Welcome to this week's newsletter
Mrs Johnson, Miss Barron and a group of our students attended the Raunds Town Assembly this week to represent the school and update the community on our successes.
In addition, our students have continued to show resilience and aspiration as they have been undertaking MFL speaking exams, art exams and PE moderation activities. We look forward to continuing to support students as the full exam season commences in the coming weeks.
Finally, we would like to thank our community for the continued support with potential disruption as a result of industrial action and ongoing repairs to the gas supply at the front of the school site. Please note two key updates below:
- From Tuesday morning, students who arrive by bus should enter and leave the school site through the technology car park.
- Arrangements for Tuesday's day of industrial action are the same as Thursday's arrangements, with the exception of Year 11 dance students who will remain on site all day.
Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.
Chris Bateman, Vice Principal
Word of the Week
Each week, the English department focuses on encouraging students to use one ambitious word – it is displayed in classrooms and discussed during teaching. It would be great if adults at home could try to encourage the use of this word too. You could try to fit into a conversation or even question your young person on the meaning. It will be fantastic for the students to see us all working together to help improve their language. Thank you for your support.
The Word of the Week for 24-28 April is delirious.
Instrumental lessons
Applications are now open for students to begin or to continue to receive instrumental lessons next academic year. Full details plus an application form are available to download below. Please note that completed application forms must be returned no later than Friday 26 May.
E-scooters
We have been asked to share the following message from PC Barnett from Northamptonshire Police.
We are finding a greater number children using e-scooters in and around the community, and in some cases, using these e-scooters as their transport to school.
In short, personal e-scooters, if used anywhere in public are illegal. To use the Voi scooters that you can hire out, the rider must be over 18 and have at least a provisional licence.
Please see the flyer below which provides more information about the legalities and the implications if someone is found on one in public.
Year 11 exams
The latest version of the summer exam timetable can be downloaded below, and shows scheduled examinations and booster sessions that are planned for students to maximise teacher input prior to each examination. The booster sessions planned are opportunities for students to hear last-minute hints, tips and reminders of key information before they enter the exam room.
From the start of the exam season on Monday 15 May until May half term, all students will be required in school full time. During this period, students will be in an exam, a booster session or a normal lesson.
On return to school after half term on Monday 5 June until the end of the exam season, students will be required in school for exams and booster sessions. Normal lessons will continue to run until a subject has completed all exams for that subject. For example, maths lessons will continue to run until their final exam which takes place on Wednesday 14 June.
From Monday 5 June, when student attendance is not required in any of the sessions as outlined, students are able to use the restaurant for independent revision or they can sign in and out via main reception. In order to for your child to sign in and out during times when their attendance is not compulsory, please give your consent using this form before Friday 5 May. Students for whom we do not receive consent will be supervised in the restaurant during their times not in timetabled sessions as outlined above.
Students will only be allowed to sign out when they have finished for that day, not between sessions or over break or lunch times.
PE notices
We have been given some funding from NSport to purchase gymnastics equipment which we hope will form part of the PE curriculum next year, but in the meantime there is a new club taking place after school on Thursdays in the dance studio. To start with it will have an acrobatic gymnastics/rhythmic gymnastics focus to it while we wait for our additional equipment to arrive, but we would love to see people there!
As shared with students at the start of the year, there is a requirement due to health and safety regulations that may require students to take their shoes and socks off to participate in dance and gymnastics activities. This term all Year 9 students will be participating in gymnastics during their dance lessons, and are therefore expected to take their shoes and socks off to participate safely.
The new extra-curricular timetable for PE now focuses on the summer sports and, as ever, we have a number of competitions coming up that we would like to enter teams for, namely softball, rounders and athletics. Basketball, hockey, badminton and dance also continue to be offered, as well as a new ones such as cricket. All clubs are free to attend, earn students an enrichment point and finish by 4:30pm, so it would be wonderful to see as many students there as possible.
Over the past term we have had the expertise of Amy Aldridge from Dynamix Dance Company working with our Year 11 dancers, and as they come to the end of their course we would like to publicly thank Amy for all her support with the students and their course. Dynamix Dance Company is based in Thrapston and there are a number of classes for anyone with an interest in dance which can be found via this link. We certainly hope to be able to continue to work with Amy in the future!
A message has been shared a few times via form tutors for any names of students who qualify to be added to the sporting honours board here at Manor. Whilst we have had a few names, we are certain there are others, so this is the last call for any nominations of students who compete in a sport at county standard or higher. If this applies, please inform your child’s PE teacher or email Miss Hustwait directly (thustwait@manor.school).