Dear Parent/Carer
I hope this email finds you and your family well and that you had a fantastic summer?
It has been a really positive start to the school year at South Craven and I wanted to get in touch to celebrate this and let you know some key information for the term.
Uniform
I would like to thank parents and carers for their support with the new uniform changes we implemented for this year. It was lovely to see our students coming in to school this week with smiles on their faces, looking smart and ready to learn. We would like to continue to have your support in making sure your child has the correct uniform, in particular school trousers. We understand the challenges of finding suitable trousers, but would like to reiterate that they should be tailored and not cropped, leggings or look like leggings. As stated in the uniform policy, if socks are visible, they must be fully black.
Our summer uniform shop was a real success. I want to thank everyone once again who donated clothing and supported the school community. Hundreds of parents came in during the day and benefitted from the uniform we had available. There are still a number of uniform items available, so if there is something you still need please contact uniformsupport@southcraven.org and we will do our best to help you.
Enrichment Activities
Once again, this year there will be a huge range of enrichment activities provided in school for all students to be involved in. These activities will be promoted with the students in the next week or so and parents will also receive the information too. Please encourage your child to get involved in at least one activity per week (Merits will now be awarded to students who attend) so they can broaden their horizons, meet new friends and make the most of what the school has to offer.
Lunchtime
During the summer, school carried out some major improvement works in the Year 10 and 11 social areas. Creating a new food servery and a new outdoor social area so that students can enjoy more food options and have more covered outdoor space to socialise.
During the first couple of days, there has been slightly longer and slower queues due to the changes and increased amount of food choices. We will continue to review these changes as the term progresses.
Year 7 students have enjoyed an early lunch this week and have made a brilliant start. From Monday, Year 7 will revert to the normal lunchtime start and this will mean that the queues may feel longer and be more of a surprise for them initially. However, it will not take long for things to settle down, so please reassure them (as we will too) that the queues do move quickly and there will be plenty of food for them.
One way that helps the queues move really quickly is for parents to ensure that students leave in the morning with their payment card and with sufficient money on their accounts as these issues can really slow things down.
School Term Dates
Below is a link to the school term dates for this year for your information.
We will soon be sending a copy of the parent handbook to all parents which will contain all the key information parents/carers need for the year.
Attendance and Punctuality
The Department for Education states that full attendance is expected at school so that students can achieve their potential. However, we understand that at times your child may be unwell or there may be exceptional family circumstances. Please ensure that you contact the attendance line as soon as possible if you know that your child will not be in school.
“Attend today, achieve tomorrow” is our new initiative with students, where we focus on the importance and benefits of good attendance. Students who miss significant periods of school miss out on important teaching and learning and this can harm their progress. Term time holidays are not permitted and the local authority may choose to pursue any unauthorised absences.
Alongside attendance, punctuality plays another important role in ensuring that our students are able to learn successfully. Arriving into school and being in their form rooms for 8:25am, means they take part in key personal development time in the morning. To improve our communication with home regarding punctuality, you will be notified via ClassCharts if your child has arrived late to school. They will either receive a ‘Late to School’ sanction or a ‘Late to School (Valid Reason)’ comment depending on the reason for being late. We hope that this will improve our students’ punctuality and ensure that they are in school on time.
If you have any concerns or need to support with school attendance, please contact the attendance line of your child’s Head of Year.
Class Charts
Thank you to the parents who completed the Class Charts questionnaire in July. Your input has been valuable and allowed us to make some changes to how we use the system.
We believe that working collaboratively with parents and carers will give students the best chance of success, therefore please can I ask you to ensure that you log into Class Charts regularly and monitor your child’s progress. One of the benefits of using Class Charts is that we share key information with you in real time.
If you are unsure of your log in details, please contact itsupport@southcraven.org.
Key Events this Half Term
This half term is packed full of important events. I have listed them below for your diaries. Full details will be sent to the relevant parents about each of these events.
- 14 September – Year 12 Parent Information Evening – 6pm start
- 21 September – Year 13 Parent Consultation Evening – 4pm start
- 27 September – Year 7 Induction Evening – 6pm start
- 11 October – Year 11 Progression Morning
- 23 October – Year 11and 13 SPM reports issued
- 25 October – Year 11 Parent Consultation Evening – 4pm start
- 27 October – Staff training day. School will be closed to all students on this day.
And Finally...
The students in all year groups have made a great start to the school year. It is so lovely to see them looking smart, smiling and getting stuck into their lessons with such enthusiasm. Our staff have already awarded 3,607 merits to students for excellent work and there has only been a handful of behavioural incidents to deal with. I am looking forward to a very successful year, building on the big impact of our teaching and learning principles in the classroom and continuing to increase student involvement in the wide range of enrichment activities we offer.
I would like to thank you in advance for all the support you offer the school as parents and I look forward to seeing you in school at some point during the year.
All the best,
Martyn Hill
Headteacher
