Letters to Parents & Carers

This week's Headteacher Letter

15^th May 2024

Dear Parents & Carers,

Year 6

Well done to Year 6 for doing brilliantly in the exams this week – we hope they have done themselves justice in the tests and look forward to all the activities we have lined up for them after Thursday!

Homework

We have re-introduced homework to children across this half term – hopefully, you have started to see it coming home each week. This is not to stress children- or parents – out but is to ensure that we are giving children as much opportunity to learn the things they need. Some classes will have the full approach in place already, but from September children across school will need to read at home, practice spellings/sounds at home and do one piece of English and/or Maths each week. We will share more about this in the Meet the Teacher sessions in early September.

Attendance

Last week we clicked over to 94% attendance which is fantastic – thank you to everyone for your efforts in this. We have a firm but fair approach to requests for extended leave and we are held to account for holidays families take. I understand that you may not like the decisions we take but we must be firm in our approach. Children only have one go at their education – we need them here all 190 days, which means you have 175 days where you can holiday, which is plenty!

myHappymind

Just a reminder that we have introduced a new program to all children called myHappymind. It is all based around helping children to understand how their brain works and to support them in developing positive skills and habits to be their absolute best selves!

To further embed this learning, myHappymind has developed a Parent App. To access these materials just go to https://myhappymind.org/parent-resources to create your free account. You will need to enter your name, email, and authentication code or simply scan the QR code below to sign up. Your authentication code is 142824

Mornings & Afternoons

Thank you for your support in our new stricter approach to gates access - access to school grounds for Breakfast Club by parents and children is not allowed until 7.45am and all other children should not be on school grounds before 8.10am for their own safety. On an afternoon, older brothers and sisters in school cannot pick up younger children from school and walk to parents waiting off site. All children who don’t walk home alone must be collected by a known adult, or an older brother or sister, or named family member in at least Year 7 - all of this is for children’s safety, just like the road closures that drivers should be following.

BDAT Parents Project

The aim of the project is to look at how BDAT (the Trust that looks after our school) can engage with you in a more impactful way. To help them do this, they are asking you to complete a simple survey by scanning the QR code below

City Tutoring

City Tutoring has helped to fund our Y6 Residential this year, as part of their expansion having just opened a new base in Heaton. If you are interested in additional tutoring for your child, please see the flyer below – they are currently offering an introductory offer of £5 an hour for English, Maths and Science tuition.