09 July 2025
Dear parents and families,
As we come towards the end of this final term of the year, we have said goodbye and congratulations to our leavers in Year 11 and Year 13, and hello to our new Years 7 who have been in school for three days in the past week. We also celebrate the success of our Year 10 students that completed their work experience last week as well.
In this letter:
Arrangements for Sports Day on Friday
Arrangements for the last day of this term
Arrangements for the first day of next term
MCAS update
Arrangements for Sports Day
You will have seen the weather forecast for our Sports Day on Friday 11 July. The expected heat has caused us to rethink our plans slightly, to make sure that our children are safe and comfortable, whilst we celebrate the fantastic athletic achievements of our students and the awarding of our House Sports Cup.
We will run a normal school day and timetable for lessons 1-4. Students taking part in the earlier events in the schedule will leave their lesson to compete and then return to class. The whole school will go out to the field for only the final 45 minutes of the day, to watch the relay races for all year groups. Precise details of the schedule will be shared with tutor groups over the coming days.
Given the change to the timings of the day, we will not have facilities available for students to change into PE kit. We therefore invite all children to wear either their full MWA PE kit, or their full MWA school uniform, for the entire day. We do not expect the children to mix-and-match PE kit with uniform. We also do not allow the students to wear non-uniform PE items. Children attending in the wrong kit will be asked either to return home to change, or to borrow items from the school.
Please do ensure that your children have applied sunscreen on Friday morning and have brought additional with them, if they need to reapply for the afternoon. We are not able to provide sunscreen in school, due to allergy risks. Please also ensure that your child has their refillable bottle with them, and we strongly recommend that your child brings a hat/cap as well.
Arrangements for the last day of term
The last day of term for Monkton Wood is Tuesday 22 July 2025. On that day, we have a slightly adjusted schedule to allow for all our celebration events to take place, with just one break in the middle of the morning when the usual hot and cold food is available in our canteen. We will be awarding individual House cups as well as the overall award, and the winning house will have their celebration event on our school field. We will be closing for students at 1.30pm, and the buses will be leaving between 1.30 and 1.45pm. The school reception will be open until 3.30pm on that day.
Arrangements for the first day of next term
The first day of the Autumn term for MWA is Monday 01 September 2025. The first two days are staff Inset training days. School will be open, however all staff will be in training sessions and so will not be answering the phone during the day. If you do need to contact us, please email us on info@mwa.clf.uk and we will get back to you when the training sessions end.
The first day back for Year 7, Year 11 and Year 12 will be Wednesday 03 September. The timing of this school day is 8.45am to 3.30pm as usual and our school bus service will be running. All year groups will then attend from Thursday 04 September.
We would like to remind all families that we begin teaching the timetable from the very first day of term, and so children should come to school equipped with all their equipment, ready for lessons.
Please also take the summer holiday to do a check of your child’s school uniform and school shoes, and do contact the school if financial hardship is preventing you from sending your child back to school in full school uniform or without full school equipment.
MCAS – ‘My Child At School’
From September 2025, we will no longer be using Class Charts as our home-school communication app. We are moving to ‘My Child At School’, known as MCAS. You will shortly receive a letter explaining exactly how to download this app, or to find the website online, and to create your MWA account.
I will write one more time before the end of this school year, with some more information about works at MWA over the summer break and about support services available in our local area whilst the school is closed.
With thanks for your continuing support.
Mrs H Jones
Principal
