I hope this letter finds you and your families well at the end of a busy, but ultimately successful, first
half-term of the school year. A Friday update for you as always:
Today is a training day as you know, in case you are interested, teaching staff are carrying out their appraisal, setting two targets linked to their teaching and a departmental priority. I hope that
students are enjoying the extra day of holiday after their first half term back at it.
It was really nice to welcome Year 10 parents and carers into school yesterday for Parents’ Evening
having not seen you in person, for the most part, these past two years. It was nice to meet some
new parents/carers for the first time too. It is clear that Year 10 have begun the year well and are
taking the challenges of their GCSEs very seriously. These evenings are so important as students
receive individualised feedback for each of their subjects, many thanks for your support here.
Looking ahead to the next half term, there will be an opportunity for all parents and carers in years
7-10 to come in with their child on Tutor Parent Day on Friday 12th November. The focus of
the day will be slightly different for each year group, more information to follow after the holiday.
Year 11 will be completing their Autumn exams that week so will be in school for at least one exam.
Our cashless catering system will go live on Monday 1st November; thank you for your
patience whilst we’ve worked to get this up and running. If you haven’t already signed up for your
cashless account please see the accompanying links to help with this process. In order to ensure
everyone has had the opportunity to sign up and resolve any issues, we will continue to take cash for the first week.
There have been five cases of Covid this week set against the backdrop of rising figures locally and nationally. Thank you to the families of those cases, who have been testing so diligently, even when their child was not presenting symptoms. We urge as many families as possible to continue testing over the half term holiday and next half term, so we can try to slow the spread of the virus, thus keeping as many students as possible in school to continue their studies.
I will make a decision about mask wearing, in the first week back, looking carefully at the local data to help inform our decision. Thanks to staff and students for managing the wearing of face coverings so well these past weeks, I recognise it is not an enjoyable experience for any of us.
It was a very successful week for our Year 7 and 8 boys’ football teams who returned victorious from two games each. Year 7 beat South Chingford 8-2 and advanced to the semi-final of the cup
competition with another win against Willowfield 4-1. Year 8 came out on top beating Frederick
Bremer 4-1 and South Chingford in a 4-3 thriller. Well done to all involved.
A reminder that it is a late start for students on Monday 1st November, students should
report to school at 10.40am through their usual gate. This leads them straight into break time
followed by session two as normal.
Finally, congratulations to Shakira Szarlat Grebniew in 7M who amassed the most rewards points this week, an impressive thirty – keep up the good work.
Have a fantastic half term one and all, I hope you manage to have fun as well as some time to rest
and recuperate. Many thanks for your ongoing support.
Yours sincerely
Mr Sam Jones
Headteacher