Dear parents and carers

As we come to the end of our first full week back I am delighted to say that our students have been incredible.  A very large proportion of students went through the testing and were so sensible and mature about the process which has impressed all of the testing team, some of whom were external visitors.  We have now finished the testing in school and ongoing testing will now take place at home with the ‘home testing’ kits.  We anticipate that the information to support this will be released along with the kits early next week.

Attendance and face coverings

The attendance this week has been extremely high and we have been so pleased to welcome the students back into the school once more.  It is wonderful to hear their voices again and please keep reinforcing at home the importance of being back in school with face to face lessons and of course seeing their friends again.  Of course, we know that we are still working in unusual circumstances and the students are now wearing their face coverings during lessons, unless they are exempt.  The students continue to be very mature about wearing their masks and helping to keep everyone and themselves safe.  We continue to remind students of the importance of wearing face coverings and ask that you also continue to check they have their face coverings before they leave home each morning. 

Diversity Days

This week our students have been taking part in Diversity Days where they have been celebrating the differences between people.  They have found out about ADHD, ASD and autism as well as dyslexia, Tourette’s Syndrome.  Alongside these sessions they have learnt about the launch of the Heworth Grange Anti-bullying strategy and explored the importance of celebrating diversity linked to LGBTQ.  Students also learnt about establishing good sleep patterns and practised mindfulness breathing techniques to support their well-being.

• I loved this day 😊 the ‘mindfulness’ made me very calm and relaxed 😊
• The Neurodiversity really helped me understand how other people might feel and what they have to manage every day.
• This day was amazing I have learnt lots.
• I learnt a lot about LGBT+ and I enjoyed learning different methods in mindfulness lessons.

Reading

Now that we are back into school we will be ensuring that our Reading Programme is in full swing once more.  Each morning the students read their accelerated reader book in years 7, 8 and 9 and in Year 10 and 11 they read their English texts.  Some students also take part in Lexia and group reading and we are really proud of the progress they are all making.  Next week the Key Stage 3 students will be back to their library lessons and taking their STAR tests to move onto their next books. 

Year 11 and 13 Centre Assessed Grades

We are still building a picture about how we will be expected to establish the CAG’s and exam boards are releasing information at Easter regarding expectations and sample test material.  Please bear with us whilst we navigate our way through this, and I will update you nearer to Easter.  As I have said before it is so important that students keep working hard, attend every day and complete every piece of work to the best of their ability, as we may be able to use it as evidence of their grade.  Please encourage students to speak to teachers and engage with their teacher feedback so that all our young people continue to improve.

Senior Leadership Team Insights

As we have not been able to meet with parents and carers face to face, we have made some short video clips to explain the strategies we are working on.  We will send the link out once this micro-site is launched next week but we hope it these insights will go some way to helping you feel part of the transformation process at Heworth Grange School.  We are very proud of our young people and our staff and the hard work they put in every day so that we keep improving.

Extra Good News!

Finally, we also learnt some fantastic news about a past students this week.  Josh Scott has been awarded a professional contract with Newcastle United Football Club and we wish him the very best of luck and we will be following his career with interest!

As always, thank you so much for your continued support and I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Yours sincerely

Headteacher

Allie Denholm