06 June 2025 - Letter to Parents

6th June 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you have had a restful half term break and have had a great week. We’ve had a good week at Orchard, with another excellent week of attendance to exams, plus another sporting success in the form of the Year 8 boys winning the Junior NBA Basketball competition for the South West. We are rightly proud of this great achievement. Next week, Year 10 are going out on a trip to the University of Bath, to get a taste of university life.

Key Dates

Prize Giving Evening - Wednesday 18th June 7-8 pm

Y11 Leavers’ Assembly – Thursday 19th June 9.15 – 10.15 am

GCSE Contingency Dates - Wednesday 11th June and Wednesday 25th June

Y11 Prom – Thursday 26th June 6.30 pm

Y7 Transition Day - Wednesday 2nd July

Y7 Transition Parents’ meeting – Wednesday 2nd July 5.30 – 6.30 pm

Attendance 

Did you know that our data shows students find it most difficult to come to school on a Monday? Some tips to help students be ready for Monday morning are:

Going to bed at a reasonable time on Sunday night

Turning off devices 30 minutes prior to going to bed

Placing devices downstairs and not in bedrooms

Waking students up at 7am and ensuring they eat a healthy breakfast before coming to school

Attending our breakfast club at 7.50am. Students can have a free breakfast and enjoy activities such as basketball, chess and board games.

Attendance winners this week:

 Year 7 – Avalon

Year 8 – Wisely

Year 9 – Dorchester

Year 10 – Avalon

Year 11 – D2

Attendance and punctuality are the first steps to success

Belonging

Next week we will be advertising our final House event of the year, ‘Orchard’s Got Talent’. We welcome all students who have a talent they would like to perform, for example singing, playing an instrument, performing comedy etc. Please ask your child to sign up during afternoon tutor time. Heats will take place week beginning June 23rd. We look forward to finding a new star!

Year 11 – Exams Information

Attendance to exams this week has been excellent. Please remember that students should all be in lessons following their exams so that they can receive the expert support of their teachers. No students are allowed off site without prior agreement, e.g. for approved medical reasons. Next week, we have:

Safeguarding

Anisa Lewis offers free parenting classes, and next week on Tuesday 11th June at 12:30 there will be a class on the topic of behaviour. If you have concerns or are just looking for extra tips around your child’s behaviour, you can sign up for free here. If you are unable to make the time you will receive the recorded session to your email.

Cycling to and from school has an abundancy of advantages, including helping the environment and maintaining personal fitness. In recent weeks we have received reports of a minority of our younger students cycling in a dangerous manner, including weaving in and out of traffic, multiple students being ‘passengers’ on their friends' bikes and not wearing appropriate safety equipment such as a helmet. If you would like further support or information on cycling safely, please click here.

Student Vaccinations

Sirona have developed a video for schools to explain to parents, carers and young people the importance of vaccinations and what diseases they protect them from. You can find this video here: School aged vaccinations.

These videos are available with verbal translations in Arabic, Urdu, Somali, Polish and

British Sign Language here.

Your child’s school will contact you when these vaccines are due. If your child has missed them, contact the Sirona team to book a community clinic.

Find out more here: https://sirona-cic.org.uk/children-services/services/school-age-immunisation/

Practice Lockdown

We will be holding an announced lockdown practice during the week beginning 7th July. Staff and students will be informed, although not of the specific date or time, so they can prepare for this and make sure they are aware of what they need to do. It is important that we carry out these types of practices to ensure we are prepared and know what to do in the event of an emergency in the same way as we practise evacuating the building in the event of a fire. You will also receive a text from the school just before the practice, as a gentle reminder that this practice will take place. Please speak to your child about this at home. In the event of a real lockdown, you would of course be notified that it was an actual lockdown, so we just wanted to let you know now in order that you are aware of the practice.

Community Events

The Harbour is now providing low cost (we ask for a minimum contribution of £1 per session) one to one counselling sessions in Lockleaze/ Horfield to people who are:

bereaved by illness or suicide

facing their own death or

facing the death of a loved one.

See the poster below for more details:

For those that like to get ahead, please see the link to our website for our 2025-2026 (next school year’s) term dates. Orchard School - Term Dates & School Day

Have a restful weekend.

Kind regards,

 Mel Sweet, Headteacher