Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 were both surprised and delighted to see Gallone's Ice Cream van pull into the King James quad this week, especially when they discovered it was there to deliver free ice cream cones as a reward to the winning classes in our "Secret Student" challenge.

This initiative involves a different student chosen at random each day in every class in Years 7, 8 and 9; this student is then awarded points by their teachers throughout the day based on our seven standards which promote being prepared, good attendance, respect, positivity, engagement, looking after our environment and community.

Students have no idea who the Secret Student might be for the day so everyone must work hard for their class. At the end of each week, the class in each year group with the highest number of points receives a reward, from chocolate treats to extended break times, and this week that reward was ice cream! As you'd expect, this was a much-appreciated surprise in the recent hot weather and students really enjoyed eating outside.

Secret Student will culminate is an excellent final reward which will be time based. There will be a Key Stage 3 End of Term event on the playing field and classes which have earned the highest number of points over the whole term will get to attend for the longest period!