Dear Brakenhale families and community

We continue to enjoy hosting you for school tours. Please do continue to sign up:

Every day is an Open Day - Booking Request Form

Thank you for feedback via the parent/carer survey and tour feedback form. I have attached a ‘You said. We did’ document to summarise the actions we have taken in response to this.

We continue to be proud of all our students. Staff are working hard to ensure year 11 and 13 have a successful exam period. We look forward to celebrating the end of exams at their respective Proms.

Updates:

• After half term students will be able to choose to wear tailored knee length shorts.
• When warmer weather is forecast we will let you know of additional uniform adjustments e.g. no need to bring blazers/ties, in advance where possible.

FAQs:

Following meeting and touring parents and carers I have put together some frequently asked questions which I hope are useful for you.

1. Are students silent in the corridors?

• No, we ask students to move with ‘pace and purpose’, on the left, to ensure transition is calm and most importantly safe.  Our corridors and stairs, like most schools are narrow and require single file movement.

2. When are students silent?

• We ask students to be silent in the morning and after lunch line ups only, to listen to their standing assembly and ensure a calm transition to tutor time reading and period 5. This takes approx 2 minutes each time. Students are not expected to be silent when moving between lessons.

3. Are students silent for the duration of a lesson?

• No. Students are silent at appropriate points during the lesson: when the teacher is giving instructions and they therefore need to listen; when their peers are contributing and they therefore need to listen; during deliberate practice to support their concentration, unless this is a group/pair activity e.g. an experiment; game of tennis; drama piece, turn and talk etc

Social media

I would just like to reiterate that the parent groups on facebook are not linked to the school and are wholly independent. Therefore, the mainly inaccurate and sadly some malicious communication is not an accurate reflection of the school. Please be reassured that we have liaised with the police; LADO and Children’s Services as needed, regarding some posts.

Parent forum

Thank you to those of you that have signed up. We look forward to seeing you at our first meeting after half-term.

Reminders

• Please ensure you adhere to the 5 mile an hour speed limit when driving through school site to support us in keeping children safe. Safeguarding is always our key priority, and we don’t want to have to close the gate to traffic at the start and end of the school day.

Fun Friday

As you are aware we celebrate the incredible effort of your children at Brakenhale each and every Friday. Fun Friday has already established itself as a favourite part of the week for staff and students over the past 4 weeks. For example we had ice lollies last Friday and enjoyed a water target game today.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Camilla Douglas, Headteacher