I hope this letter finds you and your families well at the start of the Spring term. Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year; I hope 2023 will be a happy, healthy and successful one for all of our school community.
A Friday update for you as always.
I always find this term to race away; no sooner than the daffodils appear in early Spring, that the GCSE exams seem upon us. We have lots to do, both students and staff alike, before then, so it is important we get off to a good start. This half term looks set to be a busy one with lots to fit in:
The Options process begins in earnest for Year 9 this half term with taster sessions in the next few weeks and Options Evening just around the corner (23rd February), as well as Year 9 exams beginning on Wednesday 18th January
Professional Interview Day for Year 11 on Tuesday 24th January
Evening of Excellence (rescheduled) Wednesday 25th January, celebrating the successes of the Class of 2022 with them and our current Year 10/11 students
Year 7 Progress Evening (formerly known as Parents’ Evening) on Thursday 26th January
Stratford-Upon-Avon residential in the last week of the half term
Staff enjoyed a fantastic training day with our colleagues from the West Walthamstow Partnership, to which we belong, namely, Willowfield, Barncroft, Stoneydown, Coppermill and FANs. Staff left enthused by the varied programme and high quality sessions that we were able to offer as a group of schools. It is pleasing to see our wider community coming together in this way. Hopefully students will reap the benefits of this training in the coming weeks and months.
I read the UK Health Security Agency report with interest this week. Although it came in for some criticism in the media, I felt the three main points to be pertinent as we try to ensure that student and staff attendance is at its highest this term, in the face of the many flu bugs and Covid that seem omnipresent:
Continue to wash hands regularly to reduce the spread of viruses, something that is still built in to our ‘start of lessons routines’ each lesson, every day
Students and staff to remain at home if they have a fever
The more students and staff that are vaccinated against the flu, the better our attendance will be as school, as the spread of flu will be greatly reduced as a result
With that in mind, our Student Health Manager has received confirmation from Vaccination UK that we can now offer the Flu vaccination to all students in years 7, 8 and 9 (please note this is not a Covid vaccination). We will write to these year groups separately next week, with further information and a link to the consent form. Vaccination UK have stated that they hope to roll the programme out for years 10 and 11 in the near future, however, this will be dependent on vaccine stock levels.
Students have got off to a great start this week, let’s continue that as we attack this busy but fulfilling term.
Finally, well done to Anton Mastrangelo in 8K who amassed the most rewards points, with 30, in our truncated last week before the Christmas holidays. Keep up the good work.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher
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