Update for parents and carers: Monday 23^rd January 2023 – Tuesday 25^th April 2023

I start by wishing you and all of your families a very happy, healthy and blessed 2023! We begin this New Year with a renewal of hope and optimism, as we look forward to the many opportunities and joys that life can present to us. We start this year looking to seek our God in all that we do ‘May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you’ (Psalm 69:4).

At the start of this new calendar year, we are reminded of our School Mission Statement:

Holy Trinity Catholic School serves the local community; Christ is at the centre of our school and our greatest example. Our school is a place where uniqueness and diversity is celebrated and respected because we know and believe that we are united as children of God and created in His image. Through acts of love and learning, we grow in knowledge and spirituality, we are inspired to become successful citizens and are understanding, compassionate and loving to all of humanity.

A prayer for ‘New Beginnings’ and a blessed 2023

Dear Lord, Thank You for new beginnings. What an incredible day this is with a fresh year’s potential stretched out before me. I want to be found faithful this year in each and every opportunity You bring to me. Thank You, Lord, for new beginnings. I pray this in Jesus’ name.  Amen

We remain delighted with the positive attitudes shown by our pupils, who encompass our firm belief that at Holy Trinity you can ‘achieve anything’.

Safeguarding reminder from Mrs Daw (Deputy Headteacher)

We would like to remind parents and carers of the importance of monitoring the digital usage of their children. This includes usage of the internet and also social media usage. Whilst there are many advantages to the internet, there may also be clear dangers with social media and the unregulated use of a number of apps which are in existence and are not safe for young people, leaving children at risk of communicating with strangers, being exploited and or groomed online. The school curriculum focusses carefully on teaching children about online safety and the importance of ‘digital civility’ and appropriate and safe behaviours. Complemented with close parental monitoring and supervision, this supports with safe social media and internet usage outside of school.  On our school website, there are several resources to support parents and carers with understanding how they can keep their children safe in this digital age. School also plans to run parental workshops in the new year, so please look out for the texts which will share the finalised arrangements before the Christmas break.  If you have any concerns about your child’s safety online, please contact your child’s Head of year in the first instance. We have 10 colleagues, who have completed their Designated Senior Teacher training in Safeguarding. Colleague names and photographs, are displayed prominently in our schools reception and on this website. We have recently added the name of Anna Brewer (Chair of Governors) and Anne Norris (Safeguarding Governor). Please don’t hesitate to approach them with any questions are concerns.

Teacher Strike Action:

Please look out for all further correspondence regarding proposed teacher strike by NEU members on Wednesday 1^st February. School provision on this day will be firstly determined by pupil safety, with all steps then put in place to ensure that your children receives the best education possible. More details to follow.

Year 11 update:

With thanks to all parents who attended our recent ‘Progress Evening’. Any parents that missed this event for whatever reason will be contacted by Mrs Pritchard (Assistant Headteacher) & Mr Elia (Head of Year 11) to arrange a follow up appointment. In addition, if it is clear that any pupil is in danger of not fulfilling their huge potential this year, I will be inviting parents in for a meeting with me. In general terms, Year 11 are currently performing well and are ‘on track’ to achieve another set of fabulous results. Clearly, there is still lots of hard and smart work to come first! I am delighted that our full internal programme for ‘extra tuition’ has started in earnest last week. This programme includes all children in Year 11 receiving an additional 1 hour tutoring in Maths and Science. This programme will run up until final exams start with a busy programme scheduled for February, Easter and May holidays. In addition to internal tutoring, a number of identified pupils are receiving external tutoring and mentoring via My Tutor’ and the ‘Prince’s Trust Mosaic Project’. Our programme of additional support has accelerated once again this year, as we continue to close the gaps created from the recent years’ disruption. I must add that all of this additional support supplements outstanding work in the classroom on a day to day basis and does not replace it. As a school, we work very hard to ensure that all children are taught by subject specialists in every area. Year 11 will have a further ‘Mock Examination’ week starting w/c 6^th March. Parents, please continue to encourage your children to be ambitious and to believe in themselves. These all important messages are shared and complimented by the work in school. We pray for Year 11 pupil success in the weeks and months ahead.

A reminder of our High Standards and Expectations:

• Pupils are reminded of our ‘no hands’ policy which is in place to protect the safety of all.
• Pupils must have a blazer, tie and shirts to be tucked in at all times.
• Pupils must wear plain black footwear without any coloured logos/laces.
• Pupils will no longer be permitted to arrive to school in their PE Kits, they will have access to our new Sports Hall facilities for changing.
• Pupils must have a planner/day planner and at least a clear pencil case containing essential items such as:
  • black/blue pen
  • green pen
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • rubber
• Punctuality to form time and lessons must be excellent.
• PE kit must be in line with our Uniform policy, there should be no branding on kits as they must be plain.
• Hoodies are not permitted to be worn, all coats/jackets must be worn on top of blazers.
• Jackets/coats must be plain with no large branding, denim jackets and gilets are not permitted to be worn in School.
• There must be no piercings or jewellery worn – pupils will be asked to remove them – clear plastic studs can be worn.

• During the winter, it is essential that your child wears a suitable coat for school. As stated, Hoodies are not permitted and should not be worn in place of a suitable outdoor coat. Balaclavas, ski masks, snoods and comparable items of clothing are not permitted. Items will be confiscated if they are seen in school.
• Students must be highly organised ensuring Homework and other tasks are completed on time when set by their teachers.

Attendance and Punctuality Update from Ms Hodson (Assistant Headteacher, Personal Development):

Attendance

Going for Gold: 241 pupils have achieved 100% attendance so far and are on track to achieving ‘Gold Status’ at the end of this academic year. It is not too late for your child to achieve silver and join our Hall of Fame! A big well done to Year 7 for being the best attending year group in autumn 1- what a fantastic start to the year! Thank you to all parents who continue to support with our drive on good attendance and punctuality. Good attendance is essential in ensuring that your child reaches their full potential and improves their chance of success post 16. Developing good habits at school will help set them up for life and will support with your child’s career and prospects. Those who attend, ‘Achieve’.

We would like to take this opportunity to share some key reminders about attendance and punctuality. Holidays should be arranged outside of term time only. Missing school is detrimental to your child’s opportunity to progress, therefore, school will not authorise any holidays taken during term time. Parents will risk being fined if they take their child out of school. Your child will not gain back the time lost, each day away from school will result in 5 hours of lost learning. Pupils should aim for good attendance of 95% or above. Please see the table below as a reminder of how much learning is lost when your child does not attend school.

Punctuality

The school day begins at 8.40am. Any pupil arriving after this time is late. Pupils arriving late will be issued with an L1 break-time detention. If your child fails to attend the L1 detention it will be escalated to a 30-minute L3 detention, after school. Failure to comply will result in a C4 detention. Parents should ring the school office if they know that their child will be late to school.5 minutes late each day is the equivalent of missing 3 days of school during an academic year! We appreciate your efforts with getting your child to school, on time, every day.

‘My Child At School’

We invite you to regularly log into ‘My Child at School’ to monitor how your child is getting on at school. You will find out whether your child is completing homework, receiving any consequences or being awarded positive behaviour points. Pupil timetables, the school calendar and attendance records are also available. Please visit www.mychildatschool.com. The school ID is 11389. The school does not have access to your password information. You can request a new invitation code from home or if you have added an email address to the account you can click ‘forgotten login details’ and follow instructions that will email you the details.

Parent Association Update:

Members would like to thank all who donated money or food items in support of our school ‘Food Bank’, which was a big success before Christmas. This humble witness of faith and charity, enabled us to provide additional food items to over 50 families within our wider community. Parents are looking to do organise another ‘Food Bank’ during the Holy season of Lent in the run up to Easter. Your support again will be greatly appreciated. More details to follow in due course.

Wider community use of our school and sports facilities:

Alongside our Academy partners, Holy Trinity is working with an external advisor to evaluate the strength of our site provision, with a view to introduce more access and use for the wider community. Many thanks to all parents who recently completed the online response form and shared their views. Best of luck to all parents entered into the prize draw!

A regular reminder regarding car parking:

In a regular reminder, it is important to remember, that driving and parking near our Oakley Road Entrance Point, continues to be highly problematic at ‘drop off’ and ‘collection’ times. This is something that we continue to work on with local residents to improve. I am delighted that our Year 11 Senior Prefect Team, devised a strategy to see what we can do as a community to help with this situation. As a result of this work, we have placed cones on the entrance point at Oakley Road which is marked ‘keep clear’ to support with health and safety and a better experience for all parents. In a future Parent Association meeting, we will review this system and gain some initial feedback. Ensuring that all pupils enter and exit the School Building safely, is a number on priority. I ask that parents continue to be patient and understanding of this situation as we all endeavour to support one another as best as possible. Thank you.

Ofsted Inspection Update:

An Ofsted Inspection remains overdue and we can expect to go through this process as a community, in due course. Parents will be informed immediately via text and later through letter, when we receive confirmation of an Ofsted visit. We will do what we always ask of our children, which is to give ‘our very best’. As parents, you will be invited to complete a ‘Parental Questionnaire’ as part of the inspection, similar to what you complete in school during every Progress / Information Evenings. We welcome the opportunity for parents to have their view and will inform you immediately about how you access the questionnaire. I will keep you informed of all inspection developments throughout this year. A recent external ‘School Improvement’ Review alongside an additional external review of ‘Safeguarding’, evaluated our school as having many strengths and highlighted a number of areas that we should celebrate as ‘best practice’. Although very happy with these evaluations, we appreciate that we are nor perfect and our ‘school culture’ requires for us to continually strive to get better and to improve.

Some key dates for up and coming events:

The continued strong partnership between school and home, is at the foundation of the successes that we continue to celebrate. If for whatever reason you have any issues or concerns, please contact your child’s Form Tutor / Head of Year in the first instance. If at any point you require further support in resolving a particular situation, please escalate your concerns to a member of the Senior Leadership team. As Headteacher, I always welcome dialogue with parents informally on the school gate, through a conversation on the telephone, an email dialogue or more formally in a request to meet with me in person. Please contact school reception if you wish to speak with me. If at any point you are not satisfied with our schools response, there are further channels available to parents in order to raise their concerns.  Please contact school reception if you require any additional information and clarity regarding the processes for raising formal complaints.

‘At Holy Trinity, we want all pupil to be able to leave with a world of opportunities at their feet; for them to reach their fullest of potentials; to believe in themselves, and to achieve their wildest dreams’.

Thank you for your continued support.

Paper copies of this document are available from reception upon request.

Best wishes,

Mr Crehan

Headteacher: Holy Trinity Catholic School

Friday 20^th January 2023