Headteacher Update
January 2023
It has been a busy week thinking about careers for our students as we continue to explore opportunities during Futures Month. There has been a whole host of activities including assemblies, employer workshops and visits to Careers Fairs to help students think about their life after John Spence and what they will need to do in order to realise their ambitions. As usual, all the students have engaged really well and taken advantage of the opportunities in front of them and whilst many will still be unsure, they know that this is fine because the important thing to understand is what their future could look like in different sectors.
On behalf of Mr Betts, Mr Redpath and Mrs Clay, thank you to those parents of Year 11 students who were able to attend the information session on Tuesday this week. The session was designed to help parents understand the timelines for the upcoming mocks and summer examination as well as providing advice on how to support their child in the run up to exams. Feedback from parents and students alike was extremely positive. If you were unable to attend and would like to receive this information, then please contact Mr Redpath or Mr Betts. In addition to this, Year 11 have also had their first lesson 6 session this week. Virtually the whole year group attended and feedback from students has been really positive due to the very small group sizes and the focused work that was being undertaken. These compulsory session run for another three weeks and there will be further sessions in March for Science. A huge thank you to staff delivering the session and, as usual, going above and beyond for our students.
Recently, we have undertaken some surveys directed at specific groups of students or a specific area of our provision, the responses to which have been discussed and adaptations to our provision are in the process of being made. I would now like to collect more general views of the school in line with OFSTED’s ParentView questions. These surveys will be distributed to one Year group at a time so that we can collate responses and look at any variation of views that may exist between the different year groups. The first two surveys will be sent out today immediately after this update for parents of Year 9 and 11 students. We will send the remaining year groups in the next couple of weeks. Please do complete the survey and leave your name and your child’s name at the end of the survey if you would like someone to contact you and discuss anything in more detail.
Finally, you will be aware the National Education Union has balloted for strike action with the first day of action to be 1st February; we are seeking advice from the Local Authority and have received information from the Department for Education. Relatively few of our staff are member of this union, but there will inevitably be some disruption. I will send out a detailed update once we have received further advice and have a plan on how we will operate during the scheduled days of industrial action.
I hope that you all have a good weekend.
Best wishes
Jonathan