Letters to parents
7th February 2024
Dear Parent/Carer
It has been a relatively short half term and marks the mid-point of the year. It is an opportunity to reset some areas where there is some slippage in a number of expected standards.
After half term there is an expectation that all students will be in the correct uniform, wearing either a blazer, jumper with a school logo or the school fleece. They should also be wearing a tie, black trousers or skirt, white shirt and plain black footwear. I need you to respect that the requirement to be in the correct uniform exists for all schools in the Trust. Students who come to school out of uniform will be sent home so please check them before they leave home for school. If they are not wearing the correct clothes, please expect them to be sent home to change!!
The standard is important as the vast majority of parents work very hard to ensure that their children come to school dressed correctly.
It is also the point that we review punctuality to school. I must remind some parents that school begins at 8:50am with an important PSHE lesson every day. Students who arrive late are missing out. Please ensure that your child arrives at school in time. We will be monitoring this closely and if you look at the parent app you can what time your child arrives at school and lessons.
We have a new website which contains lots of information, and will translate information into many different languages.
Please use Studybugs to report any absence. You can find this on the front page of the website.
From 19th February, all communications, including reports will be digital and can be accessed either by e mail or from the website. We will no longer send out paper copies. Please make sure you register with our parenting app.
Attendance continues to be a priority and we are putting in place a lot of rewards to support good attendance. It is your responsibility to ensure that your child attends school every day, on time.
During half term there will be intensive study days for Y11 students. If you have a student in Y11, please encourage them to attend; we will be providing Domino’s pizza for lunch!!
We are also rewarding students for hard work at home and preparation for the mock exams which begin on 4th March. Any student who exceeds their target FFT grade in all subjects will have their prom ticket paid for. Any student who improves on their last mock exam by one grade in all subjects will have 50% of their prom ticket paid for. It is a good financial incentive and if it encourages some study and revision it will be worth it.
The vast majority of students come to school every day, on time, in correct uniform, behave well and work hard.
There are rare occasions when this is not the case and parents need to be aware that where there are instances of aggressive, violent or intimidating behaviour, there will always be a suspension; this includes those occasions when the threats are made over social media.
It is necessary for me to be quite explicit about these issues so that all parents understand the importance of behaving in the right way and the consequences that will occur when this is not the case. I hope this acts as a reassurance to parents that we take these issues very seriously.
If you do have other worries or concerns, then your first contact should be the subject leader if it is an academic matter or the pastoral year coordinator if it is a more general concern.
Best wishes
Paul Green
Headteacher
