Welcome to this week's newsletter
Dear families,
Life in schools at this time of year is at a furious pace. This week we thought we should update you about some of the highlights and the key foci of our work.
Our students continue to excel with 246 students gaining their Bronze Award for REACH points so far this year, with 105 gaining Silver and 13 Gold. In addition, 65 students have been awarded their Bronze Award for Enrichment and 5 reaching Silver. Please encourage your child to continue to attend enrichment clubs or join a new one for the summer months. It is a great way to stay fit and healthy and happy.
We have also been proactively recruiting staff for September as the process of starting to build next year’s timetable has begun. We have been successful already in recruiting for science, technology and English. We are interviewing over the next few weeks and will continue to update you as we attract experienced and specialist staff for your children to benefit from.
Year 11 have been attending booster classes and all took their first whole-cohort exam today (Biology Paper 1). The general feedback has been really positive. This will be a great encouragement for them to work harder and to elevate their confidence.
In the coming weeks our staff Teaching & Learning focus group will be running CPD for all student-facing staff on themes gathered from our quality assurance of teaching and learning. The first of these is about the expert use of small individual white boards for whole class feedback and checking understanding in the classroom. This means that over the next couple of weeks your child will be seeing and experiencing this strategy. If they mention it at home and you would like to share this feedback (especially if a teacher does it really well) please send us a short message. It would be great to give some personal shout outs to those staff. Let us know via enquiries@manor.school.
Next week we will confirm the arrangement for tailored shorts for after half term.
Have a glorious week.
Dr Newman and the Manor School family
Attendance matters
Your child will be most successful if they are here to learn.
Our attendance at Manor School should be at least 96% - currently it is not high enough at 89%.
We need your help with this because attendance directly affects your child’s success in qualifications and therefore their life choices beyond school.
Please ensure your child is here everyday.
We are looking forward to rewarding those children with good attendance with a fun trip to Drayton Manor Theme Park in July. Your child has until the end of term deadline to qualify for this reward - make sure they are here everyday to have the best chance to be offered a ticket.
Data check
Please can all parents/carers check that your and your child's personal data is correct on Arbor before the end of term. Information on how to do this via the parent portal or parent app can be found here.
Year 12 work experience
Any students in Year 12 intending on taking part in work experience in July need to ensure that their completed work placement forms are returned to Miss Smedley by Thursday 16 May.
Instrumental lessons
Applications are now open for students to begin or to continue to receive instrumental lessons next academic year. Full details plus an application form are available to download below. Please note that completed application forms must be returned no later than Friday 24 May.
Year 11 exams
We will be sharing an overview of the following week's exam timetable both in the newsletter and on social media throughout the exam season. Students are to attend their normal lessons unless there is an exam (colour coded as orange) or booster session (colour coded as blue) for their subjects.
The latest version of the overall exam/booster timetable can be downloaded via the following link:
We are also producing a weekly newsletter for Year 11 students containing information and advice about their exams. This week's edition can be downloaded via the following link: