INSIDE THIS ISSUE • Message from the Principal • School Uniform Policy • Moat App • Free school meals eligibility • Charity news • Great British spring clean • Outward Bound • Awards evening • Careers • What’s happening around the departments • ESOL classes at Moat • Tutor Doctor • Privacy notice/use of personal data Dear Parent/Carers, We are nearly at the end of another happy and successful year at Moat Community College. We are very proud of what our students have achieved this year, both academically and in other areas, and I am very privileged in my role to be able to see so many aspects of college life. I often visit classrooms or other events that are taking place in the college and it is always inspiring to see our students’ enthusiasm and progress. I also see staff working incredibly hard for our students and taking pride in their progress, happiness and success. I would like to thank all of the college’s staff for their work. Our year 11 students have recently finished their exams and left college. This is always an emotional moment for staff and students. We are saying ‘goodbye’ to them, but we are also very excited about them going out into the world and what they will achieve there. This year group have made tremendous progress, both academically and personally. Some of them have overcome huge challenges to enable them to enjoy academic success. The preparation for their exams and the exams themselves went well, and we now await the results. We will miss this year group! All other year groups in the school have also completed formal exams. Our students do find these challenging, but it is excellent preparation for when they are in year 11. It also gives teaching staff very useful information to help and support students in the future. As always there have been many events and activities, which our students have enjoyed this year, many of which you can read about in this newsletter. One of the highlights includes our students competing very successfully in Area Athletics at Saffron Lane sports centre. They showed real commitment and sportsmanship during the event. Another area of success for the college was in the Leicester City Holocaust Day Poetry Competition; four of our students won awards. Their poetry was both thoughtful and moving. They also attended the very moving holocaust memorial event. At Moat we are constantly looking to inspire our students to realise that with hard work and commitment, there is no limit to what they can achieve. We arrange for visits from outside speakers and visits out of college to expand our students’ range of experiences. Highlights this year have included Geoff Barton, a national literacy expert, visiting the college and organising debating teams. He also arranged for our students to take part in national competitions - a challenging and unique experience! We also had a visit from Jon Snow, the Channel 4 news reader. He spoke to our staff and ran several workshops for students. Many of our students felt that these activities had changed their view of the world and their place within it. We have held a number of parental events this year. They are designed to give information to parents, but also to collect views and ideas from parents so that we can improve what we do in school. These have included information on careers education at Moat and our use of Go4Schools with parents. In November we held a briefing for parents on Prevent, the government’s programme to keep young people safe from radicalisation. This was attended by over 200 people, which is an excellent response. Our partnership with parents is a crucial aspect of the college’s work. It allows us to really support and challenge our students to achieve their potential. We have worked hard to encourage all parents to attend parents’ evening this year. The attendances at parents’ evenings this year have all been between 75% and 93%, which is excellent. We are sure that they will be just as good next year. Parents can give their views on the college using the parent view website (www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk). I would urge you to do this, as your feedback helps us to improve the quality of the education and care that we provide. In the coming months we will be launching an app - the Moat College App to help you keep in touch with events in the school. We will send you log in details and instructions on how to install, and I urge you to download and use the app. It will provide general information and specific information about your son/daughter. We will also be using it as a method of communication with parents. At this time of year, we make plans to welcome our new year 7s to the school. They will visit for two days and take part in a range on induction activities. We are always very excited to meet them and help them start to integrate into the college. We also hold an evening for parents, so that they can start to get to know the school as well. In January of this year we had a visit from OFSTED. This is a stressful time for any school and I was incredibly pleased and proud of the outcome. Staff, students, parents and governors contributed to the college achieving such a good report. I am particularly pleased for all of our staff, who work so hard and are so passionate about the college. I have already sent the OFSTED report home to you all. However, I would like to include a couple of quotes in this newsletter: • Due to the college’s focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning, GCSE outcomes improved considerably in 2017. • Throughout the school, it was evident that most pupils behave respectfully and conduct themselves well. • Pupils understand and demonstrate the school’s values of learning excellence, responsibility, respect, honesty and kindness. As a result, the school is a calm and purposeful community. • Leaders and governors focus on ensuring that pupils’ well-being and safety are paramount. • Pupils were able to speak about the range of information that is shared with them about how to keep safe in the local area and further afield. I would also like to mention our Governing Body, as they play an important role in overseeing the work of the college. They constantly challenge us to do better for our students as well as giving us support and advice. As well as attending meetings our governors regularly visit the school to look at aspects of our work and report back to the full Governing Body. When OFSTED visit, they look very closely at the work of the governing body. Our governors came out of this very well. The report commented that ‘Governors are skilled and well-informed and therefore provide the college with a good balance of support and challenge.’ I would like to thank all our Governors for the work that they do. As you already know we start the next school year with a completely new school uniform at the college. This is a much more formal uniform, including a blazer, tie and lanyards. Staff and students at the college are excited about this change. Our students will look smart and professional. This is crucial in raising their aspirations. It will also encourage our sense of unity and purpose. A very detailed description of the new uniform is included in this newsletter. Most of the compulsory items on the list are available at school wear stockists. The blazer, tie and jumper are available to purchase directly from our official supplier: Uniform Direct (www.uniform-direct.com), 54-56 Humberstone Gate, Leicester. Telephone – 0116 2511844 Our students are all looking forward to the long summer holiday. Could I ask that you encourage them to read as much as possible over the summer? They could join one of the local libraries to help them to do this. Research evidence shows that regular reading, as well as being very enjoyable, leads directly to higher exam results. I also feel that our year 10 students should review their year 10 work in preparation for year 11. It’s never too early to start revision! I would like to mention a very sad aspect in the life of our college. As you are aware Mr Dhillon’s wife Kate was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. We came together as a college to raise funds for her treatment. As always staff, students, parents and the community were incredibly generous with their time and donations and the college raised over £9000 to go towards Kate’s treatment. Kate has now started her treatment and we hope that it will be successful. Our thoughts are with Mr Dhillon, Kate and their families. I would like to mention several staff who are sadly leaving us this summer. These include Mrs Brockbank, Miss Kadar, Miss Ganatra, Mrs Faulkner, Mr Hill, Miss Allen, Mrs Hewitt, Mr Seedat, Mr Gould, Mr Garner and Mrs Lane. We wish all the staff leaving us the very best of luck. Finally, I wish you all a very good summer holiday. Please note that students return to school on Thursday 30th August 2018. New Year 7 students - 8.30am Years 8, 9, 10 & 11 students - 10.50am Mr B Killeen Principal Item Acceptable Unacceptable Trousers Plain black, school style No black jeans, combats or denim style. Flat or pleated front Skinny/clingy trousers are not allowed. Full length bootleg or Trousers tucked into socks. straight style.