Parents/Carers Update

Please see emails and Mr Marsh’s assembly for the latest news.

Sixth form applications

We welcome any year 11 students to make an application to sixth form. The online link to the application form has been emailed out to all year 11s. We hope you will find it straightforward and there is also space in the form to give us any other messages you would like to. The deadline for the application is Friday 19 February, but you can, of course, submit it earlier. We look forward to reading your applications and will then be in touch to give you an interview time, which will happen between half term and the Easter holidays.

If you have not received it, or have any technical difficulties please email Mrs Sargeant. Similarly, if parents / carers have any queries, please feel free to get in touch by email: rsargeant@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk.

Year 11 careers interviews

Mr Phil Nelson from Derbyshire Careers Advice Service began conducting year 11 careers interviews last term in school. He is continuing to contact the year 11 students he has not yet seen and will be undertaking telephone interviews to discuss post year 11 careers advice.

If your child has not yet had an interview and would like to have one, please contact Mr Allsobrook: callsobrook@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk.

Communicating with school during lockdown

If parents/carers need to contact school during school opening hours our reception at Lumsdale (upper school site) is open daily from 8.30am until 3.30pm and a member of staff will be available to answer your calls. Please call 01629 581888.

Our Starkholmes (lower school site) is closed and calls are transferred to Lumsdale - please select option 2 to speak to reception and then option 1 for Lumsdale.

As our pastoral staff are working remotely, they are unable to pick up telephone messages left on their direct lines. If you need to contact pastoral staff, please do so via email:

Mrs Green - Year Manager (year 7)

tgreen@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Mr Tidmarsh - Year Manager (year 8) dtidmarsh@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Mrs Weightman Edge - Year Manager (year 9) Hweightman-edge@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Miss Esposito - Year Manager (year 10) aesposito@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Mr Allsobrook -Year Manager (year 11) callsobrook@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Mrs Sargeant - Year Manager (sixth form) rsargeant@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk

If your child is in HISS (Highfields in School Support) and you need to cancel or book places, please contact Mrs Leverton via email lleverton@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk

Virtual parents’ evenings 2021 - Weduc

We are launching our new parents’ evening software to enable parents’ evenings to be held virtually during lockdown and through the remainder of the year. Our new communication tool – Weduc – enables parents/carers to book virtual appointments with teachers and generates a link to the appointment for the online meeting.

By enabling parents’ evenings to operate virtually we hope it makes evenings more accessible for parents/carers and provides everyone with an opportunity to talk to your child(ren)’s teachers about their progress and next steps.

Full details on how the system works along with a guide to make appointments will be provided in advance.

Dates set for forthcoming evenings are:  Year 12 - Tuesday 2 March 2021  Year 11 – Tuesday 16 March 2021

We are currently looking at dates for years 7 and 10, who were scheduled to have evenings during the spring term, and we will provide further updates in due course.

In the meantime, thank you to the parents/carers who have already signed up to Weduc and a reminder to those who have yet to register, please enrol to enable you to receive communication from school and to attend virtual parents’ evenings (see details below).

ACTION REQUIRED: Weduc new home/school communication system

Weduc is our new digital communication and engagement tool that is designed to improve communication between parents/carers and school. Weduc allows notifications to be sent directly to mobiles of parents/carers with all messages and communication from school. It also allows access to information on your child(ren), eg details of behaviour, student timetables, reports and teachers to name a few, all in one easily accessible, user friendly place.

If you have not yet had the chance to enrol with Weduc, please do so as soon as possible

to avoid missing important messages from school. We have sent out email notifications with individual enrolment codes to all parents/carers with details on how to download the Weduc app onto your phone/tablet and how to access the site through the internet. Please contact your child’s year manager if you require a new enrolment message to be sent.

Over the coming weeks year managers will be sending out test emails to parents/carers via Weduc asking for acknowledgement of receipt to ensure that messages are reaching you. The first of these will be from Mrs Green to year 7 families on 9 February.

We will be moving to Weduc from 1 April 2021. All communication will then be sent via Weduc and our existing communication system will no longer be operational.

REMINDER: Y9 Teenage Booster and Meningococcal ACWY vaccinations – action required

A reminder that the School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) for Derbyshire and Derby City will be in school to offer all year 9 students the Teenage Booster (Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio) and Meningococcal ACWY (Men ACWY) vaccinations on 23 February 2021 as previously scheduled.

NHS staff will be on site on 23 February from 9.30am and students are asked to attend at their scheduled slot for their tutor group:

9CAH - 9.30am 9SLH - 10.00am 9JFG - 10.30am 9IL - 11.00am 9AB - 11.30am 9IR - 12 noon

A year 10 catch up session at 2pm will be run for students who missed their year 9 immunisation. Students who this applies to have been notified and consent has already been received for Y10s.

The NHS team will be operating following socially distanced guidelines and the immunisations will be take place in the sports hall at Lumsdale with separate entry and exit points. Students will be asked to attend 5 mins before their scheduled time slot, arrive with a mask and queue outside the entrance to the sports hall where they will be met by a member of staff. Students are expected to leave immediately after their immunisation. If you are bringing your child to school on 23 February, the top carpark at the side of the tennis courts will be open for drop off/collection and students should walk down to the sports hall and wait to be called in.

If you have not already completed the e-consent for your child in Y9 to receive the Teenage Booster and Meningococcal ACWY vaccination, please do so on the link below. The option to consent or

decline the vaccination is at the end of the questionnaire so please complete even if you do not want your child to have the vaccination.

https://www.derbyshireandcityimms.co.uk/Forms/DTP

The unique school code for Highfields School is DD112950

For more information about the vaccination please visit: http://www.derbyshireschoolnurses.org.uk/parents/immunisations

If you experience any problems, please call the School Age Immunisation Team.

Repton: 01283 707178 Clay Cross: 01246 252953 DCHST.immunisationteam@nhs.net

Art Mentoring

Since September 2019, a new form of provision has been running whilst students have been able to come into school. In the Artistic Mentoring sessions, students learn by making art, using a variety of traditional materials.

We look at key points within the English curriculum, such as poetry or English Literature texts. We also explore the context of some of these points, such as history or what society was like at the time the text was written, linking in other strands of the curriculum. The information is broken down into more manageable chunks for projects and at the start of each lesson, students recap what they have learned to consolidate their long-term memory. For example, the current Year 10s have been looking A Christmas Carol in English Literature lessons.

In Artistic Mentoring, we have explored what life was like in the workhouse, as well as wealthy Victorian attitudes towards the poor. This is key to understanding why it is so important for Scrooge to change by the end of the novel.

To celebrate student achievement, here is some of the art that has been created:

Year 7: The Chronicles of Narnia; the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Year 8: The Hunger Games (dystopia)

Year 9: Ozymandias Year 10: A Christmas Carol Year 11: An Inspector Calls