Dear Parents/Carers,

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a wonderful break and managed to have quality time with family and friends. Students have quickly settled back into the routines this week, and it has been brilliant to see students looking very smart in their school uniform. We continue to ensure uniform is impeccable throughout the school, and we will continue to offer support where it is needed. Please get in touch with a member of the team should you need any support.

I had the pleasure of delivering the assemblies to all students this week. It was an ideal opportunity to share some key milestones this term with students, such as deadlines for sixth form applications for year 11 students, dates of progress evenings, and the date for our Year 9 Options Evening which is being held in March. I also spoke to students about setting goals for the year, and thinking carefully about how we can ensure these goals are achieved through being consistent with our focus and approach, and trying to make marginal gains each day with everything we do.

71 students have been having a great time this week in Andorra. We are looking forward to welcoming them back tomorrow evening. Details on the time of return will be communicated to parents as soon as we can. It will be easier to confirm this once students have completed the Eurotunnel journey and are back in the country. I am sure that students will be eager to let you know too. I hope you have managed to see some of the pictures on social media, and I am sure that students will be excited to share their photos and stories with you when they return. Details of the coach tracker will be made available again on social media.

Following the Progress 1 reports, we have put together progress boards in school for each year group. Students have been allocated an animal name so they can see where their progress is in comparison to the rest of the year group. We hope that this will encourage and motivate students to be the best version of themselves. Students have been encouraged not to share their animal name with each other unless they choose to do so. This ensures that all students’ progress data is kept private to the individual. Year 11 progress boards are based on their progress compared to their targets, whilst data for year 7 to 10 aggregates data from the following: Progress, Attitude to Learning, Team Rushden Points, and Behaviour.

Before the Holiday, members of #TeamRushden supported the Rushden Round Table to support and raise money for various charities. We are very excited to share that we raised just over £500 from the Santa Sleigh evening and the Rushden Round Table have added a further £100 to this. This is most we have ever raised from this event, and we are very grateful for the donations and contributions received. The evening was great fun and we look forward to supporting this again this year.

I would like to remind everyone that we have lots of different systems in school that allow your child to report a concern they may have. All students have access to a safeguarding mobile phone number that they can text or call at any time if they are worried about something. Students also have access to our anonymous reporting system on the school website that they can use to report a concern. We have a facility on every school computer to report a concern via a Google Form, or if they would like to, they can talk to any member of the team. We would never want a student to feel as though they were not able to talk to someone, or report a concern they have, so please remind your child that there are many ways to report any concerns. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Your sincerely

Jonathan Firth