September 29^th 2023

Dear Parents  

Thank you for all your support of your children and of us this week.  

We have been emphasising the importance of punctuality to school in the mornings and of personal organisation in our conversations with students this week. 

As of this morning, teachers had awarded a total of 3 844 Excellent Effort points to students this week to celebrate the effort and commitment of our students.  

We have also received nominations from staff for more than 300 students, who showed commitment to their learning through the completion of assignments over the summer holiday. We are delighted by this and will be sending commendations to parents next week. 

This week has been busy: - Year 9 mathematicians visited Lingfield racecourse, whilst Year 9 volunteers supported the cleaning of the graveyard at Saltwood church. The Army delivered careers talks to Years 10, 11 & 12, and Year 13 students hosted members of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, who addressed them about voter registration. On Thursday, our Sixth Form Dancers visited the Jasmin Vardimon company in Ashford to watch a selection of choreographed pieces. All of Years 11 and 13 Geographers have travelled to Stratford for their Field Work, and our football teams played fixtures against other local schools most evenings this week. This is just a selection! 

Nearly 400 students attended a club last week, and I hope that number has further increased this week. These enrichment activities are both really enjoyable and helpful to students’ development. Please see clubs listed on our website. 

May I draw your attention to the Policies page of our website, where the school’s policies and other statutory information are available for parents. We were quick to adopt the statutory Relationships and Sex Education Policy in 2019 – 20, and we consulted with parents at that time. The policy is very largely unchanged since that time, but if you do have any observations you would like to make about the policy, please let us know by the office email account. All Policies 

We have begun sending simple SMS messages to parents if a student has not submitted homework, even after a deadline extension. We hope texts sent enable a dialogue between at home about Homework and between school and parents where helpful. Please see our homework durations aide memoir to teachers, which sets out expectations for homework in each subject. We offer a Homework club on Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes, in room 71 with Ms Donnelly. 

We want to encourage all our students in Years 7 – 13 to read for pleasure for 20 minutes a day. Students who read daily develop their understanding and achieve so much more highly across their school subjects.  

Digital Library Autumn Term 1st half 2023-2024 

Yours sincerely  

Charles Joseph 

Principal