Headteacher Update
October 2023
It has undoubtedly been a long first half term of the academic year, but it has been a hugely successful one for our students. There are many highlights, one of which was our Annual Awards Evening last week where we celebrated the achievements of students past and present with their families. During the awards we were also lucky enough to have performances from last year’s production of The Lion King by Charlotte and Jess. It was particularly good to see the Class of 2023 to recognise their achievements and share with them that their results were the best the school has seen since the new GCSEs were introduced in 2017; a huge achievement and well deserved.
Our current Year 11 are continuing in the same vein as their peers last year and engaging really well with their learning as well as embracing the various levels of intervention and support. There is much more to come for them and some of this information will be shared with parents of Year 11 students on 28th November. Please look out for booking information coming soon, but in the meantime please do get in touch with either Mrs Brown or Mr Redpath if you have any concerns around your child’s progress or if you would like more information about the support available.
This week we have welcomed parents of Year 7 students for their Tutor Review meeting. This was extremely well attended and parents got to hear how their child had settled in as well as information about curriculum and homework. Year 7 have manged their first half term really well and are settled into routines, taking advantage of all the extra-curricular opportunities and making great progress, which is great to see.
Our extra-curricular offer goes from strength to strength with countless opportunities from Sport to STEM Club, in addition to which students have been on many trips including a Theatre Trip to Northern Stage, a Creative Careers event at the Glass House (formerly The Sage) and ongoing involvement with the Youth Sport Trust. These opportunities are what makes John Spence unique and we will continue to provide access to them. If you don’t already, please follow us on Twitter @JohnSpenceCHS so that you can see all the amazing things that happen both inside and outside of school and the highlights of everything that has happened will be shared as usual in our end of term newsletter.
Finally, we are refreshing our website to make it easier to access useful information. There is an enormous amount of content, but parents have told us that it is sometimes not easy to find so we have redesigned the look and also tidied up the menus so you can access the information you need. Please do look at the curriculum pages where you will find all the information you need about what your child is studying in each subject. If you do feel there is something missing that would be useful for parents to access, then please do let us know via the school office email.
I hope you all enjoy a safe and relaxing half term and we look forward to welcome student back to school on Monday 6th November.
Best wishes
Jonathan