09 January 2026
Dear parents and families,
Happy New Year! From all of us at Monkton Wood. We hope you had an enjoyable winter break, however you celebrated. It has been great to have the students back this week, and to hear about Christmas celebrations and new year resolutions.
In this letter:
New Year; better habits. Resetting our MWA expectations (this is a fairly long read)
Lockdown procedure
Assessment arrangements this term
New Year; Better Habits
On our staff training day on Monday, we returned to our basic expectations and the standards that set the culture here at Monkton Wood. We considered what matters most to us, and the energies and efforts needed to uphold these consistently across the school. On Tuesday, we held a whole-school assembly to communicate key messages to students, and these are reinforced in every lesson by every teacher.
Key messages for parents include on issues of uniform, lost learning time during lessons, and mobile phones.
Uniform
Our uniform policy is available on our website and has not changed in several years. We do not allow trainers, and we do not allow hoodies. We are grateful to parents who uphold these rules and ensure that their child always has a suitable outdoor coat, school jumper and smart school shoes. However, we also keep a large stock of school jumpers and shoes for children who – at least temporarily – cannot provide their own. Our expectation is that all children will be in full school uniform at all times. Students in incorrect uniform will be expected to either borrow items from us or return home to change. If a child refuses to change, they will not be allowed in circulation around the school (typically, they will remain in Refocus) and we will be making every effort to contact parents to support their child to make better choices. We have, however, made the decision to add white socks to the list of acceptable uniform items; it clearly matters a great deal to the children that they prefer white socks and the feelings of staff are that white socks do not compromise the principles that underpin our uniform policy, and so we have made this amendment.
If your child’s SEND passport already contains an adjustment to their uniform, they will shortly be issued with a new laminated card to carry in their bag which outlines for all staff what their adjustments are.
Lost learning
Of great concern to us currently is the amount of time lost by children out of lessons either visiting the toilet, filling their water bottle or in first aid. For your understanding, these are our expectations of out-of-class permissions:
Students are expected to use the toilet facilities during break and lunchtime. All teachers will refuse permission to leave class to use the toilet in the first or last 10 minutes of the lesson. The teacher will use their professional judgement to give permission to leave class at other times during the lesson, but only the toilets in D block are open during lesson time. Students with an individual health care plan requiring toilet access at all times will shortly be issued a new pass to carry in their pocket, in addition to the current arrangement of showing this information on their IHCP.
We would like to be clear with parents that we do not have a nurse in school and, whilst we can provide basic first aid assistance, we do not offer medical care as such. Students can visit first aid for plasters and pain relief, and if they feel so unwell that they wish us to contact parents to be sent home. Since September there have been over 2000 visits to the first aid room, a good proportion of which were not incidents requiring first aid. We appreciate your support in encouraging your child to stay in their lessons and to report their symptoms and feelings to you when they return home, so that you can consider if you need to see a trained medical practitioner.
Finally, please could you ensure that your child is bringing a reusable water bottle to school to refill during breaks and lunchtimes. We still see a number of children, out of lessons, and asking reception staff for cups and bottles which they do not keep in stock. If a child does not have their bottle, they can use the water fountain on the outside of R block during break and lunchtime.
Phones
By way of a reminder, our rules are that mobile phones must be locked down by parents using a parental control app during school hours. Thank you to all parents that have organised this for their own children. Where we have children who continue to use their phone during school hours – causing a distraction to learning and risking the privacy and safety of the school community – we use a risk assessment approach which increases the demand on parents to manage their child’s media misuse and can include referral to outside agencies where even further support is required.
Lockdown Procedure
During this term we will be holding a practice of our lockdown emergency procedure. In school we will be preparing students for this in form time, so that everyone knows what to do in the event of an emergency, ahead of the drill. When the practice takes place, you will receive a notification on your phone. It will be clear that a lockdown practice is underway, but it will also include the information that would be in a notification in the event of an actual emergency. The most vital messages for parents in these instances are firstly, please do not come to the school site. However counter to the parental instinct to protect our children it may feel to stay away, it is vital that we do not compromise the ability of emergency services to reach the school by having additional adults and vehicles on school site. Secondly, please do not attempt to contact your child via their mobile phone and please ignore any attempts made by them to contact you. The lights and sounds made by mobile phones would give away the location of children who are supposed to be out of sight. In the event of an emergency, please refer to your emails for updates which we will provide as soon as it is safe for us to do so. We will always endeavour to share the reason for the lockdown with our families, when it is appropriate for us to do so.
Assessment This Term
We are currently in the assessment window for Years 7-9. This means they will be completing assessments during lesson time in most subjects. Assessments for Year 10 begin next week. They will be completing PPE (pre-public exams) in English, Maths and Science and may have additional assessment in some options subjects. The second set of Year 11 PPEs begin in the final week of this term. Raising Standards Leaders typically write to their own year group with any additional information for parents. All school reports are now shared with parents via the MCAS app, and you will receive a message to let you know when this has taken place. If you still have not activated your MCAS app, please refer to earlier newsletters on our school website for the instructions.
Thank you for your reading to the end of this fairly long update letter. And thank you again for all of your continuing support for the school.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs H. Jones
Principal
