Message from the Principal

This week we had a number of visitors to the school for meetings and interviews. It was excellent to hear their reflections about our students. It is always encouraging to hear positive comments on the quality of behaviour and how polite our students have been to our guests. We believe that manners and politeness are very important - through all of their interactions - and try to instil and remind our students of this daily.

Nene Education Trust Awards

Last night we enjoyed two successes from those nominated at the Nene Education Trust Awards. Katie Dicker was presented with the Secondary Teacher of the Year Award and Jane O’Brien won the Unsung Hero award. We congratulate them both and all of the other nominees, finalists and winners on their thoroughly deserved achievements in what has been a very challenging year.

Transition activities

At this time in the school year we start to look forward towards students who are transitioning from one phase of their schooling to another. This happens at a number of age groups and we are excited by the provision being planned.

Firstly, we have the Year 6’s who will be joining us in Year 7. We have an exciting extended transition programme for this year which will give us an opportunity to ensure that all these students have the opportunity to spend some time with us and develop their secondary readiness.

In school we have the Year 9 into 10 preferences process which is nearing completion and are very pleased that we have been able to facilitate the vast majority of preferences to ensure that we are getting the right students on the right course.

Once again, we have had a record number of applications for our sixth form. The quality of provision in both teaching and resources continues to be strengthened. With so much disruption to their studies over Year 10 and 11, we are determined to give these students an excellent induction experience for post-16 courses. Similarly, for students moving on from Manor into college courses we want to ensure they are well provided for as they take their next steps.

Finally, we remain committed to our Year 13 students until they are embedded in their destinations and are always on hand to help and support.

Uniform

I am delighted to announce that Karlsports is now our uniform supplier. Karlsports is a family run Northamptonshire school-wear supplier with a reputation for quality and excellence gained over many years. We have enjoyed working and been impressed with Karlsports as we have had the discussions and developed our new Manor School uniform in preparation for September. I am sure you will have a similar experience.

We are very pleased with the quality and costs of the final products as these were essential criteria for ensuring our students could look smart as they represent our school whilst ensuring value for money. When we started the rebranding process, we were very conscious about not increasing costs for uniform because of the rebranding. We have achieved this aim.

Karlsports have an excellent website and a shop based in Kettering for all of your uniform needs. We will write very shortly to Year 6 students moving into Year 7 about both transition and uniform. All other year groups will be able to start to see Manor School items appear on the Karlsports website from the middle of next week.

Thank you, and farewell to Tom Innes

This week was the last week for our IT technician Tom Innes. Tom works for EasiPC but has been based on our school site and is responsible for our network and infrastructure. Tom has made a huge impact on improving the quality of our provision for staff and students alike. His expertise was particularly valuable as we moved to remote learning through the various lockdowns we have experienced.

I was delighted to award Tom this week’s ‘The Golden Last’ award and an Amazon voucher as a ‘Thank you’ for all of his work.

Thank you for your continued support.

Jay Davenport, Principal