Dear Parents and Carers,

It seems like I’ve been here a lot longer than two weeks! Again, I would like to say a thank you to all for such a great experience so far at School of Christ the King.

In particular, can I thank all parents for being so welcoming and friendly when I’m out on the school gates at the start of the school day. Especially can I thank parents and carers who are supporting their children by getting to school by 8.50am (more about that later).

Celebration Assemblies

School of Christ the King is a great school and we are very proud of our children’s achievements.

To celebrate these we will be having a Celebration Assembly every Monday morning at 9am in the school hall. Children will be presented with special Headteacher’s Awards, celebrating their success. We are very keen on involving parents and carers in this celebration and we will be inviting you to these assemblies.

Names of children receiving an award will be published each week in this newsletter and parents can access the hall through the entrance at the far end of the school by the lane, opposite the gate to Fr Michael’s house.

The first Celebration Assembly will be on Monday 18th January at 9am, where the following children will receive their Headteacher's Award:  William (R), Cody W (R), Kristen K (Y1), Gracie R (Y1), Oscar N (Y2), Summer S (Y2), Kallie Anna C (Y3), Logan V (Y3), Chloe M (Year 4), Bethany (Y5) and Maggie V (Y6).

Use of the Bike Shed

Following a request from a parent, and to encourage children coming into school on time, we will now be opening the bike shed to all children.

The bike shed will be locked at the start of the school day (8.50am) so children need to be in school on time to lock up their bikes or scooters.

Attendance! Attendance! Attendance!

Coming to Christ the King, I was surprised about pupils’ overall low attendance levels. Christ the King’s attendance is in the lowest 10% nationally and not getting any better. This obviously impacts on learning and needs to quickly improve.

My main concerns are:

• Far too many children being absent on a regular basis due to illness.
• An unacceptable number of absences due to holidays (including long weekends).
• A very high number of medical appointments are taken in school time (as most appointments should be made for after school)

 As you may well already know, Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Absences can only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

                                                         

The school will do its best to work with parents and we will resist taking action such as fining because we want to maintain good relationships and behave in a reasonable manner. Overall, my experience at St Joseph’s is that this approach is almost always successful.

Unfortunately when absences are unreasonable, the school has no choice but to consider taking further action when excessive leave is taken in term time. This action is likely to include referring the matter to the Education Welfare Office and issuing fines.

We would ask for your support in this matter and arrange any holidays and family visits to fall within the average twelve weeks of school holidays.

Where attendance is a concern, we will be asking parents to come into school and discuss matters further.

Promoting Good Attendance

To promote improvement, we will now be publishing which classes have good attendance each week. Classes with 99% or 100% attendance will be rewarded with a special non-uniform day the following week. We will also expect these classes for children to be punctual almost all of the time to win a non-uniform day. 

Dates for non-uniform will be published in the newsletter.

We are also planning ways to celebrate the attendance of individual children who have 100% attendance every term. This will be announced soon.

Lateness

Firstly a big thank you to those who always arrive on time, or who have improved their punctuality this last week.

However, there are still too many children who are arriving late for school which starts at 8.50am.   

This Tuesday 17 children arrived late for school which was very disruptive to the school and the children.

Children who arrive late often come to school unsettled and embarrassed. Where lateness is an ongoing concern, we will be asking parents to come into school and discuss matters further.

Last Week’s Attendance

Well done to the following classes who had attendance at over 97% attendance last week:

·                     Year 1 with 97%

·                     Year 5 with 97%

With slightly better attendance these classes will be getting a special non-uniform day.

Dates for Diaries

Tuesday 3^rd February                            -           Parent’s Evening (details coming soon)

Wednesday 4^th February                      -           Parent’s Evening (details coming soon)

Friday 5^th February                               -           End of Term 3

Monday 15^th February                         -           Start of Term 4

Monday 9^th May                                  -           Start of Y6 SATs week

Yours sincerely

Matt Condon

Headteacher