Welcome to this week's newsletter
Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 will take place from 6-12 February. The theme this year is ‘Let's Connect’ and Manor School will once again be taking the opportunity to get involved. Connection is a core strand of our Mental Health Strategy, so this work will feed directly into our approach towards helping build meaningful connections. We know that people thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. We will be getting involved by delivering bespoke tutor time sessions and assemblies, as well as through our discrete Work.World.Wellness lessons. In addition, we will be signposting other resources for young people and their families to use and get involved with. Amy Bradshaw, Trust Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, is working alongside our pastoral and inclusion team to plan and coordinate the week. We are already looking forward to the week and encourage everyone to get involved.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the teacher strikes, the first of which is coming up soon. We will be writing to all families at the beginning of next week setting out the actions we will be taking in light of the breaking news. I suspect from what we know already is that it will highly likely have a significant impact on our school. The NEU teachers union have balloted their members and have voted in favour of industrial action across the following dates:
- Wednesday 1 February (all eligible members in England)
- Wednesday 1 March (all eligible members in East Midlands/Eastern)
- Wednesday 15 March (all eligible members in England)
- Thursday 16 March (all eligible members in England)
We will communicate more on this matter at the beginning of next week.
Have a good weekend.
Lee Towers, Head of School
Advice for parents/carers about Andrew Tate
We would like to share the following information and advice with parents/carers on who the online influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate is, as well as what to look out for in relation to your child.
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 16-20 January is erudite.
Year 11 prom
Thank you to those that have made their payments for the Year 11 prom. We have now been able to pay the deposits and secure our first choice venue, DJ and photo booth.
We understand that some parents/carers were unable to meet this deadline. We still have some places available, therefore if you wish for your child to attend please make payment via WisePay before Friday 31 March. Please note that payments and reply slips have to be received in order to guarantee your child's place.
For any queries regarding the Year 11 prom, please contact Ria Ireland (rireland@manor.school) or Amber Towers (atowers@manor.school).
Homework and assessment forum
We would like to invite parents/carers of Year 8 students to attend a short parent forum on the topics of homework and assessment. This will take place at 6:00pm on Thursday 2 February.
Following this evening we will build on the feedback provided and engage with all parents, students and staff as we refine our strategy in these two areas.
The forum will last for around one hour and in order to enable effective discussion places are limited to 16 parents/carers. Please complete this form to register your interest to take part in the discussion before Friday 20 January. We will then confirm directly with those who have been randomly selected to attend. All parents/carers will have the opportunity to provide feedback in due course.
Mr Bateman and Mr Hurren
Extra-curricular timetable
Mental health workshops
Meet the SEND team events
The local authority SEND team are running drop-ins in February and March, where they are looking forward to meeting with parents and carers to find out how they can provide guidance and help in supporting your child. Please see the following document for more details.
Private foster carers
Don't forget that you can access your child's student details, attendance, REACH points and homework tasks via the Arbor parent portal app.