Dear Parents

On behalf of the whole Secondary team, I am delighted to extend a very warm welcome to you and your children to, what I know is going to be, a very exciting year. I feel hugely privileged to be leading the Secondary School, and am very pleased to be supported by two Deputy Heads, Mr Howard and Ms Camargo, as well as experienced and dedicated teams of Curriculum Leaders, Year Leaders and teachers. The whole team is excited about working with your children, building on the strong academic results our students have achieved at IGCSE and IB this year, as well as developing their wider skills through an extensive range of opportunities in sports, in the arts and in service.

I am sure that you will agree that effective communication between home and school is one of the best ways to support students, and I hope that you will find the information below useful as we start the new year. I will be writing to you throughout the year, but some of your most important sources of information will be as follows:

• Fortnightly newsletters from year leaders – these will be distributed every other Friday, beginning Friday 28 August, and will share with you some of the exciting events and activities that the year group have been involved in, as well as giving you information about upcoming events and activities for the year group, and for you as parents. An introductory letter from your child’s Year Leader accompanies this letter.

• Curriculum overviews for each subject in each year group are currently being prepared, and we plan to have these finalised and on the website for you to access at your convenience within the next few weeks – I will let you know once these are available.

• Your child’s planner will give you an insight into the work they are doing, and the homework they are being set, and we ask that you review and sign this on a weekly basis.

On Monday, students will spend the first two lessons with their form tutor, who will guide them through their timetable, homework timetable, arrange lockers and also give them the opportunity to get to know the other students in the group, assigning buddies to new students. Students should wear the summer uniform (no blazers, but they may wear their school jumpers or cardigans if they wish). Long hair should be tied back, jewellery should be minimal and discreet, and any make up worn should look natural. Further details of our uniform guidelines are available on the school website. Could I also ask that returning students gather up any text books or library books that they may still have from last year and bring these with them on Monday?

Co-curricular activities will begin on 7 September and students will have the opportunity to sign up for these. Further information regarding sports teams will be available from Mr Wallace, Director of Sport, and information regarding the instrumental music programme will follow shortly from our new Director of Music and the Arts, Mr Bailey.

A common question from parents is ‘Who should I contact?’. The first point of contact for straightforward issues should be your child’s form tutor – if you need to let us know that your child will be absent for example, then please email the tutor. For subject specific issues, please contact your child’s subject teacher, for example, if you have a query regarding maths, please contact your child’s maths teacher. For wider issues, then the Year Leader

 

 

should be your point of contact. If you do contact the wrong person, don’t worry, we will make sure that we redirect your query to the right person.

Another common question from parents is regarding assessments and setting. In years 8 to 11, students are placed into sets for the core subjects of Maths, English, Science and Mandarin based on prior performance, whether here or at another school, and there will be three key assessment periods during the year when we will review the setting based on common assessments for students in years 7 through to 10 – in mid-November, early March and mid-June (with mock exams in late November/December for year 11). For year 7, details of how students will be placed into sets at the start of the year are included in the year group information. Much more information regarding this process, and the exact dates of the key assessment periods will be shared with you at the Meet and Greet event on Tuesday 8 September.

I hope that this letter has answered many of your initial questions, and that you and your child/ren are looking forward to the year ahead. We look forward to meeting you at the Meet and Greet event on Tuesday 8 September (or at the IB Induction evening for Year 12 parents on Tuesday 25 August).

With kindest regards

Dinah Hawtree

Head of Secondary