30 January 2026
Dear parents and families,
As we come to the half-way point of the academic year, and the deepest weeks of a stormy winter, I would like to thank our students, staff and families for their resilience and positive attitude to some fairly challenging conditions both in school and in the local area this week. It was a relief to have slightly less than the forecast rain on Thursday night, and to have an undisturbed end to the week. If you have not already done so but are comfortable to give prior consent for your child to make their own way home from school in the event of a weather-related early closure, the form is still available here. It will be closed at 4:00pm on Monday 02 February 2026.
In today’s letter:
Receiving notifications to MCAS
Parent survey
DFE guidance on mobile phones in schools
Receiving notifications to MCAS
The Bromcom/MCAS system that we use for parental communication should send notifications to your phone. When we were forced to partially close on Tuesday, we are aware that some parents felt that their notification did not come through. This will be to do with your phone settings. Please do check that you have enabled notifications for the MCAS app in your phone’s settings. If you have notifications turned off, the message will still be delivered, but you may not get a pop-up ‘push’ notification to alert you.
Early or partial closures are always also posted on the school’s website and Somerset Council’s school closures website, as well.
Parent Survey
As we reach the half-way point in this academic year, we would like to invite families to complete a parent survey. This includes a section on general satisfaction, but further sections for your thoughts on bullying, special educational needs and communications. We would be grateful if as many of you as possible would complete the survey by following this link: MWA Parent Survey | January 2026 – Fill in form
DFE Guidance on mobile phones in schools
On 19 January 2026, the DFE released an update to their guidance for schools around banning the use of mobile schools. You can read the full guidance here. Whilst MWA already has a ban on the use of phones for students, we are aware that a number of children still use their phone during the day, whether in secret or not. We must return to the issue of mobile phones and the implementation of our ban in the near future. In the meantime, I would like to thank the parents who are successfully using their parental control app to ensure their child is not tempted to break the ban and would encourage any parent that needs additional technical support in setting up parental controls to contact the school as soon as possible.
With best wishes for a relaxing weekend,
Mrs H Jones
Principal
