Message from the Executive Principal, Alastair O'Connor
Although this has been a short four week term it has been very busy with Year 11 and 13 mock exams, Year 10 and 12 assessments, Options Evening for Year 9s, Parents Evening for Year 10 and many fixtures and events.
Next term sees the run up and start of our main exams which is a key time for our Year 11 and 13 students.
We would like to wish all our families a wonderful and much deserved Easter break and will see you on Monday the 8th April when students and staff return.
YEAR 9 OPTIONS EVENING
On Wednesday 28th February we hosted our Year 9 options evening. All subject areas were represented with teachers on hand to answer any questions students and parents may have.
Mr O’Connor and the Heads of Faculty for English, maths and science presented in the Excellence Hub and explained how their subjects were examined at GCSE.
All options subject teachers presented information regarding the content covered in their GCSE course.
Many thanks to all who attended and for all staff for preparing and hosting a wonderful evening.
YEAR 7 NATIONAL OFFER DAY
On Friday 1st March parents were informed whether they had been allocated a place at Charnwood College.
We are delighted to say that we offered 140 students a place at Charnwood College. Welcome packs were sent out and we look forward to working alongside these parents and students when they join in August.
EASTER FOOTBALL CAMP FOR YEAR 6 CHILDREN
During the Easter break our Football Programme Manager, Sean Wilton, will be running a football camp with Charnwood Rangers FC for Year 6 children.
If you have any younger children who would be interested in attending please scan the QR code to book or contact Sean Wilton for further information on swilton@charnwoodcollege.org
Miss Rider has also shared an opportunity for junior girls at the Loughborough Rowing Club from 28th to 30 March. Please email the club if you are interested.
Composition Workshop with the Berkeley Ensemble
GCSE and A Level musicians from Charnwood College enjoyed spending time with a professional group of musicians, discussing and refining their compositions on Thursday 29th February. These compositions were then performed live at the evening concert, enjoyed by friends and family.
Congratulations to Harry and Emily whose compositions were chosen to be performed at the DRET Music Festival! To hear some of the compositions, please visit @charnnwoodmusic on Instagram.
Achievements this Term
Congratulations to the Small Schools Rugby Team who won their tournament in Skegness.
Also congratulations to the Hockey Team
Congratulations to Tyler and Asher who took part in the DRET Rowing All Stars at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships on Friday 1st March at the Copper Box Arena, London.
Congratulations to our Year 9 Girls Basketball Team teams for reaching the quarter finals.
Congratulations to Nicholas and Courtney who are the Art /Designer of the Month for March and April.
Well done to the U13s and U14s hockey team who have taken part in their first fixture.
Friday the 8th March saw the annual Techognition day. This is a national event that we have promoted for several years at Charnwood College. It allows us to celebrate our wonderful technicians across the college. The tasks they complete are so varied and often go unnoticed by many as they work so diligently behind the scenes.
Our current technicians are Mrs Brooker (Resources), Mrs Kitching (Design and Technology), Mr Tung (Science and PE) and Mrs Campsall (Science.) Day to day their work ensures lessons can take place smoothly and efficiently and allow us to deliver the most effective lessons to our students. They really are the unsung heroes and we took the opportunity to celebrate and highlight everything they do.
DRET Music Festival at the Albert Hall, Nottingham
47 students represented Charnwood College at the annual DRET Music Festival this year. Students performed as part of a 100 piece Orchestra and a massed choir of 575 students! As a school, Charnwood College put forward a Band, fronted by Imogen , a Choir and Orchestra both directed by Mr Gull, all of whom performed brilliantly on the day with fantastic feedback from the adjudicators.
It was a fantastic, uplifting day of music making with high quality performances from our students!
CHARNWOOD RIDERS SUCCESS STORIES
Our students on the basketball programme have had an amazing year so far with both the boys and girls winning their respective leagues.
This week both teams played in semi-finals. The girls fought really hard but unfortunately lost their game. The boys won their semi-final and are now in the final on Wednesday 27th March in Manchester. The game will be live streamed on You Tube if you would like to watch.
On the strength of their performances at league level the following players have been picked for the upcoming Four Nations Tournament. We wish them all the best and this will be an amazing experience for them all.
Girls
- England: Charley Woodman
- Wales: Ocean Linskey
- Wales: Brooke Leo
- Scotland: Lauren Cooper
- Scotland: Louise Fisher
Boys
- Scotland: Lewis Malcolm
- Scotland: Charlie McKenna
UPDATE FROM MRS TYERS (SENDCo)
At Charnwood College we have a wonderful team of Teaching Assistants and Learning Support Assistants. If you do have any concerns about your child or would like to discuss anything with us please contact the SEN Team via the office on office@charnwoodcollege.org
During the Easter Break it is World Autism Acceptance Week. We will be recognising this by taking part in some activities in school.
Our next SEN Coffee Morning will take place on Thursday 25th April from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. If you would like to attend please email the office to register - office@charnwoodcollege.org
12 students from across the school are giving up their free time to learn sign language after school. We have a lady from the Hearing Impaired group in Leicestershire coming in to teach us and so far we have covered the alphabet and can have a basic conversation. The course was so popular we have a waiting list for the next one!
Please find below information on workshops and training available during the Easter break.
Kooth offers free, safe and anonymous mental wellbeing support and can be contacted via kooth.com
Charnwood college is still above the National and Regional averages for attendance. This is a fantastic effort from students, parents and staff and we will continue to celebrate and reward excellent attendance. We work closely with individual students and have supported them with their own reward challenges. It is great to see so many tutor groups having non-school uniform days.
90% attendance = half day missed every week. Over a school year this is 4 weeks and 100 lessons lost.
Over 5 years at 90% attendance is half a year of education lost.
17 missed school days means that you could drop a whole GCSE grade in all subjects
Encourage your child to attend school regularly. Set a regular bedtime and morning routine. Have school uniform and equipment ready the night before. Avoid medical appointments during the school day where possible.
Please speak to the Attendance Team if you have any concerns about attendance.
In the coming weeks we will be launching a spotlight on lateness. If your child is continually late for school the Attendance Team will be contacting you to arrange a parental meeting.
We will be introducing sanctions for lateness of a half hour after school detention on the day. All cases of lateness will be treated on an individual basis.
If you know your child is going to be late for school, please contact the Attendance Team or the office to let them know.
SCHOOL MEALS
Our school catering provider, Caterlink, offer a wide variety of foods and cater for a number of dietary requirements, ranging from vegetarian, gluten free alternatives, halal meals, etc.
After Easter there will be new Spring menus
If your child has any specific dietary requests, or any questions about the food on offered in our canteen, they can speak with either Miss Jamieson (Catering Manager) or Mrs Hall (Academy Operations Manager.
CAN YOU SUPPORT THE YEAR 11 PROM?
Are you having a wardrobe spring clean or have previously worn prom clothes that you no longer need? Then we’d love them for our pre-loved prom shop.
Currently we have just a few dresses but we’d love more:
- Dresses
- Bags
- Girls Shoes/sandals
- Costume jewellery/accessories
- Suits or jackets and trousers
- Boys shoes
- Ties
We would be very grateful for any donations. Please drop any suitable items into reception.
This year's Year 11 prom will be on Thursday 27th June at Donington Park Farmhouse from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale after Easter.
ONLINE SAFETY
The internet is embellished with advanced algorithms that learn our patterns and try to predict our wants and needs. That is highly helpful in some cases, however; it can make the online world difficult for children to navigate.
Content can be brought to children through pop up ads on websites and also ads as such as; Instagram, tik tok, snapchat and many other social media platforms.
BLURRED BOUNDARIES
There are now various ways that we can communicate online in real time as such as; instant message on apps through direct messages or even with a delay.
Young people often prefer to exchange quickfire messages which sometimes can cause distress due to the miscommunication as there are a lack of non-verbal cues as such as facial expression and tone of voice.
ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media can bring people together in many positive ways. However, it can sadly have a darker side where things can escalate very quickly and have harmful consequences as such as cyber bullying, group chats with random users which are unkind and have inappropriate content.Social media can bring people together in many positive ways. However, it can sadly have a darker side where things can escalate very quickly and have harmful consequences as such as cyber bullying, group chats with random users which are unkind and have inappropriate content.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
LEARNING THE BASICS
It is impossible to keep up with every online change or new app. The best option to do is to make yourself aware of the fundamentals of how the internet operates, so you can grapy how and why particular content reaches them.
TALK IT OUT
If a child mentions a comment that has been directed to them via an online platform it may be a small thing to you however to a child it is the worst thing in the world and has a much bigger effect that we realise. In our evolved brains any perceived threat we can get internalised whilst our body reacts as if we were in physical danger – raising our stress levels. It is always worth encouraging your child/children to be forthcoming about any online activity that is impacting them negatively.
LOOK OUT FOR THE SIGNS
Looking out for signs on children differs from child to child and not every child is going to react in the same way. But look out for any change in behaviour that is not normal for your child/children. If they seem to be checking their phone more, being secretive and they do not want usually to depart with their device or show you what they are doing online – this is cause for concern and could be a sign that they need some extra support.
MANAGING THE SITE
Can we remind parents that electric scooters are not allowed on the school site.
PARKING
This half term we have been managing the flow of traffic around Gate 1 and Gate 2 following safety concerns from staff and members of the public and it has been working very well.
The car park in front of S Block is for permit holders only. Visitors to the Academy will be directed to allocated spaces between Gate 2 and Gate 3.
New signage will be installed and this area will be manned by members of staff for a period of time to allow for these changes to take place.
Parents will not be able to drop off their children at Gate 1 or at Gate 4 after half term to mitigate against risks. If you have any questions please contact the Academy Operations Manager, Mrs Hall.
CLEAN SPACES FOR STUDENTS
There has been an increase in members of the public trespassing on the fields behind the 3G, Sports Centre and MUGA for walking their dogs. Staff have reported an increase in dog fouling on the grass.
To ensure the health and safety of our staff and students, who use the fields for fixtures and school events, new signage will be installed to attempt to deter the dog fouling.
We would like to thank all our parents and students for their support with these changes.
STAFF NEWS
Congratulations to Mrs Chen (Maths) who gave birth to a baby boy in January. Mother and baby are doing very well.
Today we are saying goodbye to Mr Ahmad who joined us in 2010 as a Humanities Teacher and worked his way up to Head of Faculty. Mr Ahmad will be hugely missed but has decided to move to a school to be nearer his family. We wish him well in his new role.
Dates for the Diary
- Eid-ul-Fitr - Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th April
- Year 11 and 13 Group Photographs - Tuesday 9th April
- Year 8 Parents' Evening - Wednesday 17th April
- Royal Opera House Trip - Thursday 18th April
- Trip to Hardwick Hall - Monday 22nd April
- Spring Cup - Tuesday 23rd April
- Trip to The Curve, Leicester (Blood Brothers) - Wednesday 24th April
- SEN Coffee Morning - Thursday 25th April
- Evening Recital at Loughborough Grammar School - Wednesday 1st May
- Trip to Château de Warsy, France - Friday 10th May to Monday 13th May
- Year 7 proposed trip to Kenilworth Castle - Thursday 16th May
- Sea Life Centre and Science Museum (thinktank) in Birmingham - Wednesday 22nd May
- UCAS Fair at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham - Thursday 4th July.
Follow us on @CharnwoodColl
Safeguarding over the Easter Break
When the Academy is closed there is always someone who can help you.
If you are concerned that a child is suffering, or likely to suffer significant harm, you should contact your local authority safeguarding partnership directly.
Please go to our website www.charnwoodcollege.org for the relevant contact information if you have any welfare concerns.
In an emergency, call 999.
For any other queries, please contact us via cip@dret.co.uk.
If you have a general enquiry during half term please contact the office on office@charnwoodcollege.org