18 March 2024
Dear parents and families,
As we approach the end of this very busy term, we have a number of updates to share with you all. Thank you for taking the time to read these notices.
In this letter:
Good news from MWA!
World Book Day
School premises and the ATP
FNN on Wednesday 20 March 2024
Parent forum
Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
Good news from MWA
We are extremely proud of students across the secondary school and at The SPACE for extraordinary performances in sporting and artistic events over the course of this term. If you are on X (formerly known as Twitter) then do follow the Monkton Wood Sport account for all updates, but we are especially excited that our Year 8 boys’ football team have reached the County Cup semi final by winning their quarter-final 4-1. In performing arts, we have awarded the cups to the winners of our Young Musician of the Year competition, with awards for the best soloist, composer and band. We hope to have pictures and celebrations on our social media accounts shortly. Finally, the SPACE company put on two performances of exceptional standard, with the dance students’ production ‘Portraits of Her’ and the acting students’ production of The Crucible taking place in the last fortnight. Pictures of both performances are on the SPACE’s Instagram page. Massive congratulations to all MWA students involved in these events!
World Book Day
Thursday 07 March was World Book Day and Monkton Wood was buzzing with enthusiasm for reading. Staff were dressed as characters from their favourite books, with students completing a treasure hunt matching each staff member to their character. We also gave out the annual WBD book vouchers, so please do encourage your child to spend their voucher on something new to read. If they are in need of a recommendation, Mrs Armitage, our librarian, can point them in the direction of something they might enjoy.
School premises and the ATP
You may be aware that our ATP is now closed. It has been surveyed by the CLF’s maintenance contractor and its condition is too poor for it to be safely used. The process to design and commission a replacement has begun. As soon as we know the timescale for these works, we will let families know. Whilst we would always wish to keep disruption on the site to a minimum during term time, we also want to make the new pitch available to our students and our community groups as soon as possible.
FNN on Wednesday 20 March 2024
The next Federation Network Night for MWA teaching staff is this Wednesday, the 20th March. The school will close after period 4 as previously. If your child has remained in school until 3.30pm on previous FNN nights, we will contact you to confirm this arrangement for this upcoming event. If you have not requested a school place for your child previously but would like them to remain in school this Wednesday until 3.30pm, please contact the school office.
FNN in term 5 is scheduled for Wednesday 08 May.
Parent Forum
We have a parent forum coming up this week on the topic of extra-curricular activities. As previously, the parent forum is an opportunity for school leaders to hear parents’ views on the kind of opportunities that you think the school should be offering, and to support the school with creative approaches to making a broad range of activity available. If you plan to attend this event, please let us know by filling in this form.
The final parent forum of the year will take place after the Easter holiday, and we will be discussing our reporting arrangements for 2024-25. Please join us, as we begin to plan the timing and format of our reports to parents and parents’ evenings.
Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
Monkton Wood is part of the Mental Health Support Team offered in Somerset schools. Colleagues from the team work in our school, supporting a number of our students with low intensity cognitive behavioural therapy for mild-moderate mental health presentations. The team have provided us with materials which promote their services and signpost other local services as well. Please do follow us on Facebook, if you haven’t already, where we will post these materials for our families’ information.
As always, we thank you for your continuing support.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs H. Jones
Principal
