Headteacher Update

January 2023

Happy New Year and I hope that you all managed to have a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas with family and friends. A few reminders and requests in the update this week:

Uniform
Uniform standards remain high for the vast majority of students and thank you for your support with this. A couple of reminders, canvas shoes are not allowed even on PE days, Converse are creeping in again with a small number of students. We continue to provide uniform for students who arrive without the correct uniform, but we have had an issue with ties as some have not been returned to us. You can now purchase ties directly from the school on the School Gateway app and you will receive details of this in the next week or so. As ever, if you are struggling to afford uniform, please do get in touch and we will help find a solution for you.

Contacting your child during school time
Please can I ask that if you need to contact your child during school time that you do so via the school office. Messaging or calling during the day can cause issues for them as they are not allowed access to their phones during the day. In order to respond students sometimes take themselves away from where they should be or hide in toilets to make contact. If your child does contact you during the day, unless there are authorised circumstances, then they are breaking school rules so can I ask that you remind them of this to avoid any potential issues and sanctions that may result from the situation.

Dropping you child off by car in the morning
We are looking at the safety of parents dropping children off by car at the school gates in the morning as it can be extremely busy and there is the potential for an accident. You can drop your child off in the car park before 8.25am after which one of the gates will be closed. Please do not drive through the single gate access as this is where students ride their bikes. We are in contact with the Local Authority to create a box junction outside of school, but in the meantime, please can you avoid pulling into the car park entrance to drop your child off.

North Tyneside Parent Carer Forum
Please click here to read more about the North Tyneside Parent Carer Forum.

Year 11 Intervention Sessions
I am delighted to say that we have managed to allocate all year 11 students into very small group compulsory intervention sessions that will take place starting this Tuesday from 3-4pm and will run for 4 weeks. The sessions allocated to each student have been specifically chosen to ensure all students are supported to reach their full potential in the summer GCSE exams. All sessions are free and signal the start of preparing for the summer exams.
Year 11 students will receive their mock exam timetable next week and throughout form time next week will be working on how to design an effective revision timetable and an appropriate revision space. We appreciate the support from parents to ensure that all year 11 students attend both sessions. In recognition for the hard work and extra commitment, students who attend all revision sessions will receive a leavers hoody. Ask your child more about this initiative and we look forward to seeing students wearing the hoodies from 7th March

Year 9 Options
On Friday all year 9 attended an assembly to introduce the options process, in the next few weeks they will work through an options passport in form time, Fit for life and curriculum lessons. This will help both students and parents make good option choices. More information will be shared with parents in the next few weeks.

Thank you for your support with these requests and I hope that you all have a good weekend.

Best wishes
Jonathan