Thank you to all those students that supported our open evening last night. We had over 400 of our students helping out in so many different ways: tour guides showing visitors around the school; scientists running experiments in the labs; trampoliners and gymnasts practising in the sports hall and gym; musicians playing instruments; and a range of so many other activities. The feedback from visiting families was universally positive, and particularly about our many great tour guides.

Industrial action – Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th July

It is with regret that there will be further disruption to education in the coming week. Members of the National Education Union will not be present for work, in an effort to encourage the Department for Education to address the issues facing schools, including teacher pay and its impact on recruitment of future trainees.

These dates pose problems for us as a school as the first is the Year 6 Induction Day, prearranged over a year ago across all Sutton schools. We had also booked in a careers day with Year 12 students, including a large number of visitors from industry and the world of work and we are working hard to cover these two. We are working on the basis of Year 6 and Year 12 being in school on Wednesday, mainly because we have external presenters and speakers for Year 12. However we will not be able to supervise or educate other year groups and learning will be set online for Year 7 to 10 students on Wednesday 5th July.

On Friday we will continue to host the HPV vaccinations for Year 9 as planned. However, as we have a high proportion of teaching staff who work part time (around one third), many of whom do not work on Fridays, we will not be able to safely supervise, let alone effectively educate, any whole year groups on site. Learning will be set online for students in Years 7 to 10, and in Year 12 where possible on Friday 7th July.

Students of the week

Congratulations to these students below that have embodied all of the values of our school. We are very proud of their achievements. Well done.

Year 7	Year 8	Year 12
Sai / Calum	Callum	Emily / Alex

How to locate your child’s lost property

If your child has lost an item of clothing which is named we will return this to the year team who will return it to the student. However, if it is unnamed then we collect it in one of our stores in the playground which are open at every break and lunchtime. If you are chasing up missing clothing do check with your child whether they have looked in the lost property store. At the end of the summer term any items of clothing that we cannot put to good use in school will be donated to the Tweeddale Children’s Centre in Sutton.

ParentPay is changing to ‘My Child At School’ (MCAS)

ParentPay will be closing after this academic year and we will be moving to a new online payment system via the ‘My Child At School’ (MCAS) App. Attached to this letter is important information for parents explaining what you will need to do in preparation for this move, along with links to helpful instructions on how to set up and use MCAS.  If you have any questions relating to MCAS, then please do visit the dedicated section of our school website.

I am sorry that this letter mixes celebration of the positive (students of the week, a great student turnout for open evening) with negative news (school closures). I very much look forward to the sports days and proms over the next few weeks that should only bring good news.

Wishing you all very happy weekends.

Mr N House, Headteacher