Dear Parent/Carer
I hope this email finds you and your family well? I wanted to get in contact as we reach the half term break to celebrate another fantastic half term in school and update you on some key areas of school life:
Attendance – “Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow”
Thank you for your support ensuring your child attends school every day. Our attendance as a school is still lower than normal and we are having a big push with students to remind them that attending every day matters so much for their long-term success in school. Research has shown that attendance has a huge impact on what students can achieve, because every lesson is a building block and missed learning can cause a real issue. We will continue to put new strategies in place over the next term to drive improved attendance.
Please can we also remind you that to report your child’s (in Years 7-11) absence, please telephone 01535 632 861 and select option 1. Please note that this is now the only way parents / carers can report a student absence.
When calling, please clearly state the following information:
- Your parental responsibility
- Your child’s full name
- Your child’s coaching group
- The reason for your child’s absence.
Apex Collaborative Trust
Our first big collaborative event as a Trust was on Monday 5 January, when all the schools met at South Craven for our Trust Development Day. The day was a big success with all staff getting together to learn about the benefits of trust collaboration from experts and develop action plans to ensure our students, staff and community benefit from working together and sharing best practice.
This work was focussed on our Trust values of Ambition, Collaboration and Trust.
Standards
The half term has been another real success - effort levels in class, behaviour during social times and punctuality to lessons have all been excellent. Our key statistics are so positive with 370,172 merits awarded for outstanding work and only 21,431 behaviour sanctions since September.
Please ensure that you have signed up to the ClassCharts parent app to see your child’s merits and behaviour record as well as picking up important information about fixtures, in-house events, and to give consent for trips. The ClassCharts Parent app can be downloaded from the app store on Apple or Android, or you can login online at www.classcharts.com/parent/login.
For login/password/registration problems, please contact ITSupport@southcraven.org with your name, your child’s name and your child’s Date of Birth.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
At South Craven, we are committed to ensuring that our school community is a place where everyone feels valued, respected, and represented.
As part of our ongoing work to strengthen Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across all areas of school life, we would like to invite parents and carers to share their thoughts and suggestions on how we can continue to develop this important work. Your views are vital in helping us create an environment where every student can thrive.
If you would like to contribute or offer feedback, please contact Mrs Crowther: c.crowther@southcraven.org
Student Leadership
At South Craven School, we believe that student voice is central to creating a positive and successful school community. By giving students meaningful opportunities to share their views and contribute to school life, we help them develop confidence, responsibility and important life skills.
Our Student Leadership programme allows pupils to take an active role in shaping their school experience through a range of dedicated groups: Mental Health & SAFE, Enrichment & Events, Reading, Anti-Bullying and Charity. Whether supporting wellbeing initiatives, organising events, promoting literacy, leading campaigns, fundraising or championing inclusion, students make a genuine contribution while developing teamwork, communication and resilience.
As part of the programme, students work towards the South Craven Student Leadership Award. Through projects and challenges within their chosen group, they build key leadership skills and have their commitment formally recognised.
We are proud to offer these opportunities, which enrich school life while supporting students’ personal growth and preparation for the future.
Meet the Teacher Events
Our recent Year 9 Meet the Teacher event was a really busy and successful event and I want to thank parents for the positive feedback we’ve received. We are looking forward to welcoming Year 8 parents into school to meet their child’s subject teachers and coach on Wednesday 25 February 2026.
Car Parking
We are, once again, asking our parents to be considerate to other members of the public whilst collecting their children from school. I have had contact from residents on Fieldhead Drive and Cross Hills Medical Practice and I am passing on the following message from them.
Please ensure that you do not block other residents drives whilst parking especially at the Fieldhead Drive entrance and that you do not park in the Cross Hills Group Practice and The Brace Place car parks when picking students up at the end of the school day.
Please can we also remind parents, that to ensure student safety, if they are dropping their children off at school, that they must drive round and stop on the bus circle and not stop on the small roundabout.
SAFE
As part of our SAFE (Supportive Action For Everyone) agenda, we would like to make parents and carers aware of 'sextortion,' a type of blackmail typically used against young people.
It involves someone demanding money (or another payment method) and threatening to share sexual imagery if payment is not given.
3G Pitch petition at Colne Park High School
South Craven students have greatly benefitted from our all-weather sports pitch over the last few years which has allowed them to improve their sports skills and performance during the wetter months and ensure many tournaments and events can take place for the school and our local community.
Our trust partner school, Colne Park High, are currently applying to install a new all-weather pitch facility for their school and community and would like any support that they can get to make it happen. Please click on the link below to sign this petition.
This is South Craven. This is Me.
As well as our many thriving sport teams, numerous after school and lunchtime revision sessions and activity clubs, we have also offered the following:
- Careers Café with Nelson and Colne College - Year 10 students learned about career pathways in hairdressing.
- Year 9 French, German and Spanish students attended a talk with Leeds University Outreach, learning about the benefits of learning a language, careers and university life.
- Year 9 band 'The Broken Compasses' won the Red Kite Battle of the Bands at The Wardrobe in Leeds
- 'Be What You See' active bystander training with a group of students from all years as part of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
- Mock Results Morning – Where Year 11 students got to celebrate all their successes and hard work and focus on areas to improve as they move towards their final exams.
- Sixth Form students attended an Employability Masterclass with Kaplan UK
- Shakespeare Schools Festival workshop with our cast of 'The Winter's Tale' (they will be performing on 17 March - tickets are available through the Leeds Playhouse website)
- Careers Café with Jet2 - students learned about the variety of career opportunities available
- Year 13 Performance Showcase, where our Year 13 Musical Theatre, Dance and Acting students performed versions of Wizard of Oz, Billy Elliott and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to a live audience.
- Year 11 and 13 Employer mock interviews took place yesterday, where local employers and apprenticeship providers put our students through an interview process to prepare them for future challenge.
Good luck to the Ski Trip to New Hampshire in the USA, which leaves on Saturday 14 February.
Next Half Term
School closes today at 3:05pm and reopens to all students on Monday 23 February. Next half term will be busy as always with various events to look forward to including:
- Wednesday 25 February – Year 8 options talk / Meet the teacher event – 4pm – 7:30pm
- Week Commencing 2 March – National Careers Week
- Wednesday 18 March – Year 10 Parents’ consultation evening – 4pm – 8pm.
- Thursday 26 March – Year 13 Parents’ information evening – 6pm start
And Finally...
As always, I want to thank parents for their strong support of the school, and I hope you have a great half term.
Please get in touch if you have any feedback about any aspect of school life.
All the best,
Martyn Hill
Headteacher
