22 November 2024 - Letter to parents

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you have had a great week. We were pleased to see parents and carers at our Year 11 Revision Evening this week, as they prepare for their mock examinations in the last two weeks of this term and the first two weeks back in January.

Key Dates 

Year 11 Exams Prep Information Evening – Wednesday 26th March 6.15 – 7.45pm

Parent Subject Consultation Evenings 

The dates for these through the year are as follows: 

Year 7 Parent Subject Consultation Evening – Thursday 3rd April 3.30 – 7pm 

Year 8 Parent Subject Consultation Evening – Thursday 5th December 3.30 – 7pm  

Year 9 Parent Subject Consultation Evening – Thursday 6th March 3.30 – 7pm 

Year 11 Parent Subject Consultation Evening – Thursday 13th February 3.30 – 7pm 

Please also note the following date: 

Year 9 Options Evening – Thursday 27th February 5 – 7pm 

To help parents and children decide together which options subjects/GCSEs they might choose to take over the next two years in school.

Last Day of Term

The last day of term this year is Friday 20th December. Children will have morning lessons, time with their tutor group and an assembly before leaving school in staggered timings around lunchtime. Year 11s will leave first, and Year 7s last, by 12.35pm - please note the earlier finish time. Christmas jumpers or own clothes, for those who may not want to wear a Christmas jumper, may be worn on the last day of term.   

Attendance 

Congratulations to the following tutor groups for having the best attendance in each year group this week!

7D2,8W2, 9A2, 10D2, 11A1

Friday 15th attendance winners were:

7A1, 7B1, (both 100%!) 8W2, 9D1, 10D2 (100%!), 11D2

Year 7 – Overall best attending year group

Avalon- Overall best attending House

House points have been awarded to all students in the above Tutor Groups - keep up the good work, everyone! 

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

As part of our offer to support students beyond the curriculum, over 20 Triple Science Year 11 students competed this week in the British Physics Olympiad’s Junior Astro Challenge. We will find out how they did in the coming weeks but it was fantastic to see them apply learning from their recent topics in a national competition. This helps give our students the edge when it comes to college and sixth-form interviews.

Bookbuzz!

Orchard takes part in the Bookbuzz programme, an initiative from reading charity BookTrust that encourages young people to read. Earlier in the term, all Year 7 students chose their own book from this year’s sixteen Bookbuzz titles, and their choices have arrived in school this week! Students will receive their chosen book in their next library lesson, so do please talk to your child about their book when they bring it home as talking about books together can help young people to form and share their opinion on what they like to read and why. The Bookbuzz book is a gift from the school and BookTrust for your child to read and keep (or swap with a friend when they have both read their book), and there are also extra copies of all sixteen Bookbuzz books available to borrow from the school library. We hope that Bookbuzz will encourage your child to read more frequently, which will help improve their wellbeing, spark interesting conversations and inspire creativity, as well as contributing to success in their studies.

Careers – Post-16 Interview Support

It is brilliant to hear about the incredible and aspirational post-16 destinations that our Year 11 students have applied for. In the coming weeks, Year 11 students will be invited to interviews – these are an important part of the application process. To support students, we will be delivering tutor sessions and there will be time for conversations between students and their tutors. When needed, referrals will also be made by tutors for students to have 1-1 meetings with Mrs Thorne, our Careers Advisor, with extra hints and tips. In instances of students being invited to interview during school time, we will also be supporting students to find a private, quiet space and time with Mrs Thorne before the interview.

Staffing Update

Ms Shepherd, our SENDCo, leaves us at Christmas for a new role within education, after many years of brilliant service at Orchard School. We have been busy recruiting for an Assistant Headteacher: Inclusion, who will lead the SEND team as our Orchard SENDCo. We are delighted to report that Ms Alderson, who you will already know as one of our Attendance and Belonging Senior Leaders, has secured this post and we will also have a Deputy SENDCo from January to add further support for our students. Ms Alderson has years of experience in inclusion and is excited to be taking up this role. Meantime, in the coming weeks ahead of Term 3, she will be running some ‘Meet the SENDCo’ sessions. She will be writing to you directly about these sessions. Finally, if you wish to contact the SEND team, please only use the Sendosb@orchard.tila.school e-mail address.

Safeguarding – Dark Nights

As the days get darker, there are a few things we always like to remind parents and carers of.

Firstly, your children will likely want to spend more time on screens, in whatever form that may take, e.g. phones or TV. Please be mindful of this and encourage your children to have outdoor time as well as keeping an eye on their sleeping patterns.

The following two websites are useful for parents with regard to internet safety:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety

Parents and Carers - UK Safer Internet Centre

We also warn against young people going to parks in the area after 4pm as we are getting warnings by police of anti-social behaviour after these times, especially in areas such as Elm Park and Monks Park.

If you have any concerns and you need to contact school, please use the Whisper button on our website.

School Drop Off and Pick Up

Some parents and carers are using the nursery school car park, which is next to Orchard School, to drop off their children. This causes a significant safety concern to the parents/carers who are dropping their very young children at the nursery who, at times, are having to dodge the traffic coming in to drop off Orchard School students. Helpfully, there is a car park which is free to use about 100 metres from the school on Filton Road next to the South Gloucestershire boundary. Please use this car park instead of the nursery car park, which does not belong to us. It is only a short walk to school for students from there.

In addition, some parents/carers are using Northwick Road as a drop off/pick up point and we have received concerns from residents about this. This causes serious traffic problems on this road, especially for patients of the doctor’s surgery. If there is a medical emergency when traffic is parked on pavements blocking driveways, this can lead to a serious incident. Please do not use Northwick Road as a drop off/pick up point.

Community Events

Ebenezer Church is running a Community Breakfast on Friday mornings from 9.00am-10.30am on fortnightly basis. Another warm welcoming space for local residents to drop-in. The next one will be on Friday 6th December.

There will also be a Speedquiz night on Friday 5th December at Ebenezer Church. Click the link for more details of all their events.

The Bridge Food Project aims to offer long-term support to people facing food insecurity. Scan the QR code on the flyer below for more information.

With best wishes,

Mel Sweet, Headteacher