Friday 30th November 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians

Mrs Amanda Ryan

Numeracy Ninjas

of the week

Well done, keep up

the great work!

Jodie Harding 7SAC

Daniel Proctor 8JM

Ryan Jones 8MW

Top Attenders

(Week

Commencing

19.11.18)

7KP

8MW

9TH

10HH

11SE & 11JN

I hope parents enjoy reading the newsletter every week, but this week's is particularly important. On Monday we launched our new system of coding behaviour to ensure we further raise standards and expectations. This system sees pupils receive a number which reflects their attitude and behaviour in every lesson. Achieving at least a 'good' which is coded as a 2 in every lesson is what we expect from all pupils. Any pupil whose behaviour is a 'serious cause for concern' will be given a 4 and they may be removed from their lessons for the remainder of the day. We believe this system will allow our pupils to get on with their learning, without them being distracted by the poor behaviour of a very small number of pupils. It will also allow us to celebrate the good and outstanding behaviour and attitude the majority of our pupils show in every lesson. Please read the full article inside this week's newsletter and support us by asking your child about the numbers they have received during the day. It was a pleasure to attend the Educate Awards with colleagues from our fantastic Art and Design Technology faculty. I was extremely proud that our Arts Exhibition and the fantastic work of our pupils was recognised at these awards. We were also honoured that our school choir was asked to perform at Sefton Star Awards. This event recognises the achievement of employees of Sefton Council and by all accounts when our choir performed their 'disco' hits it went down very well with the audience. Well done to all our singers. A big well done to Owen Davies on passing his first ABRSM exam in Jazz Trumpet. Well done Owen, I'm very proud of you.

Behaviour Coding - Raising Standards and Expectations at Hillside

At Hillside we strongly believe that every pupil has the right to learn and every teacher has the right to teach. Over the past few weeks we have been aware of a small number of pupils in some lessons that have been causing some disruption to teaching and learning and this is simply not good enough for our pupils.

On Monday 26th November I delivered a special assembly to all year groups about a new system for recording and monitoring behaviour at Hillside. I would like to share this information with parents/guardians in this article.

Every lesson, each pupil will be issued a number on the register in SIMS. This number indicates their attitude and behaviour during that lesson:

1= Outstanding: Expected behaviour, followed ‘The Hillside Way’ and has gone above and beyond.

2= Good: Followed ‘The Hillside Way ‘throughout the lesson.

3= Improvement required: As the pupil has not demonstrated one or more aspects of ‘The Hillside Way’

4= Serious cause for concern: Not demonstrated ‘The Hillside Way’ in a serious manner, disrupting teaching and learning.

Please see below the image of ‘The Hillside Way’ that I am sure all parents/guardians are aware of:

If a pupil receives a 4 for a lesson then a member of Senior Staff, or a Progress Leader, will come and talk to the pupil about this and then they may be removed from lessons for the rest of the day. The teacher who input the 4 for the lesson will make contact with home in order to discuss this further and make a plan moving forward.

During the course of a lesson pupils will be given the opportunity to ‘fix’ their behaviour and each member of staff will follow a series of steps/consequences to support pupils in addressing their behaviour. If the pupil does not choose to amend their behaviour the teacher may call for a member of Senior Staff and again this may result in the pupil being removed from all lessons.

The series of steps/consequences are outlined below for information:

What will happen if you don’t meet expected standards – what is the consequence?

C1 - First verbal warning, name on the board and pupil aware of why. E.g. ‘XXXX you are still talking over me, that is your first warning' or could be about the level of work they are producing.

C2 - Second warning, pupil moved seats.

C3 -Teacher speaks to pupil at the classroom door.

C4 –After the conversation with the teacher, the pupil will be given one more chance, if behaviour doesn’t change, a member of SLT will be called and the pupil will be removed from the lesson.

In extreme cases where pupils then fail to cooperate with the member of Senior Staff the most likely outcome would be a Fixed Term Exclusion, and for pupils who persistently breach the school’s behaviour policy then they would be at risk of permanent exclusion.

For the majority of pupils they have nothing to worry about and we look forward to recognising the positives and rewarding those pupils who regularly receive ‘1’s’ for their lessons. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this article please contact your child’s Progress Leader or Mrs Cross Assistant Vice Principal, Pastoral.

Mrs Cross

Mr Doran’s Mind-Blowing Maths Challenge:

Educate Awards

Well what an evening! The Anglican Cathedral was a truly spectacular setting for the Educate Awards and Hillside's Art and Design Technology Faculty were rightly proud and excited to be taking part. The splendour of the cathedral truly reflected the splendour of the occasion and we all took a moment to think of the craftsmen and women whose design and technical skills had created such a masterpiece.

Who knows - perhaps we have a pupil working away on his or her art and design technology work at the moment who will go on to create something as beautiful as the Anglican cathedral. The standard of work from our pupils would certainly suggest so, and it was right and proper that Mr Smith, Miss Martin, Miss Murphy and Mrs Devine received the award for their part in bringing out the creative excellence of our pupils.

Mrs Daly

Year 8 musician Owen Davies recently passed his

first ABRSM music exam, Jazz Trumpet grade 1. Well done!

Dates for the Diary

Year 11 Parent Event—Success 3rd December 2018 In EBACC: 5.45pm Christmas Lunch: 19th December 2018 Christmas Performance 19th December 2018 ‘A Christmas Carol’ 6.30pm End of Term: 21st December 2018 Start of Term: 7th January 2018 Year 11 Predictor Exams: 14th—25th January 2018

Thought for the Week

Mrs Cross

Mental Health

This week we would like to raise the topic of mental health and wellbeing. We are really pleased to have secured some staff training and a visiting speaker for pupils in terms of mental health. The visitor is coming into school on 16th January from the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust. In the meantime please read the information below and if you are concerned about a young person, in terms of their mental health, please contact one of our safeguarding team for advice.

For young people

Young people can experience a range of mental health problems. Childhood and teenage years are a time when you are usually changing rapidly and developing all the time. Also you often have to cope with many different situations and unfamiliar challenges such as exams, relationships and the other pressures of growing up. While its often possible to talk to parents or carers about feelings, you may find it hard to do so. You might express how you feel through being moody, getting in trouble at school or at home or by becoming angry easily. Some people also get odd aches and pains that can happen when you’re not able to say what you’re feeling. If you’re able to carry on your usual life and don’t experience lasting unpleasant feelings, the best help is for parents, relatives or friends to be available to listen, to talk things through and to support you where they can. More rarely, you may experience difficulties that are more severe or long lasting, or you may find yourself reacting to setbacks in a more extreme way. You may tell parents or friends that you are distressed or unable to cope, or you may try to hint that you are and hope they speak to you. This can lead to the support you want. Often though, you may find that you show distress through acting differently, with more intense moods or behaviour, either at home, at school, or with friends. Occasionally, your feelings or mood may be so extreme or upsetting that you need urgent help. If you’re self-harming, running away, or saying you no longer want to go on living then you may need immediate support. If this sort of feeling continues for some time it is a particular clue that you might need to look to get help to cope with your mental health.

Childline 0800 1111 childline.org.uk Free 24-hour helpline for children and young people. NSPCC helpline (adults): 0800 800 5000 helpline (children and young people): 0800 1111 help@nspcc.org.uk nspcc.org.uk Specialises in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children.

© Mind. This information is published in full at mind.org.uk

Samaritans 24-hour helpline: 116 123 (freephone) jo@samaritans.org samaritans.org Freepost RSRB-KKBY-CYJK, Chris, PO Box 90 90, Stirling, FK8 2SA. Emotional support for anyone feeling down, experiencing distress or struggling to cope.