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Our Manor 6-10 June 2022

Welcome to this week's newsletter

I do hope you enjoyed the extended bank holiday for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Welcome back to the final half term of the academic year. It has been great to see so many staff and students returning with enthusiasm and excitement for what the next few weeks in school will bring.

You may have seen our social media posts about the daily opportunities for students to get involved in clubs and enrichment opportunities. You can find an overview of the entire weekly offer later on in today’s newsletter.

This week, with exams in full swing, we got the opportunity to exhibit and showcase the work our Year 11 artists have done with the visit of the GCSE moderators. Once again, it was a demonstration and reminder of the hard work, effort and commitment needed to be successful. The work on show was of a very high standard indeed and I was particularly impressed with the quality and depth of the preparation work that goes into producing the final pieces. We have seen the same with students preparing for exams in so many other subjects. We continue to wish them well as their exams continue over the next couple of weeks.

We have been into schools this week visiting young people who will be joining us in September. There is a lot of excitement about the upcoming transition days. This year we are looking to host Year 6 students for three consecutive days rather than the traditional one day. We did aim for the same last year but COVID got the better of us all.

Finally, a massive well done to our music groups who have made it through to Music For Youth's National Festival. What an achievement! We wish them all the very best. A big well done and thank you also goes out to all the students who represented the school in athletics events this week.

Have a great weekend!

Lee Towers, Head of School

Inclusion Strategy updates

Lunchtime detentions

This week has seen the start of our change to lunchtime detentions. As described in our last newsletter, detentions will now take place each day in Room 8. Students who normally eat lunch from the canteen or are entitled to Free School Meals can order a 'grab bag' from the catering team which will be delivered to the detention room. The order form for lunches is available on the door to student services until 10:00am each day. If a student fails to attend a detention they will be sanctioned with a day in our Refocus provision.

Parent/carer and form tutor communication

Moving to lunchtime detentions is allowing us to increase the amount of communication between our form tutors and parents/carers. This is particularly important where students are issued behaviour points for not being Ready, Respectful or Responsible. Behaviour points are issued when students have not met expectations but an automatic sanction is not appropriate. When students receive increasing numbers of behaviour points, or an unusual number of points for a particular reasons, form tutors will be contacting home to work with families to identify and remove any barriers to learning. This is part of our ongoing effort to ensure that our Inclusion Strategy intervenes and solves problems rather than just sanctions students.

Year 10 and 12 trial examinations

Our programme of Year 10 and Year 12 trial examinations will take place during the weeks beginning 20 and 27 June. During this time, students will sit at least one examination under examination board conditions in all subjects where a terminal exam forms part of the assessment process.

Trial examinations are an important part of the learning process as they allow students to experience the intensity of an examination period and answer the types of question they will encounter in the real examination under the same conditions. They are also a useful tool by which students, teachers and parents/carers can judge the effectiveness of the learning process.

We request your support in the run-up to these trial examinations to ensure that students are revising and preparing properly. This is vital if they are to gain full benefit from the experience. It is also very important that students are present at school during this time. We will endeavour to provide an opportunity for students to sit these trial examinations at a later date if they are absent, but it will not have the same value as the intensity of the examination period cannot be replicated on an individual basis.

Most of these trial examinations will take during normal lesson times, but there will be at least one examination for each of English, maths and science which takes place with all of the year group together in the Sports Hall. This will allow students to experience the same exam conditions they will encounter next summer. We will be sharing a detailed examination timetable next week.

TikTok and other social media platforms

We need your help as parents/carers. Can you support us by considering the following questions?

  • How well do you know what you child is doing on social media platforms and the internet more broadly?
  • Is your child illegally accessing social media platforms? The legal age to sign up is 13 years old for many platforms.
  • Is your child following, liking, commenting on or sharing content that could be perceived to harmful or intimidating to others?
  • Is your child aware of how to be safe online? Work.World.Wellness and Computer Science lessons do support students with this.

There is further information on our school website about internet safety, which parents/carers can access. If you would like to talk to a member of staff about concerns involving your child/children or if you have concerns to report that you have witnessed online, please contact your child’s form tutor.

The school continues to do the following in managing harmful or unpleasant profiles, accounts and posts about anyone associated with our community:

  • We report every account that is in our name or shares harmful/intimidating content about people in our community to the platform administrators
  • We work with a number of agencies to identify, challenge and support the people involved in creating accounts and contents for these accounts
  • We continue to carry out our own internal investigations in relation to any concerns shared with the school and concerns the school identifies

Thank you for your support.

Arbor update

We are now moving ahead with our timeline to launch the Arbor parent portal and will be launching this with parents and carers via this newsletter in the coming weeks. Please look out for these updates. This portal will enable parents and carers to view the number of REACH points being awarded and other data about their child.

Principal's Commendation

Congratulations and well done to Kyla H for being awarded a Principal’s Commendation this week. Kyla went above and beyond in helping and supporting someone in need in our local community. In doing so, she demonstrated the school values of empathy and humanity.

Well done Kyla! We are really proud of you.

Commonwealth Games challenges

In celebration of the upcoming Commonwealth Games, School Games have created virtual challenges for young people to take part in, inspired by the three values of the games - humanity, equality and destiny. Each theme includes three challenges which will help develop physical literacy skills, strength, or aerobic capacity, whilst aiming to inspire children and young people to be more active.

Posters containing information about all of the challenges can be downloaded below, along with a score card so that students can keep track of their scores.

Referee qualification opportunity

If you have a child aged 14+ who is interested in gaining their football referee qualification, an opportunity has arisen via Ed Reeves at Northamptonshire Sport whereby half the cost could be funded.

The course costs £140 which would need to be paid for up-front initially, and then if they are able to help referee some primary football competitions held on 22 Sept, 29 Sept, 6 Oct, 13 Oct, 20 Oct and 3 Nov (all at Redwell Leisure Centre in Wellingborough, 3:45-5:30pm), then they would receive £70 in return for half the cost of the course. Once they have this qualification, they are then able to referee games at weekends etc. too and earn money doing so.

Interested students should see Miss Hustwait ASAP as funding is limited and has been made available to all secondary students in the local district.

Year 11 exam timetable

Click to enlarge, or click here to download

Music at Manor

Music at Manor is thriving, and we are extremely pleased to be able to offer instrumental lessons from NMPAT to our students. If your child would like to have the opportunity to learn an instrument, then please complete the below form and email it to Miss Barron on mbarron@manor.school by Friday 17 June.

PE groupings survey

We have been working with Northumbria University to help one of their lecturers compile research on the importance of grouping effectively in PE. Schools around the country have given their views based on a teacher perspective and the research is now looking for data from a student perspective. Please could we ask you to encourage students to click the following link which will take them to the survey. It should take 10 minutes maximum to complete. Remember, this is to gain students' opinions on the way groups are set in PE. This is not compulsory, but we do get a copy of the anonymous data which may help us as a school moving forward too.

Extra-curricular timetable

Click to enlarge

The Den

‘The Den’ - our youth club managed and delivered by our sports centre team, and funded by Raunds Town Council - recently led a litter-pick and garden tidy up at the Ada Salter garden.

Click to enlarge

Our youth club is free of charge and offers a range of activities on a weekly basis and, more than anything, offers a safe space to attend and socialise. Although there is no maximum capacity, booking is required. To do so please email the team at sport@manor.school.

Summer holiday camp

Click here to book

Super 1s cricket

Super 1s gives young people with a disability aged 12-25 the chance to play regular competitive cricket while improving confidence and independence. By creating community cricket hubs where young people can receive coaching, they give participants the chance to compete against their peers and enjoy the benefits of playing sport. Please see the below flyer for details of their new Corby club.

Click to enlarge