a relationship where your child feels they can come to you if something makes them feel uncomfortable. You can use TV shows or movies to start conversations about difficult topics like cyberbullying.
- Remember the Digital Footprint: Remind your child that once something is posted online, it might be there forever, even if they delete it. Encourage them to think before they post and to avoid sharing anything they wouldn’t want a future employer to see.
- Limit Contact with Strangers: Encourage your teen to set their social media accounts to private so that only people they know can see their posts. They should also be careful about accepting friend requests from strangers.
There are many great resources to help parents with online safety, including Childnet and ThinkUKnow. Keeping up with these conversations will help your child use the internet in a safe and positive way.
You can read the full article with all the details and advice here:
Music Lessons
We are pleased to offer students the opportunity to learn a musical instrument with one-to-one and group lessons. These paid-for lessons take place during the school day and are a fantastic way for your child to develop a new skill or build on an existing one. Berkshire Music Trust offer lessons in a wide range of instruments including brass, percussion, strings, woodwind, voice, guitar and keyboard/piano. Prices start from £10.50 per lesson.
If your child is interested, you can sign up as follows
- Go to https://www.berksmusictrust.org.uk/music/music-lessons/apply-for-lessons/
- Click ‘Register’ under ‘Lessons at school’.
- Search for ‘The Bulmershe School’ and click ‘Lessons’.
- Select the lesson you would like to sign up for and follow the on-screen instructions.
If you have any questions, please email awicks@bulmershe.wokingham.sch.uk.
Addams Family Update
We are thrilled to announce that the cast list for our whole school production of The Addams Family has been revealed, and rehearsals are officially underway! We would like to extend a huge thank you to every student who auditioned. We were completely bowled over by the number who came forward and the immense talent on display.
It was an impossible task for the production staff to narrow down the parts. We had to make some difficult decisions to create a cast of over 100 students! For those students who were successful, congratulations! For those who did not get the part they wanted, please let them know that this is never a reflection of their talent, and there will be many other opportunities for them to shine in future productions.
We are already planning the set and costumes, and we will be putting out donation requests over the coming weeks. If your child is involved in the show, please remind them to join the Google Classroom using the code: hptx7c32.
This is going to be a fantastic production, and we look forward to sharing more details and ticket information with you in the coming weeks.
National Coding Week: Exploring AI
This week, as part of National Coding Week, our Year 9 students were given an assembly on Artificial Intelligence. We were fortunate to be joined by an excellent guest speaker from the Thames Valley AI Hub, who helped bring this topic to life.
Through discussion and real-world insights, the session was both inspiring and informative, sparking excitement about the future of AI and technology. Our guests highlighted how digital skills like coding can open the door to a wide variety of jobs.
It was a great opportunity for our Year 9s to explore how technology can be used to solve problems in new and innovative ways. We are grateful to our guests for sharing their valuable time with our students.
Westminster Historical Talk Review
By William H, Year 11
On 15th of September two Bulmershe’s Alumni and I went to a talk in Westminster being held by Michael Gove and Tim Bouverie. The Talk was about Mr Bouverie’s new book “Allies at war the politics of defeating Hitler” – a truly exceptional account of the conversations that went on inside the rooms between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt.
During the talk, Gove asked Bouverie questions about the book for an hour, followed by questions from the audience, ranging from the process of writing the book to funny stories about what some of the leaders said about each other in private. The talk also went into some of the information about the comparisons that can be drawn between modern day and 1939, which is truly horrifying but also interesting to look into.
I believe that this talk was truly exceptional and was definitely worth going to. These talks are held by Intelligence Squared and range from economics to literature, fact to fiction.
Year 7 STEM Club
STEM Club is now open to all Year 7 students! This term, the club will be working on a very exciting project: designing a sustainable theatre set for our upcoming school production of The Addams Family.
Students will get to explore and apply real-world STEM concepts in a fun and creative way. They will learn about sustainability in set design, apply maths skills for scaling and measurements and even use 3D printing to create figurines and key holders to sell as a fundraiser for the club.
The STEM Club will run every Tuesday after school in the STEM Innovation Hub. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so if your child is interested, please sign them up using the form below:
Cucina Main Meals – w/c 22nd September
Shout Outs
On a Friday we like to shine a spotlight on those who deserve a thank you or have done well over the past week. If you would like to nominate your child, or a member of staff, please use our nomination email address: HeadsPA@bulmershe.wokingham.sch.uk.
Student Shout Outs
Mr Whearity: A big shout out to Year 10 for their excellent start to GCSE learning. I have been so impressed with their mature approach. Well done Y10!
Miss Dance: I would like to nominate Mason L in year 9 for his phenomenal attendance over the past two weeks. Keep it going!
Mr Whearity, Mr Hood and Mrs Whitmarsh would like to shout out to the year 10 drama classes who have made an outstanding start to the GCSE course!
Miss Bishop: I would like to give a shout out to Ada H and Max E for impressive biological knowledge shared this week in class. And also to Amrita, Ronnie, Isabelle, Norah, Lillian, Emerald, Mariama and Faiza for having an excellent start to their A-level Biology course.
Mrs Senthilkumar: Eesa A (y8) and Ema D (Y9) have demonstrated an excellent attitude towards learning this week. Both students have been consistently engaged in classroom discussions and have shown great commitment to completing tasks to a high standard.
Mr Mooney: Shout out to all of the year 11 Media students that have already begun to respond to their coursework feedback and are staying afterschool to make improvements – your hard work will pay off!
Miss Wells: Well done to Eyob in year 7 for showing responsibility and safety in his actions this week.
Mr Hood: a big shout out to my Tutor Group 8XB. We have improved our overall attendance and we are currently leading on Year 8 Achievement points. They have had an excellent return back!
Miss Samuel: A huge thank you to Ishaan R and Amelia C in year 13 who have been supporting the Year 12s with their 3D design portfolio work.
Mr Poll: Well done Phoebe J, Acey P, Marnie M, Elsie M, Zara H and Aaron S for their amazing independent writing in History and for bravely sharing them with the class.
Mr Allen: Congratulations to Saba A, Imani A, Ta-leigh M, Samuel GB, Ava S and Jake R – all in Year 11 – for excellent work and effort in Maths since the start of the year!
Mr Chandler: I’d like to give a shout out for Chloe D for making an amazing start to year 8!
Attendance would like to say well done to Millie B for showing true resilience this week. Keep it up Millie!
Mrs Parkes: Well done to Konstantinos C in Y7 for helping other year 7 students to access Sparx maths, and Mason L in year 9 is making real progress in straight line graphs and working hard.
Staff Shout Outs
Mrs Kotseroni: A heartfelt thank you to Mr Whearity and Mr Noye for their unwavering support of the Year 10 Students who are working to strengthen their literacy skills. We are incredibly grateful for their support and the positive impact they have on our students’ growth and development.
Mrs Edwards: Massive good luck to Miss Kola who is leaving us to have a baby! Y11 and I are really going miss her energy, understanding and patience. She has supported so many Y11s, and other students, and will be hugely missed! We really appreciate all she has done. We wish her well and look forward to hearing about the safe arrival of Baby Kola!
What’s On
Spotlight: Helping Families Make Positive Memories
Spotlight is a charity that works to create new, positive memories for families by offering fun and affordable activities. They do this by subsidising activities like bowling, laser tag, swimming, ice skating and more. This means you can get access to fun days out at up to 50% off the normal price, with the charity funding the difference.
The scheme is open to all families and aims to help you spend quality time together without the worry of a high cost. By signing up for a gold membership, which is just £7.50 per person for the year, you will get access to a full year’s worth of discounted activities and days out to places like Chessington, Thorpe Park and Legoland.
Laser Light Show
Dinton Pastures are hosting their very first Laser Light Show on Sunday 2nd November, with the show at 7pm. There as well as the display there will be children’s rides, a fire show, BBQ and various stalls.
Date: 02/11/2025 – 17:00 to 20:00
Location: Dinton Pastures Country Park
Cost: Adults – £9.95, Children – £5.95
Pablo’s Circus
Paulo’s Circus is returning to Dinton Pastures Country Park in Hurst for its second year. The circus runs from 24 September to 12 October. Tickets start from £9 and are available to buy and there’s a special SEN show with no strobe lights on Thursday 2 October. Children under two years old are free.
Wokingham Arts Trail
The Wokingham Arts Trail is back for its 14th year, showcasing the work of 35 talented local artists across the borough.
Its running on Saturday, 20th and Sunday 21st September, offering a diverse and high-quality selection of unique and innovative art from local creatives.
All venues are free to visit and open from 10.30am to 5.30pm both days. You can download a copy of the map from the trail’s website.
