Dear parents and families,
I hope you have had a relaxing and enjoyable summer with your children. We are looking forward to welcoming our returning students, as well as our new Year 7s and SPACE students, in the week ahead. I wanted to remind families about our arrangements for the first few days.
The new school year begins with two staff training days on Monday 02 and Tuesday 03 September 2024. The school will be open, but please do bear in mind that the whole staff, including our professional services colleagues who work on reception, will be in training sessions and therefore will have limited capacity to answer the phones and respond to emails. Thank you for being patient.
The first days back for the students are as follows:
· Year 11, Year 7, and the SPACE Year 1 students on Wednesday 04 September.
· All other year groups will return on Thursday 05 September.
The Somerset School Transport buses will be running as usual on these days.
On your child’s first day back, the gates will open at 8:45am as usual, and close at 8:55am. If arriving after 8:55am they will need to sign in at the ‘late welcome gate’. We have separate gates for children in KS3 and in KS4. For the first two weeks of term, we are opening a third gate which is in between our VI form centre and the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre to allow Year 7 parents to wait with their child before the tutors arrive to collect their group. All three gates are staffed by senior leaders and our year teams, so if your child is unsure where to go there will be plenty of staff on hand to support. We expect that the car park will be extremely busy in the first week back, so please do observe the one-way system and do not stop on the yellow hatched areas. Thank you for prioritising the safety of our children, families and staff.
We appreciate your support in ensuring that all students are properly equipped for their lessons, from their very first day. The first day back for each year group will include a short tutor period and assembly with me and their year team, and will then proceed straight into lessons.
Similarly, please ensure that your child comes to school in their full uniform. Please encourage your child to locate their school shoes, ties, etc, over the weekend so that they are ready to go on their first day back. We do not allow trainers at Monkton Wood, and children wearing incorrect uniform will be expected to either go home and change, or to borrow items from student reception. If your family is experiencing financial difficulties which prevent you from providing all uniform items, please contact us and we will be happy to assist.
We thank you for your continued support.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs H Jones
Principal
