Dear Parents  

Thank you for your support of your child and us since our return to school.

Since we have returned to school we have held assemblies with all students in Years 7 – 13 and spoken to students about the importance of kindness to and about each other, as well as keeping themselves safe at and outside school – and online! We will return to these themes throughout the school year. 

Lunchtime and after school clubs are now up and running, and we are offering 37 different club activities. Please encourage your daughter or son to join a club, as these enrichment activities are both really enjoyable and helpful to students’ development.  

School trips are now taking place beyond our beautiful local area and our first residential trip since before the pandemic leaves school for the weekend this afternoon. We hope the Year 11 and 10 students enjoy the revision and activity weekend away! 

We have started back up our loans system for IT equipment. If you would like your child to borrow a laptop (or for Years 11 & 13 a webcam for Live Online after school revision sessions) please make your request to office@brockhill.kent.sch.uk and we will be pleased to help. Our technicians will work to meet requests just as quickly as they can, but this may take a few days. 

We continue to use Google classroom to set homework assignments for students and teachers have explained Google Classroom to our new Year 7 students Using Google Classroom for Students 

We have reviewed our and parent use of Google Classroom and have withdrawn the weekly guardian summary. Instead, we will move to a simple text system later this half-term, where we just send an SMS message if a student has not submitted homework, even after a deadline extension. We hope the texts enable a dialogue between at home about Homework and between school and parents where helpful.  

Some students can actually devote too much time to Homework, particularly when they join secondary school in Year 7, and we rely very much on parents to keep a careful eye here and let us know if they have any concerns. Please see our homework durations aide memoir to teachers, which sets out expectations for homework set in each subject.  

Student well-being and welfare will be our priority with students this year, and we have today appointed a Personal Well-being Coordinator with effect from November to support Mr. Simpson and Ms. Meurice, who lead on this aspect of our work. 

Yours sincerely 

Charles Joseph

Principal