YEAR 7 - 14 March 2025 - Letter to Parents

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you had a great week. We’ve had a busy week, with multiple sports fixtures, a Year 11 GCSE Boost revision event at the Bristol Aerospace museum and our usual wide selection of lunchtime and after school clubs.

Next week, we have a fantastic range of Comic Relief Red Nose Events to look forward to. There will be events taking place every lunchtime next week for students to get involved in. We also have our Year 8 trip to the Tower of London on Thursday 20th March which will be a great experience for all involved. School trips are important events in a student’s school life, and we find they are often the highlight of the school year for many.

Dates for the Diary

Attendance
Next week there will be several activities during lunchtime as part of Comic Relief week. Please make sure your child attends to participate in the events and win points for their House team; we’re going to have great fun!

Lateness to School
Please also remember that students who arrive after tutor receive an absence mark recorded as a ‘U’ code, as set out by government guidance, which shows they attended but were late to school. This is part of the government drive to ensure that all pupils are in school on time and attend every day. If your child receives a U code for their attendance, they will be unable to attain 100% attendance. All parents and carers should notify the school of reasons for lateness in the same way that absence is reported. If we can help in any way, or there are barriers that you as a family are experiencing, please let your child’s Pastoral Manager know as soon as possible.

Attendance and punctuality are the first steps to success

Additional Year 11 Mocks
We are running some additional mock exams in the final two weeks of term. These will inform our teachers where the final gaps in knowledge are, and this in turn dictates the content of lessons after Easter. A letter to parents and carers is being sent out imminently with details of which subjects, and what topics, will be examined so that you can support your child with revision.

Safeguarding
The Solihull Approach supports mental health and wellbeing in parents, children, school, older adults and high stress workplaces through online training and resources. There are some fantastic free online courses which will help you as a parent to understand your child in greater depth. An example would be ‘Understanding your child’s mental health and wellbeing’. Some members of the staff community here at Orchard School Bristol have used these courses and have benefitted greatly - this comes highly recommended.

Rewards Trip
On Wednesday 26th March there will be an Easter rewards trip to Vue cinema at Cribbs Causeway for a selection of students in Years 7 to 10.

35 students were randomly selected from a list of students with the highest 1s and with attendance over 95% since the start of term 3. If your child has been one of the lucky ones to be selected from that group, they will receive a letter and a consent form to be completed in due course.

Community Events - Orchard Iftar 2025
A final reminder about Orchard’s Iftar event during Ramadan, on Wednesday 19th March 5.30pm- 7.30pm, next week. We look forward to seeing many of our students, their families, and staff there.

North Bristol Children’s Centres run a full timetable of courses and groups across their centres each week, for children under 5 and parents. They are also running Easter holidays clubs. For more information, please see their website: Home - NBCC

Wishing you all a restful weekend.

Kind regards,

Mel Sweet, Headteacher