January 2013 Newsletter 11

11 January 2013 Dear Parents and Carers Happy New Year to you all. I hope you enjoyed a restful break over the Christmas...

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11 January 2013 Dear Parents and Carers Happy New Year to you all. I hope you enjoyed a restful break over the Christmas period. Year 11 GCSE and Mock Exams: As I mentioned in my letter prior to the Christmas break, our Year 11 students were expecting their GCSE Maths results this week. I am pleased to say that the results are in and are even better than expected. 53% of our students achieved A*-C on this early entry and this is 10% higher than last summer’s results already. It is extremely reassuring to see that many of the new strategies we have put in place in Maths have had an impact on our students’ achievements. Our Maths Subject Leader, Mrs Robinson, has written to all Year 11 parents with the ‘next steps’ for those students who have achieved their target grades and those who are not there just yet. I have sent the results on to our Lead Ofsted Inspector as promised and he has congratulated the school, and hopefully on his next visit he will be able to recognise that we are making progress within the ‘Achievement’ area. I must also say congratulations to the Maths team for their efforts in supporting the students in their exams. There are other, smaller GCSE exams that some of the Year 11 are taking that started this week along with their mock exams. Timetables for the mock exams have been sent out with students and are also available via our website. Punctuality: Starting this week we are looking carefully at students’ punctuality to school and lessons. For the vast majority of our students punctuality is not an issue and is an excellent habit to be in, and one that we know employers value. Poor punctuality is judged along with attendance and significant lateness can result in unauthorised absent marks, which can result in Fixed Penalty Notices. There are occasions when lateness is out of a student’s control, but this should not be on a regular basis. If students are late 3 times within a half-term they will receive a one hour detention. We will however, be rewarding those students whose punctuality is consistently good in a similar way to how we recognise and reward attendance. I have been sharing with students this week through assemblies, why punctuality is important and how they can plan to try and avoid being late. I ask for parents to support us in our drive to ensure that students not only attend, but also are at school on time. Morning registration starts at 9.00 a.m. so students will need to be in school for 8.55 a.m. We will be carefully monitoring punctuality to both morning and afternoon registration, as well as to lessons. Parents can see their child’s attendance and punctuality on INSIGHT, our online reporting tool for parents. If you have misplaced or not received your login, please contact the school office and they will contact the ICT team to have a new login sent out to you.

Year 7-10 Parents Evenings: Parents Evenings for students in Years 7 to 10 are taking place this term, the dates are below. Your child can make appointments with their teachers using the appropriate page in their Student Planner. If you have any concerns about appointments being made please contact your child’s Pastoral Manager in the first instance. Important Dates: Year 10 Parents Evening Year 9 Parents Evening Spring Half-Term Holiday Year 8 Parents Evening INSET 4 – School Closed Year 7 Parents Evening Finish for Easter Holiday

4.30-7 p.m. Thursday 17 January 2013 4.30-7 p.m. Thursday 7 February 2013 Monday 18 – Friday 22 February 2013 4.30-7 p.m. Thursday 28 February 2013 Friday 8 March 2013 4.30-7 p.m. Thursday 21 March 2013 1 p.m. Thursday 28 March 2013

If you have any questions about your son/daughter’s education please do not hesitate to contact the school immediately. Thank you for your continued support of Wellfield. I am extremely positive that 2013 will be a successful year and take us further towards our vision to be an outstanding school for our students. Yours sincerely

Mr P Tolson Headteacher