17^th February 2022

Dear parents and carers,

As this half term draws to a close, I would like to remind you that students are not expected into school on Friday 18^th February as this is a training day for staff.  We look forward to welcoming students back to school on Monday 28^th February.  I would ask for your support in ensuring that your child arrives promptly at 8.45am, otherwise they will be given lunch time detentions with Progress Leaders at the end of each week.

May I also remind you of our uniform policy which requires knee length skirts, no piercings other than one pair of stud ear rings and no false or acrylic nails/nail varnish or false eyelashes.  The full policy can be found on our website http://www.blaconhighschool.net/school-uniform/  I remind you of this to avoid the need for us to contact you about uniform when we return.

The Government have provided food vouchers of £35 to cover half term and so parents with children eligible for free school meals will receive a text message with a link, in the usual way this week.

There have been some fantastic achievements from students since January, with Years 10 and 11 performing at the Shakespeare in Schools Festival on Tuesday, boys and girls playing football matches both home and away, involvement in Diversity workshops, Business students raising money to develop entrepneurial skills and over 120 students being recognised for their achievements in our reward assemblies each day this week. We have enjoyed meeting parents for Progress Evenings in Years 7 and 11 and feedback on the online system has been positive.  It has been great to have parents back in school and we look forward to being able to do this much more again, as Covid restrictions are expected to be lifted in the weeks ahead. At the moment, we encourage students to continue with the twice weekly testing, with further tests being distributed today.  Following the announcement last week that Year 11 will be sitting examinations this summer, we are now working hard with students to prepare them for the summer.

For three mornings this week, we have delivered breakfast to every tutor group and asked tutors to discuss the behaviours linked to our three core values of respect, relationships and resilience along with a discussion over expectations linked to behaviour out of lessons.  This has been to support mental health and well-being and to give students an opportunity to come together each morning and have a breakfast discussion.  This piece of work from student voice across the whole school, will be used to remind students of these core values and behaviours after half term.

May I thank you for your support, as always and wish you a restful half term.

Regards,

Rachel Hudson

Headteacher