24 May 2024
Dear parents and families,
Welcome to the end of term 5! We hope that you will be able to find some time over the long weekend, and the week ahead if you have time off work, to rest and reconnect with your children, family and friends. This term has been extremely busy in school, as our students in Year 11 and Year 13 have been preparing for, and then sitting, their final examinations and assessments. We are extremely proud of the hard work they have put in, and their continuing positive attitude.
In this letter:
· Cycle safety
· Social media challenges
· Dates for the diary
· Good news from MWA
Cycle safety
We are closely monitoring the safety of our students that cycle to and from school. We are concerned about the safe riding habits of some students, and would appreciate our parents’ support in reminding their children that they must ride on the road, not pavement, as well as observing all the rules of the road. We encourage all students to wear a helmet, and for families to check the tyres and brakes on their children’s bikes on a regular basis. Please can I remind parents who collect their children in cars at the end of the day that you must not wait on the yellow zig-zag lines, because it restricts visibility and further increases the risk to our cyclists. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Social media challenges
Thank you to all parents and carers who positively engage with their child’s social media activity and take steps to ensure their child is safe, and kind, online. Please could we ask you to be alert to a trend of children taking silly or embarrassing pictures of their friends and then circulating them on social media or in group chats. Whilst these images may seem harmless, they are causing quite a lot of upset and even breakdowns in friendships in school. If your child has such photos on their phone, we would be grateful if you would ensure they are deleted and your child understands why they can be so hurtful.
Dates for the diary
The term dates for the academic year 2024-25 are on our school website. We will be staggering the return of the year groups in September, with years 7, 11 and 12 returning on Wednesday 04 September and then all year groups on Thursday 05 September.
In the first week of term 6, next term, we have our Year 10 parents’ evening on Thursday 06 June.
The following week, the week commencing 10 June is the week of our Art and Textiles annual exhibition; all are welcome to come to see the work on display, each day that week from 3.45pm to 5.30pm, with Monday 10 June our grand opening evening. The week commencing the 10th is also the first week of our KS3 assessment period for years 7-9.
Our SPACE students are performing ‘Everyone’s Talking About Jamie’ at our own Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre from 19 to 22 June, with tickets available on the TMAC website. The end of that week is also the expedition for our year 9 students completing their bronze Duke of Edinburgh award.
Year 10 end-of-year assessments begin on 19 June. The following week is transition week, with our new year 7 students joining us on Tuesday 02 July and Wednesday 03 July.
A reminder that we are closed to students on Friday 05 July, for the final day of staff training as we join our colleagues from across the CLF at our summer conference in Weston-Super-Mare. We will also be closing at 2.30pm for the final FNN of the year, on Wednesday 10 July.
Sports day is scheduled for Friday 12 July (weather permitting) and our last day of term is Tuesday 23 July.
Good news from MWA
We are proud of all the MWA staff that ran the Bristol 10k or half-marathon, on Sunday 19 May. This weekend is the Taunton 10k, and there have been several other running or walking events which CLF staff take part in, to raise money for educational visits for young people who have experienced disadvantage.
We were delighted to host a local training event for the Diana Award anti-bullying project, in which students from other local schools and our own are trained to become anti- bullying ambassadors. More updates on this project will follow, from Mr Draper.
MWA students have contributed to a film of poems and extracts from WWII soldiers’ letters, which will be used as part of Somerset’s D-Day commemorations this year.
These stories, and others, will be shared on our Facebook page, so please do follow us if you are not doing so already.
Wishing you all a restful and relaxing half-term break. Thank you for your continuing support.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs H. Jones
Principal
