From Primary to Priory at Open Evening

Our doors opened on Thursday evening to over 400 families as they began their search for a secondary school for their children.  

Our Principal and Vice Principal, Mr Eastham and Mrs Cowell, were the first to greet families at the door before pupils from all year groups could share their experiences of Priory across the different subject areas. Prefects and Year 10 Peer Mentors welcomed our visitors and were eager to show Priory off to prospective families as they stood by ready to guide them around their school. Year 7 pupils chatted with former primary school peers who were keen to hear all about their first month at Priory - showing such confidence that many parents were fathomed they had only been with us three weeks!   

Interactive activities were set up across the school for children to enjoy whilst parents questioned teachers and pupils.  Showcase explosions in Science, puzzles in Maths (whilst trying not to gobble too many midget gems!), bon appetit in Languages, trampolining and badminton in PE and so much more.  The ICT & Computer Science department took the opportunity to show off their newest gadgets, the robots, where children attempted to win a game of Jenga with them and 'guess the computer parts'. 

Meanwhile, the Humanities department was a hub of activity with Mr Watters' voyage around the world and his display of fossils, rocks and dinosours matched by History where visitors were challenged to team up the date with the historic photo in the fastest time before having a giggle at themselves trying on the WWII gas masks.

Art was an immediate attraction full of bright colours, GCSE artwork and 'have a go' colouring where there was some impressive attempts to redesign the Priory logo. 

Oh what a night!

The Auditorio was alight with music and drama with show pieces from the Summer Arts Festival and Year 9 Agnes, tinkling the ivories on the piano.  In Technology our young guests took home keyrings which they coloured and then assembled laser-cut perspex letters spelling out their name - the perfect keepsake of the evening.

The event was a great success but we couldn’t do it without the support of our pupil volunteers.  We’ve received many, many compliments from prospective families who named and thanked individuals for their maturity, manners and guidance during their visit.  You were an absolute credit, pleasant, engaging and confident. Parents - you should be proud!

Mr Eastham thanked everyone for their efforts on the night, but also for the hard work beforehand that goes into making these events such a success. We hope the event inspired our visitors and look forward to meeting them again should they choose Priory as their first choice school.