Dear Families,
We hope that Year 7 families on the A side of the year group had a positive evening and valued the opportunity to meet their child’s teachers and gather feedback on the progress this year. We are keen to hear your feedback on the progress evenings, particularly as we tried a new approach for Year 7 this year by splitting the evening over two nights. We will be sharing a short poll via social media to get your thoughts on whether a move to virtual, online parent meetings is something that the wider school community would prefer moving forward. We will also be consulting with teachers on this proposal so we factor in how best to make the evenings accessible to more families, easier for staff workload and wellbeing, yet trying to balance the connection the school has to the wider community that is important to us.
Parent Workshop
As I mentioned briefly in my video last week, we are holding two parent workshops on Tuesday 19th May to support families whose children are starting to show early signs of anxiety or reluctance in coming to school.
The sessions will take place at 1:30pm and 5:30pm and will be delivered by Sally Ham. Sally is an Educational Psychologist who has over 30 years’ experience working in education, and 25 years as an Educational Psychologist.
Please use the link below to book your tickets because spaces are limited.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parent-only-event-supporting-school-reluctance-tickets-1989645082000?aff=oddtdtcreator
For guests booking the session at 1:30pm, please report to the school reception. For those booking the session at 5:30pm, please make your way to the school lecture theatre, following the signs displayed from the Hayway entrance.
Mental Health Awareness Week
This week we have celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week and we have been encouraging all students to take small actions to improve their own mental health. These actions could be to help boost their own mental health, or for someone else. To show the action we are taking, all students have been asked to wear a green ribbon this week that has either a mental health pledge, or a motivational quote. It has been great to talk to students about their pledge or quote, and to hear what small actions individuals are taking to support mental health awareness week.
Head of Year Update
As we near the end of the academic year, and Year 11 are in the midst of the terminal examinations, I wanted to provide you with an update to the pastoral leadership taking place after half term. Year 9 students are currently preparing themselves for their transition into KS4, and are eagerly awaiting news on their options subjects. These will be confirmed after the half term.
However, with Year 11 coming to an end of their time with us, and as we start to prepare for the new intake of Year 6 students, Year 9s will be taken over by Mr A Smith and Mrs Jamieson. Mrs Broughton will move to become the Head of Year 7 in September and will start to work on the transition process, meeting students and families of those in Year 6. Mrs Broughton will still be around to support Mr A Smith during the transition, but should you need to contact your child’s Head of Year, then please direct these to Mr A Smith instead of Mrs Broughton. Form tutors will remain the first point of contact for any concern you have.
Ethos Event
We would like to inform you that the Ethos team continues to offer a range of events for families, and we are pleased to share that they are offering a number of sessions for parents focusing on how to handle anger in the family. These sessions will take place every Friday from 10am to 12pm, running from June 12th to July 3rd.
Please see our social media posts for links to book your place.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact Jenni King at or contact Hope for Families on 07784 333825. You can email them at . Booking closes on 9th June.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend, and we look forward to seeing all students on Monday ready for the last week of half term!
Yours sincerely,
Mr. J. Firth
Principal
