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Our Manor 6-10 September 2021

Welcome to this week's newsletter

Wow! What a week we have had at Manor School. It has been brilliant to see everyone back in school again and - better still - wandering around freely around the site. The staff team have been on hand to guide students around the school site between lessons and after break and lunch time. The canteen has been a hive of activity for the first time in such a long time and the atmosphere has been great. Watching students from all year group mixing has been a pleasure to witness. There has been a distinctly positive attitude in all the lessons we have been in this week.

We have continued testing this week and our thanks must go to Tom Hatton and the team for setting up this operation. This is no mean feat and takes a lot of hard work and effort. Testing is a reminder that whilst restrictions have eased in schools we must continue to be proactive. We continue to encourage regular hand washing, maintaining social distancing where possible and ventilating classrooms. Please keep testing your children twice weekly and notify us immediately of symptoms or a positive test.

We do want to take this opportunity to plug the parent forum, which takes place on 30 September. This is a valuable opportunity for families to engage with professionals and school staff on a matter that is very important. Support, guidance and signposting of services will be important features of the session. Further information is included in this newsletter.

Have a great weekend!

Lee Towers and Glenn Martin, Interim Co-Principals

Year 7 CATs

We will be carrying out baseline testing for all Year 7 students over the next two weeks using materials provided by GL Assessment. The purpose of this testing is to help us identify gaps in learning, allowing us to identify both curriculum and pastoral needs and where students will need additional support. It will also help us to judge the true potential of students and highlight where hidden factors may be affecting performance.

Students will complete a CAT4 test - the UK’s most widely used test of reasoning abilities for children. It is an assessment of abilities in areas known to make a difference to learning and achievement – namely verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning.

Students will also complete baseline assessments in English, mathematics and science. These will help give us a clear, accurate baseline against which we can judge future progress, as well as an understanding of the current level of attainment of students.

We would ask for parental support in reassuring students that these tests at the beginning of the school year are not being carried out to assess the current performance of students, but are designed to give us an indication of their future potential. They are not tests for which revision or preparation can be carried out and they cannot be ‘passed’ or ‘failed’. As such we would urge students not to feel unduly pressured or stressed but to consider their responses carefully and do their best.

Homework and Microsoft Teams

Our IT team, EasiPC, are currently finishing the synchronisation of Microsoft Teams and student accounts for all new students. As this happens students will be added to a Microsoft Team for each of their classes. New students will be shown the basics of accessing these systems in their IT lessons and further guidance will be shared over the following weeks. A short, introductory video is available from Microsoft here: Connecting with Microsoft Teams as a student.

From this year, all homework will be set as assignments on Microsoft Teams. This does not mean that students must complete all homework electronically, simply that the details of homework set will be available via Microsoft Teams, rather than Show My Homework. Our IT team are setting up the link for parents/carers to view the assignments that have been set and more information will be available shortly.

Face masks on school transport

Please be aware that government guidance still states that students are required to wear a face mask on school transport. Guidance can be found via the following link:

School-time appointments

If a student has a school-time appointment (e.g. a medical appointment) and consequently will either be late to school or need collecting during the day, their parent/carer must advise the school in advance by either phoning 01933 627020 or emailing attendance@manor.school. Parents/carers must then come into reception to pick the student up and/or drop them off afterwards.

The student should also notify their subject teacher of the time they will be needing to leave their lesson. Their teacher will then send them to reception at the correct time.

Parent/carer contact details

It is crucial that if the contact details of parents/carers or any emergency contacts have changed, you must notify us by emailing enquiries@manor.school as soon as possible. This includes phone numbers, email addresses and postal addresses. Having incorrect or outdated contact details can create significant issues both for communicating with parents, or in urgent situations where we may need to contact you about your child.

PE uniform policy

All students are expected to participate in PE lessons whilst at Manor School and to do so must be wearing the correct attire that is suitable for the location and activity being undertaken. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure they have the correct clothing for their lesson.

Our PE uniform policy as well as a visual guide can be downloaded from the uniform page on our website.

Site improvements

Our site team with support from outside contractors have been busy over the summer break improving various aspects of the school site. This has included the installation of new signage, computers and projectors, as well as painting classrooms and rejuvenating the quad. We would like to thank them for all their hard work. We will continue to make further site improvements throughout the year.

Eco-Schools

Manor School has already gained the Bronze Award for Eco-Schools - a fantastic achievement, but we would like to do much more! We would like to do more to raise awareness of environmental issues in order to improve the natural environment of the school. We will shortly be re-launching the Eco-Schools club (which was put on hold somewhat with coronavirus restrictions last year) to students.

If your child is interested, they should contact Mr Andrews (jandrews@manor.school) and listen out for announcements from their tutor about upcoming meetings.

Equally, we are looking for support from parents/carers, particularly if they have useful experience, knowledge or skills that might benefit our students and school environment, and are willing to pass this on.

Anti-bullying Ambassadors

Towards the end of last year, 21 students took part in Anti-bullying Ambassador training from the Diana Award. This is a national organisation with the aim of eradicating bullying, helping staff and students to achieve this, as well as supporting students who may be experiencing bullying.

We will be encouraging students to take part in the first meeting on Friday 17 September during lunchtime if they would like to also become Anti-bullying Ambassadors. The more that take part, the stronger we become! Students will need to listen out for announcements from their tutor, or contact Mr Andrews (jandrews@manor.school) for more information.

Diversity champions

Manor School has got a small student body who are looking at all aspects of our culture, including our curriculum, staff training, policies and actions related to a wide range of diversity issues, including race, religion, sexuality, identity, gender and disability.

We are continually looking for more voices to improve this, so would encourage both students and parents/carers that are interested in fairness, equitability and rights for all to become involved. The more perspectives we have (particularly with those with lived experiences), the more truly inclusive we can become as a school.

Students should listen out for further announcements from their form tutors about the first meeting on Thursday 16 September, and any parents/carers that feel they can help us on our journey should contact Jon Andrews (jandrews@manor.school).

Sixth form update

We are delighted to announce that record numbers of students have returned to study in the sixth form. This is a clear indicator of excellent teaching and facilities available to our post-16 students.

We welcome back Year 13 students and look forward to supporting them in this crucial, final year.

We also welcome the new Year 12 students who have really hit the ground running after their two-week induction period in July. For parents and carers of new students, we warmly invite you to an online information and Q&A session on Thursday 16 September.

As our Year 13 leavers head off to university, we thought we'd share a selection of some of their remarkable destinations:

Click to enlarge

We work collaboratively with The Elephant Group to increase the number of students accessing 'top third' universities. This year, an incredible 33% of students applying for university secured a place at a top third university. This is an increase of 23% from 2020.

For more information about post-16 study, please contact dcarter@manor.school.

Sports honours board

In the area outside the Sports Hall we have an honours board which has been a bit quiet as of late. We would like to get this up and running again and need your help. If your child competes in any sport at county level or higher, please can they let their PE teacher know by the end of September, ideally bringing some sort of evidence of their accomplishments. We will then get their name added to our sporting honours board, where it will remain for the rest of the time that our school exists.

Sports leadership academy

Year 7 and 8 students that were successful in getting a place on our Sports Leadership academy should attend their first meeting after school in Room 50 on Wednesday 15 September until 4.30pm.

Manor Maths Challenges

Mrs Radd's weekly maths blog is back! The first edition of the academic year is all about 'silly maths'.

Parent forum

Would you like to help your child to navigate the virtual and real world safely? If so, join us for our ‘Friend or Foe?’ parent forum on Thursday 30 September from 6:30-8pm.

This session examines the risks young people face and offers ways of keeping safe. Led by experts in online safety and child sexual exploitation, it will provide resources, promote awareness and provide hints and tips for educating others around positive and negative relationships, peer pressure, sexual exploitation along with the use of new technologies within this arena. Refreshments will be provided.

Book your place by completing our online form:

Online safety tips

The start of a new school year often means there's fresh online trends to jump on and exciting new games for young people to play on their phone, computer or console. The team at National Online Safety have compiled a list of top tips to ensure that whether they’re going online to chat, research things or just have fun, they can do it safely. You can download their poster below.

Extra-curricular clubs

At Manor School our mission statement is 'Success for All'. To us this means we are a genuinely comprehensive and truly inclusive school. Our extra-curricular provision is an integral part of achieving our mission statement. This provision is designed to give our students the chance to develop the things they loving doing and have fun. The opportunities also help our students advance their own understanding and knowledge of our REACH values.

Each term we offer a variety of extra-curricular clubs from across different subject areas. This term's clubs start on Monday 13 September - students interested in any of the following clubs should go to the club's venue on the day/time stated. Be sure to check the extra-curricular timetable on our website regularly as additional clubs/activities may be added.

Raunds Mayor's Show