Welcome to this week’s newsletter.

There has been an updated letter shared with you this afternoon about the proposed upcoming industrial action on Wednesday 1 February. Please ensure that you read it as unfortunately it is not going to be possible to open to students safely on this day.

On Wednesday we had the first of our Pathways Assemblies for year 9 students. This is where each subject informs students of what they would be studying if they were to choose that subject as an option for years 10 and 11. The next assembly covers the Creative subjects and will be held on Thursday 2 February. Just before half-term, pupils will be asked to express an interest in which subjects they would like to follow. At this point, it is just an expression of interest which helps us understand which courses we ought to offer and whether we have the staffing to do so. After half term there is an online parents evening to discuss your child’s progress and a week later the Year 9 Pathways Evening. At this point our offer is firmed up and subjects are blocked together to meet as many preferences as possible. The Pathways Evening is an opportunity to meet staff, learn more about the courses on offer and the process itself.

An email was sent out to all parents of year 11 with links to book in for the virtual parents’ evening on Wednesday 8 February. If you haven’t already made your appointments, please do so as this is an excellent opportunity for parents/carers to discuss their child’s progress with their individual subject teachers. Also the results of the recent practice exams whereby subject teachers can inform you of what added support and guidance your child requires to reach their expected grade.

I have mentioned attendance in the last two newsletters. The Local Authority is also working to encourage and support good school attendance and they are running a media campaign across a range of platforms. Further in the newsletter there are tips and advice on how you can support your child with their school attendance.

One of our new weekly features in this newsletter will be #feelgoodfriday, which will actively promote strategies and practical help to support good mental health and wellbeing across our Federation. Launching today with Five Ways to Wellbeing, please see the information in the newsletter.

Have a lovely weekend.

Welcome to this week’s newsletter.

On Monday we were fortunate to have a visit from an external music teacher who ran a string instrument taster session for our students. This proved very popular and you can read more about this further in the newsletter. There is also information on how your child can sign up for regular string lessons. Thank you to Mrs Peckham for making this happen.

On Thursday 45 students from years 8 and 9 attended the Mandarin Study Day at the BFI in London. A comment was made by one of the organisers – “your students are lovely”. Mr Briscoe was extremely proud of the way our students followed instructions, behaved safely and conducted themselves for the duration of a long and tiring day. They really engaged and contributed considerably and by far the best behaved school group at the event.

Our Pathways Assemblies for year 9 students start next week. They will have three assemblies in the coming weeks and they are an introduction to the new subjects on offer at key stage 4. On wednesday next week they will be hearing about what it would be like to study business studies, sport BTEC, computer science and BTEC digital information technology.This is a very important time for year 9 as the subject they select are the subjects they will be studying for GCSE and their final exams in year 11. There will be a Pathways information evening for students and parents/carers after half term. This information will be sent out at a later date.

Next week we will be sending out an email with links for parents/carers of students in year 11 to book in for the virtual parents’ evening on Wednesday 8 February. Please look out for this as it’s an opportunity for parents/carers to discuss their child’s progress with their individual subject teachers. We are hoping to hold a ‘How to help your child revise’ evening where we can show you all the opportunities available to support meaningful revision.

Online safety is really important for everyone but especially important for our young people. There are many many resources available online, and we have a page of our website dedicated to digital safety, as well as another page for safeguarding children in general. Please take a look and look at the links resources available as it may help you support your child and help them to be as safe as possible.

I mentioned last week how important good attendance is. Whole school attendance for this year has dropped from 90.7% last week to 90.3% this week. I mentioned in last week’s assembly how impressed I was with attendance in year 11. Unfortunately there has been a drop this week. The average year to date for year 11 is also 90.3%. This equates to them on average having one day off a fortnight. This would not be acceptable attendance in a workplace. Best attendance year to date is in year 9 at 92.1%. We are asking for your help in developing a habit of good attendance in our students. School is our students’ first and most important job. Students are learning how to show up for school on time every day, so that when they leave school and get a job, they will know how to show up for work on time every day.

As you are aware our website has been updated and now has a section on careers where we add all our careers related news. Please take a look at https://iwef.org.uk/iwef/careers/

Have a lovely weekend.