The Blue Coat School Proud to be part of The Cranmer Education Trust Summer Newsletter – June, 2016 Race For Life Choir Go4Set Engineers Faith ~ Vision ~ Nurture Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers, First of all, some key information. End of term arrangements Wednesday, 13th July: School will close at 12.30pm, following the Founder’s Day celebrations. The 700 service will be coming early. The other services are not able to accommodate the early finish, but please check the website regularly for further updates, as this may change. Otherwise, pupils will need to make their own arrangements. Tuesday, 19th July: End of year service. The school will close at 1.10pm. The 700 service will be coming early. The other services are not able to accommodate the early finish, but please check the website regularly for further updates, as this may change. Otherwise, pupils will need to make their own arrangements. Starting the new term – Autumn 2016 School opens for Years 7 – 12 on Tuesday, 6th September, 2016 at 8.45am. Years 7 – 11 are to go to form rooms. Year 12 are to go to the Mezzanine. Year 13 will return on Wednesday, 7th September, 2016, and should go directly to the Mezzanine. Uniform Regulations – Years 7 to 11 Please see our website regarding uniform regulations by following the below link: http://www.blue-coat.oldham.sch.uk/uniform-regulations/ This has been an eventful year. The newsletter that follows focuses on one term alone, but in a community of nearly 1600 bright and energetic young people, working with nearly 200 staff, there is so much to report. So I make no apologies for a lengthy newsletter – I hope you will dip into it and keep going back to it, to get a sense of just how much is going on in the community that is Blue Coat. We want all our young people to achieve and succeed, but we aren’t an exams factory, and there is a so much to growing up in this community to celebrate. Senior Student Appointments First of all, thank you to our Senior Students who have served and led our school community so well this year. We wish them every success as they go on to university, apprenticeships and some to take a gap year before studying recommences. Congratulations to our new Senior Students, appointed last week, following a rigorous process in writing applications, interviews, and scrutiny of their progress. The Head Boy and Head Girl, and their deputies lead the team and the sixth form, and are often called on to represent the school community. The House Captains work across the school, bringing our community together in sport and competition, and also in the many events that students themselves choose. The Year Captains work with year groups and guides and mentors, for academic and social development; for the past two years we have been building up a junior leadership team in Year 8, and we now have the makings of a Student Council which has grown organically. So there will be many opportunities and challenges for our Senior Students next year, and they understand fully that in a wider society that appears increasingly divided, it is even more essential that we build community and ethical, responsible and accountable leadership here. Head Boy: Tim Winter Head Girl: Sophie Booth Deputy Head Boy: Jack Bradbury Deputy Head Girl: Amy Burgess House Captain (RW): Robert Clark Haider Khan Heather Sutcliffe House Captain (BH): Adam Boardman Emily Crichton Georgia Blakeney House Captain (LM): Ben Atkinson Toby Mears Lucy Parfitt Year 7 Captains: Aysha Brannon, James Mallinson, Chloe Stevenson and Sam West Year 8 Captains: Mohammed Ali, Aysha Liquat, Megan Paldino and Zak Warburton Year 9 Captains: George Raynes, Paul Lewis, Emily Martin and Leah Nuttall Year 10 Captains: Rimshah Asghar, James Carroll, Alex Cockburn, Olivia Mulvey Year 11 Captains: Emily Evans, Usman Mahmood, Katie Morris and Jack Whitehead Engaging with the wider world As this newsletter goes out, most of our Year 8s will be in the Opal Coast, learning about the history of Europe, and how that has affected us all. Whatever people’s views on the EU, we are European, because we share that history. The poignant visit to the War Graves, which has such a profound impact on our young people, reinforces the human cost of division. We hope to get some images of their visit on the website before the end of term, and in the September newsletter. This term we also welcomed Mrs Shagufta Pervaiz, Headteacher of an 11-16 Christian school in Lahore, Pakistan, who was part of a visit organised through the Manchester Diocesan Board of Education. Mrs Pervaiz observed how students learn in Britain, and contributed to lessons in RS, Geography and Citizenship, as well as to our assemblies. She brought some beautiful textiles which are on display in our school. She spoke of her admiration and respect for the commitment of our students, and the way they throw themselves into learning. Above all, she commented on the environment of mutual respect as students from all faiths, denominations and ethnicities learn together, and come together as a community within a distinctively Christian school ethos. National changes to curriculum and assessment, and their implications All our parents of pupils from Year 8 and above will be aware of the huge changes that are happening nationally as a result of changes introduced by government into GCSE and A-Level. Parents of primary-age pupils will know that the same seismic changes are taking place at Key Stage 1 and 2 as well. I have been in education for quite a long time, and cannot remember ever a period when so much changed over such a condensed period of time, with no pilot work to draw on. However, we are where we are, and our focus is to ensure that our students get the best possible provision. As a result 1. Options choices will now be made in Year 8. (2 free choices in addition to the core curriculum, plus a choice between French or German, and History or Geography). 2. Pupils will begin their GCSE subjects in Year 9, moving on to the actual GCSE course in the spring/summer term, so that they have plenty of time to cover the syllabus and ensure their learning is secure, ready for the terminal exams they will all take in Year 11 now that modular approaches have been abolished. 3. GCSEs are moving from an A* - G scale to a 9 – 1 scale. This is already in place for English and Maths. 4. The entry of 2016 will be the last Year 12 to take 4 AS-Levels and AS exams at the end of Year 12 in 2017; the new specifications emerging for examination in 2018-19 mean that students in sixth form will also be following entirely linear courses from 2017 on, and we will move to 3 A-Levels plus a supporting core of skills and breadth. 5. As levels disappear from Key Stage 2 assessment, we have brought in our own flightpath models, which still use the language of levels (because that is what parents of children in Key Stage 3 are familiar with) but whose point is to enable students to see how progress in learning is tracked over their secondary years and what in each different subject they are likely to achieve. This is for information, and discussion. It isn’t a prophecy, it enables students, parents and teachers to discuss how progress and achievement can improve – what developments in learning behaviours are necessary. 6. We have moved to a system of parents’ evenings where parents and students discuss their progress across the curriculum, using the flight paths, with tutors. We encourage parents to contact subject departments directly if there is a particular issue with something a pupil is learning; the aim of the parents’ evening is to take a holistic view, look at the learning behaviours that contribute to this, and how these can be helped to develop. Parental Questionnaire Next term (autumn 2016) we will be contacting our parents to get your feedback on different aspects of our provision for young people. Parents will be alerted via Parentmail, and we are hoping to get this survey online rather than on paper. Please watch out for it, and spare 10 minutes to let us have your feedback, positives and negatives! Welcome to new staff This term we have welcomed two key new members of our staff team: Mrs Tipler joined us full-time on 1st May as Deputy Headteacher and Director of Sixth Form. Mrs Tipler came to us from Ossett, where she was a Head of a (slightly smaller) Sixth Form than ours; but this has given her exceptional experience of and expertise in the challenges facing post-16 education in the coming years. Mrs Henry joined us mid-May as Head of our Student Support Services, the team that deals with immediate and day-to-day issues of attendance, punctuality, communications with parents, first aid, and student safeguarding. It is the students’ front-of-house, and first port-of-call for parents. Mrs Henry has come to us from Bury Council, where she has led teams dealing with a range of issues that affect young people and communities, and working closely with the public services, including schools and the police. Teachers and Teaching Every year we lose members of staff, often to promotion, sometimes because people’s personal circumstances change. Congratulations to Miss Watson, Mr Nalborczyk, Miss Semper and Mr Mackey, who have all been appointed Heads of Department/Subject leaders, and Mr Coe, who is moving to Middleton Technology College as Deputy Headteacher.