Headteacher Update

October 2022

Last night we held our very first John Spence Awards Ceremony celebrating the achievements of our students. A total of 60 students were nominated for awards including Resilient, Skilled and Considerate awards for each year group and special awards for commitment, sports and community work. We finished the evening with the 2 top awards; The Haswell Medal for the highest achiever in Year 11 last year and the Fit for Life Award; well done to Anthony and Nathan who won these awards. The event was extremely well attended, despite the appalling weather, and the programme included exceptional performances from Freya, Jessica, Dylan and Cleo. It was fantastic to be able to recognise the success of all the nominees and the winners.

Student Wellbeing

According to NHS Digital, one in six children aged between 6 and 16 in England are likely to have a mental health problem. Whether it’s brought on by studies, peer pressure, problems at home or something else entirely, teachers and educational setting staff are ideally placed to spot early warning signs of vulnerabilities and poor mental health.

This week, every student at John Spence was emailed a quick wellbeing check-in questionnaire from GOVOX. Completion was optional. For those students who chose to respond, the GOVOX wellbeing platform may have provided them, by email, with actionable insights and resources. All students will continue to be sent these questionnaires at intervals over the course of their time at John Spence.

Key members of the school wellbeing team have been given the data generated by the questionnaire in order for them to be able to offer wellbeing support to any child who needs it. The first port of call will be to direct these students to our Wellbeing Drop-in (weekdays before or after school in the Hub).

Please direct any questions or concerns regarding GOVOX to: [email protected]

Finally, it was great to see so many parents come in for the Tutor Review afternoon on Tuesday. The year group have settled in remarkably well and are taking full advantage of the extra-curricular activities as well as making really good progress in their lessons.

That’s all for this half term. We look forward to welcoming students back to school on Monday 31st October.

Best wishes

Jonathan