Headteachers Letter Feb 1st 2019

Dear Parents and Carers,

At the same time that you receive this bulletin, you will also receive a letter to begin a consultation on the structure of the school day from September. Please take time to read that letter and let me know your thoughts via the dedicated email address: consultation@samuelward.co.uk. Important Change to Term Dates This Year The new building is progressing according to schedule and we’re looking forward to moving into it over the Easter holiday. Moving an entire school is a big job, and we’ve already started clearing out and packing away. To ensure a smooth transition, we will close the school to students at lunchtime on the last day of this term, Friday 5 April, so that teachers have the rest of that afternoon to finish packing their classrooms and offices. Because A and B blocks will be demolished, there must be absolutely nothing left behind.   The job of actually transporting the contents will be done by a removal firm over the holiday, but we won’t be able to get in and unpack until they have vacated the site - the start of the next term. This means that we have no alternative but to close the school to students on Tuesday 23 April to give us a chance to unpack, set up classrooms, check the computer networks and registers and all the other things that will enable us to open the school safely the following day, Wednesday 24 April. We are reluctant to lose a day of lessons for those students who are so close to their exams, but there is really no other safe option. We will, however, offer an alternative to timetabled lessons for Years 11 and 13. Neither the history nor the geography departments are affected by the move, so we will run revision sessions for both subjects on that morning. We will also open the sixth form building for Year 13 students to study independently on that day. I will give you the details of those arrangements closer to the time. The new approach to recognising good behaviour is working well. Since the start of this term, 94% of the points we have recorded have been positive.
They are made up as follows:

All of these behaviour points, positive and negative, are recorded live on Go4Schools so you can log in at any time to see how many points your children have been awarded and by whom. You need to scroll to the bottom of the page. Year 11 have begun their second round of Mock Exams with a really encouraging attitude. As I said last time, although this is a big investment of time, the benefits are significant. The more time students spend in an exam environment, the more we take any fear and anxiety out of that situation. Students are able to build up the stamina they will need for the summer series of GCSEs. The mocks also give us crucial information about exactly what we need to help students within the last few months of their GCSE courses.   Next week is National Internet Safety Week. We’ll be running assemblies for all year groups during the week, and in addition, Years 8 and 9 will have presentations and workshops with Suffolk Police There are some good resources for parents/carers to access to work with their child to help them have a positive and safe time when online: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2019/education-
packs/activities-parents-and-carers Thank you to all of those Year 9 parents who attended our options evening this week. We felt it was a very successful event. The options forms will be given out this week and are due back on Friday 8th February. Another reminder for Year 9 parents is about the Year 9 Out to Work day which will take place on Wednesday 27 March. The idea is that students shadow a parent or other nominated person during a regular day at work to gain experience in the working environment. Forms have been sent out and are due to be returned by 15 February. Students in Year 10 will be having Mock Interviews on Weds 27 March.  In preparation for those interviews, they will need to have completed a CV which should be handed in by 25 February. The next Parents’ Forum meeting will be on Wednesday 6 February at 6.00pm in the canteen. Everyone is welcome. I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Andy Hunter
Headteacher