Headteacher's Letter - 14
Dear Parents & Carers
The Spring term has come swiftly to an end. We have enjoyed the many sunny days during the last few weeks. School has been focused on delivery curriculum content as we prepare for the exam season after the Easter break. Our efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning have resulted in much stronger student engagement in lessons and an improvement in behaviour across the school. We have many delightful students. It is a pleasure to see good quality work in a large number of books and to see students responding well in lessons. We hope to see this translate into good examination results in the future.
Catholic Life & Mission
An update from our School Chaplain, Mr Baron:
‘Another month rolls by! It doesn’t seem two minutes since Christmas and now Easter is around the corner. It has been a fantastic time in the Chaplaincy! We have been busy growing the knowledge and faith of our school community. It has been a time of celebration, showing our faith in our school environment, whether it be through all the students doing our Faith in Action programme, our Pilgrims of Hope in the reception, the revamp of the Chapel or our new ‘Garden of Hope!’ (Formally the Bereavement
Garden).
The pupils have been involved heavily in chaplaincy during the season of Lent. A significant number of students participated in the Big Lent Walk for CAFOD. (The link to donate to this is still on ParentPay, if you can spare a little, it all helps!). The year 8s had an assembly delivered by representatives from the Good News for Everyone. All students were given a small red bible containing The New Testament. (I’m sure some of you received these at school yourselves. I still have mine all these years later). The year 7s also had the added treat of a visitor from the charity, Mary’s Meals who came to talk to them about how they can help to raise awareness of charities and how even if they are not able to donate financially, they can still make a difference. Hope you all have a happy Easter!’
As we finish school, Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday 13th April 2025 and ends on Easter Sunday. The Holy Week story of Jesus’ journey to the Cross and resurrection, is at the heart of our Christian faith. During Holy Week, we will journey with Jesus, seeking to grow in our understanding of all that he went through as we continue to grow our own faith journey.
Attendance
Thank you to parents and carers for encouraging regular attendance at school. Our attendance target is 97%, a couple of year groups have hit 95% in a week and 8ZF managed 100% for the whole form group. Well done! The more students are in school, the more confident they will feel in their ability to keep up with the work and do well academically. If you need support with your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact school. The school is getting a number of holiday requests. These will not be authorised by the school as they have a detrimental impact on a child’s education. Please ensure that your child is in school on Fridays. The full curriculum continues to be delivered in all subjects and it would be a shame for your child to get behind with their work and end up needing to do catch up. Please encourage them to show resilience, one of our three school values.
Year 11 Easter Revision Programme
A reminder that the Year 11 Easter Revision programme starts next week. The more sessions that your child attends, the more support they are getting in preparing themselves for the GCSEs which start just a few weeks after Easter. All the hard work will be worth it.
French & Spanish GCSE Examinations
GCSE French and Spanish speaking exams start week beginning 28th April 2025 and are worth 25% of the final GCSE. Students need to learn their conversation questions and attend the speaking booster classes on Tuesday 8th April 2025 at the start of the Easter holidays.
Year 7 and 8 Exams
When we return after Easter, it is a very short term before May Half Term and in that time Year 7 and 8 students will complete their exams in all subjects between Tuesday 6th May and Friday 9th May 2025. Please do not book any appointments during this time. The exact timetable for this will be shared with parents and carers shortly and as with the mid-year exams the parental booklet will include key topics that students should be revising in preparation for these exams. Teachers will then use the final half term to ensure that this key content has been learned and remembered well and use the exam feedback to tailor lessons and homework to ensure that students are well prepared to start the new academic year in September.
Year 9 and 10 Exams
Year 9 and 10 exams will take place after the Year 11 GCSE exams have been completed so that students are able to experience the formality of sitting their end of year exams in the Sports Hall as part of our work to prepare students for their GCSE exams. These will take place between Monday 16th June and Friday 27th June 2025. Please do not book any appointments during this time. Our experience shows that students who try and catch-up exams later do not perform as well as those that sit it as scheduled.
Sports News from the PE Department
Mr Evans has summarised last week’s news from the PE department. Well done to all students who have taken part in the range of activities listed.
Mental Health
We know the impact that mental health can have on the long-term well-being of our young people. We would therefore continue to promote the use of certain on-line support tools that can help our young people, or others, who may be struggling. There are several resources which parents can use to help them before the mental health concerns of their children escalate.
The first is the Hub of Hope.
This is an app in which pupils simply enter their postcode and it will indicate to you or them for what is available in your area.
The other support can be found on Kooth.com.
This requires the young person to complete a few questions and they will then access the right sort of support they need.
Key Dates
4th April 2025 3pm School closes for the Easter holidays
22nd April 2025 8am School re-opens for the start of the Summer Term
Thank you to all our parents and carers for your ongoing support. I wish all our students and families a very Happy Easter and a well-deserved rest. We look forward to welcoming our students back on Tuesday 22nd April 2025 8am onwards.
Yours sincerely
Mrs M. Henshaw
Headteacher