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Message from the Headteacher Dear Parents and Carers ,
HIGHLIGHTS p3 Shakespeare for Schools p4 Sporting news p5 TALL project p6 Election fever p7 Karate queen p8 Clothes Show p9 Science news P10 Uniform/ Attendance p11 Online safety
The Christmas holiday is almost here and, as always, it seems not very long ago since I was welcoming everyone back after the summer break. It has been a very busy and extremely productive term and we are now enjoying the season of Advent at St Michael’s with all its accompanying festivities and celebrations including lunchtime Eucharists in our new Chapel and ‘Carols in the Quad’ during tutorial time. We were delighted and honoured to welcome Mr Stephen Whittaker, Director of Education for the Blackburn Diocese as our principal guest at Awards Evening. This evening was about celebrating not only the fantastic examination success of our young people but recognising all they did at school during their five years to enrich our learning community, and in doing so fulfil our mission statement of ‘pursing excellence, serving God and celebrating the uniqueness of each individual’. In his speech Mr Whittaker encouraged us to continue to maintain and even extend such impressively high standards, all within a Christian context. The current Year 11 clearly have work to do in an ever changing examination system but they are a wonderful group of young people and we are encouraged by their maturity and diligence. Once again we are over subscribed for the September 2016 intake. Thank you to parents of past and existing pupils who continue to say such positive and complimentary comments about the school. There is no doubt that ‘word of mouth’ remains one of the best endorsements for a school such as ours. I am incredibly proud and humbled by the way our young people have responded and shown great com-
passion, by giving freely to various charities, such as Children in Need, Lepra, British Legion Poppy Appeal and the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal. To raise over £4,000 so far this year, is an amazing achievement. As is our custom, in the season of Advent, pupils and staff are encouraged to continue to think of others less fortunate than ourselves this year through the Oxfam ‘Unwrapped’ appeal.
safety and well-being of pupils and staff has to take priority. The Governors support me in having a six month period of not taking children on school trips outside of the United Kingdom and I trust parents and carers and pupils will understand and respect this decision.
Schoolcomms, an electronic school communication system is an excellent way to keep in touch with what is happening in school enabling us to contact you via e mail and text message. Please may I encourage The new Armstrong Centre is you to read the information available being well used as it is open about Schoolcomms that is on our before school from 8.15, at breaks website, as you will need to take and lunchtimes and after school action to receive messages. until 16.30. Reading lessons for Schoolcomms also allows parents to lower school are also timetabled in make online payments to school for this great facility. Apart from items such as lunch money, school reading being a lifelong pleasure, visits, revision guides and other please continue to encourage your similar items. Existing methods of children to read as research tells payments continue to be available. us that children who read widely After a mild and fairly pleasant are more likely to do well at school autumn, the dark, wet and windy in terms of GCSE success in every days of winter are well and truly with subject, than those who don’t. us. At a time of increased focus on young people’s health and wellbeing I am delighted to congratulate the Physical Education Curriculum Area and all pupils involved in any way in representing school in this area, for being named by the Lancashire Sports Partnership the ‘Secondary School of the Year 2015’. This is a superb and well deserved achievement! Not to be outdone, the Performing Arts Curriculum Area represented school incredibly well in an amazing and outstanding performance of ‘The Tempest’ at the Charter Theatre in Preston as part of the Shakespeare for Schools Festival. Following the recent acts of terrorism, not only in Paris in November but in other regions, the difficult decision has been made to cancel not only the Christmas trip to Paris this year but also the other foreign trips to France and Germany in 2016. This decision has not been taken lightly as I recognise fully the great benefit to young people of these wonderful opportunities, nor has it been without financial cost to the school but the health,
Our ‘Unavoidable School Closure’ policy is attached to this newsletter and available on our web site. Please may I ask that you read this document carefully and ensure that should we be forced to close school during the school day, you have made contingency plans for your child. Should you wish a paper copy please contact your child’s Tutor to receive one. The school website will be the source of information should we be forced to close: http://www.saint-michaels.com I assure you that school will only be closed after due consideration of the health and safety of everyone who learns and works here at St Michael’s. We are planning some changes to the curriculum that will mainly affect pupils in Years 7 and 8. Planned changes to GCSE’s mean that the methods of assessment, content and increased difficulty of achieving a good pass require more guided learning hours to complete the course successfully. The Government believes that secondary schools should offer young people a broad range of academic subjects and the English
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