Newsletter, 20th November 2022

Good afternoon,

I hope that you and your family are well. It has been a very busy two weeks since I last wrote a newsletter, and there has been much to celebrate and report.

Year 11 Mock Exams

Thank you and well done to our amazing Year 11 students who worked tremendously hard in their mock exams last week. For some students there were two or three exams every day, with students sitting difficult past-papers from previous exam seasons. Teachers are now working hard to mark these papers and offer feedback to their students in class, before sharing the grades achieved during Period 6 on Wednesday 14th December. While we won't know how well students have performed for a little while, the excellent attitude to learning demonstrated by students and the excellent attendance from Year 11s during last week shows us that they are determined to be successful in this most important of years. 

Kooth: Mental Health Support for Young People

Here at Westfield School we have invested a lot into supporting our students' mental health - in the past three years we have appointed a School Counsellor and a Wellbeing Co-ordinator. However, our capacity to support our students with their mental health is always stretched, and we know that there are long waits for support from agencies such as CAMHS. This week we were visited in school by colleagues from the organisation Kooth, who delivered training to our teaching staff and shared details of the free online support available to all young people. We would encourage any students or parents/carers who are interested in the support Kooth can offer to visit their website at kooth.com. We will have a strong focus on mental health across the school in January and February, and look forward to welcoming colleagues from Kooth back into school to work directly with our students at that time. 

Parent Governor Election

Earlier this week we notified all parents and carers of an exciting opportunity that has arisen to join the Westfield School Local Governing Body as a parent governor.  If you would like the chance to make a positive difference to the school by applying for this voluntary post, and you haven’t received the Weduc message/email sent on Monday 14 November, you can find the details and apply at www.westfield-chorustrust.org/governance.

Sports Hall Athletics

Thank you to our fantastic team of Sports Leaders who ran an excellent Sports Hall Athletics event for children from our local primary schools last Friday. We received incredibly positive feedback from the children and their teachers. Our Sports Leaders are the most positive of role-models for the Westfield students of the future! Well done everyone!

Idling Engine: School drop-off and pick-up

It is now the time of year when parents and carers are more likely to bring their cars to school to drop off and collect children. This is perfectly understandable given the very wet weather we're currently experiencing. A number of local residents have contacted me to ask that any parents/carers using local streets to wait for their children are conscious of turning off their car engines whilst waiting. We appreciate your support with this matter. 

Respectful Communications

We enjoy excellent relationships with parents/carers of our students and recognise the importance of these relationships in ensuring our students make great progress. Unfortunately, on occasions recently a number of our colleagues, particularly those who work on reception, have been spoken to rudely and aggressively by a very small minority of adults that have contacted or been contacted by school. This is something we cannot tolerate - please be reminded that all colleagues in our school deserve to be treated with respect and politeness at all times. 

Year 10 Good Food Show

A number of our Year 10 catering students will enjoy a trip to the 'Good Food Show' next week. We look forward to hearing about their experiences when they return, no doubt full of inspiration and ideas regarding careers in the restaurant and catering industry!

 

With many thanks for your continued excellent support,

Joe Birkbeck

Head of Westfield School