Head's Newsletter

Good afternoon,

I hope that you and your families are well and that your child has enjoyed the first two weeks back at school. By this stage of the year most students have met all their teaches and experienced all of their subjects. Our Year 7 students are becoming much more adept at navigating the building and our Year 11s are getting used to the routine of period 6 lessons to support them with their preparations for summer exams.

ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES

A highlight of this week for me was seeing the huge numbers of students who have stayed after school to take part in the various clubs we offer. Wednesday afternoon was particularly busy. See below an overview of the clubs that are already on offer. More opportunities in range of other subject areas will be available as the year progresses, and I will share these additional opportunities with parents/carers via my regular newsletters:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Before school			Table Tennis (All years)	Badminton (All years)	‘This Girl Can’ (All Years)
After school	Rugby (Y7, Y8, Y9)   Netball (All years)   Drama (All years)	Badminton (All years)	Boys football (All years)   Dance (All years)	Girls Football (All years)   Fitness club (All years)

 

In addition, students in Year 9 can sign up to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme which is being led by Mr Lucas. Any interested Year 9 students should see Mr Lucas in school. We plan to run this programme on an annual basis from now on.

 

YEAR 11 REPORTS

Parents/carers of students in Year 11 will have received via Weduc their reports last week which detailed how their child is progressing in their various subjects, as well as the mock exam grades they achieved at the end of Year 10. There will two opportunities for parents/carers of Year 11 students to meet teachers at parents’ evenings later this year after Year 11 mock exams, however if in the meantime there are any questions/concerns about the progress of your child in their various subjects, please contact your child’s teacher using Weduc.

 

YEAR 6 OPEN EVENING – THURSDAY 23^rd SEPTEMBER

If you have a child in Year 6 you should by now have received a letter informing you about our upcoming open evening and a copy of our prospectus which will have been distributed by your child’s primary school. Please visit our website to book your place at our open evening. Or, if you would prefer to explore our school virtually with your child, please visit our ‘Join Us’ pages.

In addition, teachers will be asking for students from their classes to volunteer to stay in school next Thursday to support the evening and to give our students’ perspective to prospective students and their parents/carers. If your child volunteers to support, they will be issued with a consent form by their teacher that will need to be returned by Thursday. Many thanks in advance for your support with this.

 

SCHOOL DINNERS

A number of students, parents and carers have raised concerns at the start of this term regarding the quality/quantity of food available in our canteen. We are sorry for the poor service some of our students have experienced. We are now working with a new catering manager who is working hard to address the delivery issues and staffing shortages that impacted on the quality of service.

 

With many thanks for your continued support.

Joe Birkbeck

Head of Westfield School