19 January 2024 - Letter to Parents

19 January 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you and your families have had a great week.

Key Dates for this Term

Year 11 Parent Subject Consultation Evening – Thursday 1 February 3.30 – 7pm

Revision session for Years 7-9 - Thursday 22 February, 6 -7pm in the Library

Parent Pay Closes – 9 February 1:30pm

Arbor Pay Launches – 19 February

Attendance

Last week was our first full week back after the school holidays, and so a big well done to students in 11D2 and 7A1 for achieving the highest weekly attendance across the school during that week. It’s always great to see a range of year groups and different aged students achieving the best attendance figures. Every day in school matters.

A reminder that the end of Term 3 is Friday 9 February and this is a normal school day for all. Term 4 starts again on Monday 19 February.

PSHE Survey

A letter was e-mailed to parents and carers recently regarding Orchard School’s PSHE and RSE curriculum. We also invited parents and carers to respond to our PSHE Survey; please do click this link to give your feedback if you haven’t done so already. As always, your opinions are really valuable to us.

Key Stage 3 Update

Every student in Key Stage 3 takes assessments throughout Year 7, 8 and 9 so that we can identify gaps in knowledge and skills and help students to close them. We use rank ordering so that we can see exactly where students sit within a subject and we can use the information to ensure that they make the progress we expect. Year 7, 8 and 9 undertake rank ordered assessments only twice in each school year. The next set of assessments are for Year 9 and are due to be reported at the Parent Consultation Evening on 29th February – this information will be invaluable in helping students choose appropriate options just before GCSE courses are started.

Key Stage 4 Update

At the halfway point of Term 3, we are looking forward to sending our Year 10 cohort off to Work Experience, to immerse themselves in a potential future pathway. Places are now finalised and additional communication will be circulated with information regarding the week. We wish Year 10 the very best of luck and can’t wait to hear about their placements.

Year 11 mock examinations are almost fully marked and moderated, and results will be shared with parents/carers and students at Parent Consultation Evening on Thursday 1st February. The system will go live for appointments next week, and we look forward to seeing you there.

Wellbeing Ambassadors Campaign

This term, we are celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week from the 5th –11th of February. The theme this year is “My voice matters”. We feel that all of our students have the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them.

To support students having their voices heard on social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) issues, we will be recruiting 10 new Wellbeing Ambassadors. We are looking for two students from each year group to work alongside The Grove team to promote positive wellbeing at OSB. Wellbeing Ambassadors will actively support The Grove team to deliver mental health initiatives. They will also suggest new ways for OSB to support mental health and be involved in reducing negative thoughts around mental health.

We will provide students with information on how to apply. Please encourage your children to think about becoming a Wellbeing Ambassador; we welcome their applications. The deadline is 9 February.

Arbor Parent Portal

Please ensure that you activate your Arbor Parent Portal account – a letter has been sent home about how to do this. From 19 February we will be moving to Arbor Pay as our service to pay for lunches, resources and trips. Registering now ensures a smooth transition from Parentpay to Arbor Pay.

Community Information

If you are interested in joining a Winter Fruit Tree Planting session on 25th January with the Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust, you can reserve a ticket here.

You can also learn about many other upcoming events with Really Wild Lockleaze on their website.

Wishing you a restful weekend.

 Melanie Sweet, Headteacher