January 2012
Dear parent/carer,
I am writing requesting some feedback on a number of issues.
You will be aware that last year we modified our arrangements for pastoral care and timings of the
school day. We created a House system, vertical tutor groups, modifying our assembly
arrangements, etc. This was done to further improve our support of students.
We have been pleased with the way the majority of these changes have worked. Both students and
parents in the Autumn questionnaire have given us very positive feedback about the new
arrangements, however we did say we would review the arrangements as we proceeded. We have
been doing so at the end of last term and I would now welcome your thoughts.
Two issues of concern to parents at the time of the change were communication with tutors and
length of lunchtime. We have monitored the situation of an afternoon tutor time/assembly and length
of lunch carefully and would like to propose moving tutor time/assembly back to 08.55 in the morning.
This will not affect our start time of 08.50 nor the finish of the day at 15.20. We believe this will
improve further registration of students at the beginning of the day, improve communication with
home via notes, etc and help to maintain our high quality assemblies. We would also like to lengthen
the lunch time by 5 minutes improving students’ access to clubs, recreation time, etc.
These proposals would mean a slightly later lunch at 13.25. The effect of this we would like to offset
by introducing a new service of breakfast in the restaurant from 08.30 every morning and also by
broadening our range of food served at 11.10 (to include porridge, in addition to croissants, toast,
etc). The new restaurant has proved very popular and we are keen to increase student access to it.
These arrangements would mean that we continue to teach 4 lessons before lunch and 1 after which
has also proved popular. Please do let me know your thoughts on these proposed arrangements.
On another matter we are always keen to improve our communication with home and I know more
and more parents access our website for key information. We are now considering the usefulness of
using email as a prime means of correspondence to all parents/ carers. There are environmental
advantages to this as well as overcoming the “bottom of the school bag” non delivered letter,
scenario. We recognise that access to ICT is an issue for some parents and would, of course,
continue to offer paper communication where requested but we are interested in moving to a situation
where all our mailshots are organised electronically. We would, of course, need email addresses for
everyone who has one. (We currently collect them from new intake families). Again, I would
welcome your thoughts on this idea.
Finally, we introduced new jumpers for Key Stage 4 students this year and we are reviewing their
popularity – again I would welcome your thoughts on their style and practicality (and value for money)
as we are surveying students’ views on them at the moment.
My apologies for the length of this letter. If we modify our arrangements (do please note we are not
proposing to change the start and finish times of the day) we will do so by the end of January and I
would welcome your thoughts before we proceed. Please contact my PA, Mrs Floyd, with any
feedback you may have about these issues. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Happy New Year and as ever thank you for your support.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Lunt
Headteacher