2020 END OF TERM 4 MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER Dear Parents and Carers Today marks the normal end of Term 4 here at The Sittingbourne School, but as we all know, there is absolutely nothing normal about the current situation that grips the nation. Your children are at home and you are having to manage the demands of work, home-schooling and the physical restrictions of ‘lockdown’. This is not an easy time. We have been working hard in the school to support our students and families as best we can. Miss Lorman and the team have worked tirelessly to distribute hundreds of Free School Meal Vouchers, and we hope to shortly receive more information on the government’s new FSM voucher system that should be in place for Term 5. Of course, we will keep you informed as and when we know more. The school has remained partially open to support key worker families and our more vulnerable students, and we will continue to do this over the Easter holiday. Should the situation change for any of you whose children fall into these groups, please be assured that we will be able to support you with child care at short notice. We understand that there is an evolving picture with regard to work commitments and we aim to be helpful wherever we can be. As you are aware, lessons are happening in Google Classroom and teachers and support staff are keeping in touch with students, albeit in the virtual world. We are seeing some fantastic engagement from students and we ask that you continue to encourage your child to spend 2-3 hours a day on school work. If we put all the negatives aside, this situation does present young people with the opportunity to develop their independence and curiosity outside of a typical classroom. The lessons being delivered have been thoughtfully structured so that students can manage in their own time and without the immediate help of teachers. The more you can involve yourself with the learning – and the fun – the better; but we understand this may not be simple for everyone to do, as you will all have different challenges in your lives at present. - Continued on page 2 - 1 MESSAGE FROM HEADTEACHER CONTINUED... We are constantly stressing to the students the importance of community, and now more than ever this rings true. To help keep our school community strong throughout this time, we have created a new digital magazine that will be shared with all students and parents. We really hope that you enjoy reading it – perhaps you could read it together with your child. We will strive to get it out to everyone on weekly basis during term time, throughout school closure period. To keep things as normal as possible, we have published our usual end of term newsletter. This one typically celebrates all the great things that happened in school and outside of school before the gates closed. It also contains some key information, including safeguarding and a consultation on Relationships and Sex Education. In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very safe and peaceful Easter period and we very much look forward to online school starting again on Thursday, 16 April, which is the first day of Term 5. Yours faithfully Ms Y Peden Headteacher The majority of letters and communication will be sent to you via Edulink email. Please keep an eye on your emails, our school website and our official social media sites (Twitter, Facebook) for up to date school information, thank you. www.thesittingbourneschool.org.uk 2 RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION: PARENT CONSULTATION From September 2020, all secondary schools in England will be required to deliver relationships and sex education (RSE) as part of their core curriculum. We will be incorporating this into our Character Education lessons, as we believe that strong and healthy relationships are underpinned by our core character values. Our draft curriculum map for Character Education is available for you to consult here. As parents, we value your feedback. If you wish to give feedback on the proposed RSE curriculum, please complete the Google form below. Click here to leave your feedback, thank you TSS CHARACTER EDUCATION CURRICULUM 2020-2021 To view the Character Education curriculum map mentioned above which is set out by year group, please click here. INFORMATION REGARDING IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDING ISSUES We have been informed that some parents have received an email stating the following: ‘As schools will be closing, if you’re entitled to free school meals, please send your bank details and we’ll make sure you’re supported’. We can confirm that this is a scam email and is not official. We urge parents that if you receive any emails like this, please do not respond, and delete it immediately. During this lockdown, there seems to be a growing use of the app Houseparty. Please click the link below for information about this app. What is the Houseparty app? Click here for updated advice from the government regarding schools and the Coronavirus. 3 ONLINE RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS As part of our remote teaching and learning programme, we have built a new website which includes entries from all our different subject areas. These provide direct links to the most useful websites to help students with their work while they are studying at home. This is another brilliant learning resource for students and underpins the amazing work being done by all the teaching and support staff in school who are doing everything they can to maximise the opportunities for learning during this period of school closure. 4 COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT POINTS FOR TERM 3 Orion: 5866 Aquila: 5574 Phoenix: 5467 Orion Winning Tutor Groups: 7-Ori-1 (1445 points), 8-Ori-2 (571 points), 9-Ori-4 (905 points), 10-Ori-3 (190 points) Orion Winning Students: Year 7: Rachael U, Year 8: Keira H, Year 9: Dinoyan P, Year 10: Liam P & Jorja W Aquila Winning Tutor Groups: 7-Aqu-2 (982 points), 8-Aqu-1 (561 points), 9-Aqu-4 (328 points), 10-Aqu-3 (429 points) Aquila Winning Students: Year 7: Tamzin B, Year 8: Josh D, Year 9: Elouise D, Year 10: Sophie G Phoenix Winning Tutor Groups: 7-Pho-1 (551 points), 8-Pho-4 (537 points), 9-Pho-1 (620 points), 10-Pho-1 (402 points) Phoenix Winning Students: Year 7: Charlie H-D, Year 8: Oliver J, Year 9: Chloe H, Year 10: Tia B TUTOR GROUP ATTENDANCE SCORES FOR TERM 4 9-Aqu-2: 98.8% 8-Ori-2: 98.0% Archer-Orion-3: 97.8% 10-Pho-1: 97.8% HIGHEST COMMUNITY ATTENDANCE FOR TERM 4 Orion: 94.7% All students and teachers now have free access to Seneca - a revision and homework platform making studying more fun. Seneca is an interactive way to learn official course content. Their web app covers 150+ exam board specific courses condensing what students need to know for their exams. The software is able to identify gaps in learning. For instance, when you get a question wrong, the platform will repeat the topic in different formats and their smart algorithm has proven to make students remember topics 2x faster. Seneca is totally free for students, teacher and parents. You can sign up via www.senecalearning.com. 5 YEAR 11 CELEBRATION ASSEMBLY On Friday 20 March 2020, we had a fantastic celebration assembly to congratulate and celebrate all Year 11 successes over the previous two terms. This was planned to occur at the end of Term 4, but due to the hit of Coronavirus we did not want our Year 11s to miss out on the second round of celebrations for all of their hard work and dedication to their studies. The year group have worked exceptionally hard and will achieve a set of fantastic grades, which they deserved to be congratulated for. The afternoon saw many awards being given for each subject, along with tutor attendance and individual successes across the board. Students cheered and congratulated each other for their successes. The year group sang a song together and finished the afternoon with a thank you pizza and Easter chocolates. It was a brilliant afternoon, albeit emotional, as it would be the last time that all of our Year 11s would be sat in the main hall together at once. They are a fantastic year group and have been, and will continue to be, a credit to the school. We continue to support students in their learning and further education applications and wish them every success in their studies in the coming months. 6 INSPIRING MINDS - CREST AWARDS CLASS OF 2019 During a recent Year 11 Assembly, 20 students received their official Inspiring Mind – Bronze Crest Awards from The British Science Association. Stefan Colley, Project Manager at Canterbury Christchurch University, presented the certificates to students and spoke a little about the various projects that the students had carried out last year. Mr. Colley praised the students for their dedication, commitment and hard work in achieving these awards. The school currently has a further 16 students working with Canterbury Christchurch on the 2020 Bronze Crest Awards and parents will be invited along to the showcase event in a few weeks’ time to celebrate the achievements of this year’s cohort. HOSPITALITY AND CATERING PRACTICAL ASSESSMENTS Just before we enter the season of examinations for Year 11, many of the students studying Hospitality and Catering Level 1/2 are feeling relieved to have written up, planned and cooked their two assessment dishes.