Our Year 7 students have now completed their first half term at The Grange School and they are more than ready for a half term break. On the whole, they have settled into their new school and surroundings seamlessly. They have truly become embedded into our school community, and they have brought some character, vibrancy and excitement to the school over the last 6 weeks.
Some updates from the last two weeks:
Attendance
Year 7 attendance is currently 93.5%. We would like to see this move closer to our whole school target of 97% in the next half term. Well done to 7O and 7E who are already smashing this target in their first half term. Student absence information can be found on our website.
Assemblies
Year 7 students have been having two assemblies per week to help with the transition process. Recently, they have heard from Mrs Bradley about the importance of looking after their mental health as we highlighted World Mental Health Day on Tuesday 10 October 2023. They also heard from our Peer Mentors who are 6th Form Trained Students. Year 7 are able to drop in to see the Peer Mentors in Stapleton House any lunchtime should they wish to speak with them.
Our website has a ‘student help’ page with lots of support and advice from both within school and services outside of school.
On Friday mornings, Mr Hains and Miss Daulton are continuing to deliver an assembly on ‘the way we do things around here’ as part of the transition programme. Most recently, the theme of this assembly has been on racism.
To close the half term Mr Hains and Miss Daulton held a ‘celebration assembly’ on Monday 16 October 2023 to share some successes. 7E won the ‘best attending form’ prize and 7V won the ‘highest achievement points’ prize for this half term. Both form groups enjoyed a box of chocolates. It was also lovely to share the success of 8 students who were nominated as their form tutors very fast ‘star of the half term’. Congratulations to the first 8 stars who are: Delna J 7D, Aubrey H 7I Aleaha C 7S, Tiphaine T 7C, Holly B O, Lawrence S 7V, Jay M 7E and Sana A 7R. These students received a certificate, a badge on Satchel and a tasty Galaxy Bar to enjoy!
Extra-Curricular
It has been great to see so many Year 7’s getting involved in extra-curricular clubs this half term including taking part in fixtures against other schools. Mrs Bradley was particularly impressed with the number of Year 7 girls engaging in Girls Football – the highest number ever! #girlscan
Our Key Stage 3 Active Club has been particularly popular with Mrs Bradley’s Boogie Bounce Class, Miss Bellin’s ‘Just Dance’ and Mr Netley’s Diamond Cricket. Check out our social media pages on Wednesday afternoons to find out what is happening in these sessions which take place every Thursday after school.
You can see the full list of extra-curricular activities for the Autumn Term on our website.
Transition Email Inbox
We will no longer be monitoring the transition email inbox after half term. If you wish to get in contact, please contact your child’s form tutor in the first instance or use our office email which is [email protected]
A list of the Year 7 form tutors (and Year Team Leaders) are below:
7D – Mrs P. Arun – [email protected]
7I – Mrs J. Jacques – [email protected]
7S – Mrs D. Campbell-Bartley – [email protected]
7C – Mr A. Ntenda – [email protected]
7O – Mr I. Khan – [email protected]
7V – Miss A. Alves – [email protected]
7E – Miss L. Freeman – [email protected]
7R – Mrs C. Williams – [email protected]
Mr S Hains (Year Team Leader for 7DISC) – [email protected]
Miss H Daulton (Year Team Leader for 7OVER) – [email protected]
Reminders:
Satchel One
All students and parents/carers should now be able to log on and use Satchel One. Here you can find your child’s homework, timetable, attendance, achievement points and any behaviour points. Staff often post messages about clubs and extra-curricular activities on the noticeboard too for students to be involved in so please check in with your Satchel One account daily where possible. Some FAQ’s can be found on our website.
Parents Evenings
You will soon be invited to book a 5-minute appointment with your child’s form tutor at our ‘Form Tutor Parent Evening’ on Tuesday 14 November. Year 7 parents evening with all subject teachers will be Wednesday 27 March 2024. Both of these parents’ evenings are face-to-face in school but appointments are made online. You will receive communication regarding how to do this soon for both these events.
Weekly Parent/Carer CommunicationÂ
We communicate weekly with our parents/carers through our weekly parent/carer bulletin which is sent out every Friday afternoon. Please make sure you have a look at this each week. The bulletin contains links to letters that are specific to your child’s year group. Any urgent communication or information that just relates to your child specifically will be sent directly to your email address.
Online Safety for Parents/CarersÂ
We have signed up to receive monthly newsletter from Knowsley City Learning Centre who produce a great monthly resource to support parents in keeping their children safe online, including up to date information on social media and gaming. You can see all previous editions on our website.
Social Media
The Grange School Year 7 Starters 2023 Facebook Page will continue to be live until Christmas 2023 as this is still an easy form of communication for this specific year group. You can also follow the main school social media pages too:
Focus for first fortnight back after half term for Year 7
Corridor & Playground Behaviour
We have been seeing some very ‘excitable’ behaviour in corridors, mainly during lunchtimes from our Year 7’s e.g. running and shouting. We will be reminding students that they should be outside during break and lunch where possible and remember that there are other lessons going on when they are on break/lunch.
It is also important to make sure that all behaviour outside of lessons is just as kind, polite and respectful as we have seen inside the classroom.
Year 7 Form Reps
Form Reps within each form group have now been selected and the Year 7 Team will be keeping them busy in the next half term.
Christmas Reward Event
We have an exciting event planned in December 2023 which is highly valued by our Key Stage 3 students. More information will be coming out in the next half term.
One half term down, one to go until the Christmas Break! Let’s continue strong Year 7!
Enjoy your half term break and we will see you back on Monday 30 October 2023 at 8.25am.
Miss Glenister