Headteacher's Letters

As we approach half term, I wish you all the best for the forthcoming break. Term starts back on Tuesday 25^th February 2025. School will be open 8am onwards. Monday is one of our calendared INSET Days where school is closed to students.

Catholic Life and Mission

This week has seen form groups delivering assemblies on the theme of Trust. It has been great to see students leading the readings and reflections in front of their peers.

Assessment

Mid-year exams have now been completed in all year groups and students have spent time reviewing their assessments and completing improvement activities to help ensure that identified areas for development are being addressed. On recent reports students were given an area for improvement in each subject – please work with your child to ensure that they are addressing this using either their knowledge organiser, improvement work or online platforms such as Sparx Maths, to ensure that in the end of year exams improvement can be demonstrated.

Y9 Options

We are delighted to invite parents and carers of students in Year 9 to attend the Options Evening on Thursday 20^th March at 5:30pm. This will consist of a presentation by Mr Hughes, Deputy Headteacher, outlining the curriculum at Key Stage 4 and the different types of qualifications available. Prior to the options evening students will have had assemblies led by course teachers and have been provided with an options booklet, however, it is only at Options Evening where students will be issued with the Options Form to complete.                                                                                                                                                       

Safeguarding

This week students have been learning in assemblies about the ‘Rule of Law’ - an important British value that underpins our society and links well to our clear messages to students about their conduct and our school values. Students have been reminded that our school rules, routines and procedures are primarily designed to make everyone feel safe.

Parents have given positive feedback about our online safety resources sent out electronically on Wednesdays. Student voice about safeguarding has been taken this week – all students surveyed said that they knew who to talk to if they felt unsafe and could identify how they were taught about safeguarding through assemblies; form time activities and the Curriculum for Life.

Lancashire Schools Health Survey  

Year 9 students participated in the Lancashire Schools Health Survey online last week. If your Year 9 child has given an answer which requires follow up information or advice, you will receive a letter in the post from the School Nurse Team. The School Nurse is available in school every Tuesday and Wednesday at lunch time for drop in advice.

Literacy

There has been some excellent progress made with Sparx Reader this half term. To be successful with earning points students must ensure they are reading carefully and accurately, which does take time. By doing this, students then have a good understanding of the text that has been read which means they will succeed in answering questions about the text correctly, first time round. This is how students achieve the highest number of points. If the text is not read accurately in a timely manner, and the questions then rushed, this may lead to no or a low number of points being achieved. Your child’s form teacher will be monitoring their accuracy after half term and will be able to offer support if needed.

World Book Day is on Thursday 6^th March. Every child will be receiving a World Book Day token which can be spent at any book shop or at our Scholastic Book Fair which will be taking place the week beginning 24^th March 2025. There will be more information about this sent after Easter and posted on school’s social media pages. Thank you for your continued support with literacy at Our Lady’s.

National Apprenticeship Week 

This week is National Apprenticeship Week. Students have been learning about apprenticeship pathways during form time. Older students in Years 9-11 have been able to opt in to talks from various professionals who have either taken an apprenticeship route themselves or mentor/recruit apprentices in their work place. We are grateful to our alumni and community partners from Sellafield; JD Sports; MSB Solicitors; Ainscough Contracting; BAE Systems and Specsavers for their contributions. Students have listened respectfully and with interest and asked pertinent questions about the work place.

National Careers Week

National Careers Week will take place w/c 3^rd March and students will receive careers advice, guidance and inspiration from all areas of the curriculum.

Careers Provision for Students

If you can offer our students an insight into your career path and work place, or you know a former student of ours who has a story of success that might inspire our young people, we are always looking to provide our students with real employer encounters. Please contact Mrs Evans, our Careers Lead on s.evans@olqp.lancs.sch.uk if you can help.

Year 10 Work Experience

Many Year 10 students have been pro-active, finding themselves a placement for work experience at the end of the year.  Year 10 students should have found themselves a work experience placement by the end of this week. If you are able to offer a Year 10 student a placement at your work place, please let us know – you simply need to be willing and hold employer liability insurance. The date of work experience is week commencing 14^th July 2025. Please contact Mrs Evans, our Careers Lead on s.evans@olqp.lancs.sch.uk if you can help.

Attendance

As you know, our magic number for attendance is 97% and a significant proportion of our students have attendance over this figure with a large group still claiming 100% attendance. I would like to thank families who are making sure that their child attends every day. This half term we have been able to reward a large cohort of our children who were in every day in January. Attendance for some students still needs to improve so that they do not get behind in their learning.

97% is a high number, but all of the research shows that an attendance rate less than this can impact on your child’s future progress. Our own research told us that after the year 11 mocks, those children who had been in school every day, were 4 times more likely to get Maths and English at Grade 4. That level of achievement will set up those students for the life chances they want.

The Local Authority has the following top tips to ensure your child’s attendance is the best and remains high.

Top tips for parents and carers: