Weekly Parents’ Update – W/C Monday 30th January 2023

Dear Parents/Carers

It has been great to see so many of you in person this week attending your child’s Student Led Conference (SLC). Our students have shown real courage this week presenting their learning, especially G29 students where this has been their first time presenting a SLC. 

The feedback from parents and carers collected on exit tickets has been full of praise:

‘My son has changed so much in his confidence. It was amazing to see his confidence, lack of nerves and how he just got on with it in what could have been a stressful time for anyone. I am super proud of him, I had a tear in my eye’ (G29 parent)

‘A really high standard of work and honest appreciation of areas to improve which is hard when the standards is consistently high’ (G28 parent)

‘We could see that she cares about her learning and that she enjoys learning through expeditions. A thoughtful presentation that she’d clearly spent a great deal of time planning’ (G29 parent)

‘More articulate and able to answer questions with authenticity but also not afraid to point out where she struggles to remember the content or context. Well prepared, good engagement and eye contact throughout. Well done!’ (G28 parent)

‘His confidence gets better every time and to present without looking at a script is brilliant!’ (G28 parent)

‘At a standard I would admire in work colleagues. Excellent! We recognise the nurture and support that has gone into getting him here.’ (G29 parent)

We will be sharing the feedback with students as part of their SLC debrief where they will reflect on this experience against the rubric and set themselves targets for their next SLC.

This week:

SLCs and Extended Study

Extended Study and clubs are not running this week to allow for SLCs to take place. School will end at 3:15pm for all students apart from those with SLCs on that evening.

Safeguarding Review

On Friday we will be joined by Trust colleagues who will work with us to complete a peer safeguarding review. Every school in the Trust has regular  safeguarding reviews to ensure we are carrying out our statutory requirements and our students are safe. We will be looking at attendance, our work with students on how they keep themselves safe, staff training and our work with families. 

As part of this review, we are asking for all families to complete a short survey. Your feedback is incredibly important to us and helps us to ensure that we continue to run an excellent school for your children.

Please complete this short Google Form and hit submit.

We look forward to the review and to any feedback we receive.

NEU strike action – Wednesday 1st February.

School will be fully open on Wednesday even though some of our staff will be on strike. XP Trust respects the right for our staff to strike and we support their action. 

There will be no PE on Wednesday for Year 7.

Looking ahead:

Growing our Staff Crew

You may be aware that we are looking to appoint new staff to our growing team. Our first adverts have gone out for teachers and we will be shortlisting applications this week for interviews during the final week of this half term. Our students will be involved in the interviews as always along with our staff.

Half Term and early finish on Friday 10th February

Please be aware that it is half term for one week from w/c 13th February and so as normal students will finish at 1.30pm on Friday 10th February to allow staff to replenish resources and to de-gunge rooms and teaching spaces ready for after the half term holiday. Students will return to school at the normal time on Monday 20th February.

Thank you as always for your ongoing support.

Julie Mosely

Co-Principal