Bulletin - 29 November 2024

I would like to start this week’s bulletin congratulating Hannah in Year 11 for winning a St John’s Ambulance competition and for being put forward for a regional final. She has completed all of this whilst studying and revising for her mock examinations and representing the school. This week’s bulletin focuses on Attendance and Safeguarding.

Attendance 

Attached to this bulletin is our updated attendance leaflet, which contains key information about attendance processes and our expectations. Please do take the time to read this through.

I would also like to draw your attention to morning attendance in particular. We follow the national guidance over this, and morning registers are therefore open for 30 minutes in the morning. This means that to be marked present for a morning session in school, students must arrive before 9.10am. If they arrive later than this, then they may be marked present in individual lessons but cannot be given a present mark for the morning session. If your child arrives at school from 9.10am onwards, then they must be marked absent from school for the morning session on all reported registers and returns.

Whilst this year’s attendance rates are higher than last academic year, there are students who are arriving in school after 9.10am which is too high and this is impacting on students' experience of school - when they do so, they are missing out on key messages and information in tutor time and assemblies as well as key aspects of the personal development curriculum.  For Year 11, if they miss tutor time, they are missing out on the targeted support from a specialist teacher of English, Maths or Science. The U code any student receives when they arrive from 9.10am onwards must count as an absence, so a student who attends school all day from 9.10am would only have 50% attendance for the day. This is the main avoidable absence, and we ask for your support in addressing this.

If you would like support in ensuring your child's attendance improves, please contact the RSL in the first instance.

The school's attendance policy can be found here: Attendance Policy - Notley High School & Sixth Form

Safeguarding: Relationships, Sex and Health Education 

As you will be aware, we deliver an inclusive and comprehensive curriculum which covers topics such as the below at an age-appropriate stage: 

• healthy and respectful relationships
• boundaries and consent
• stereotyping, prejudice and equality
• body confidence and self-esteem
• how to recognise an abusive relationship, including coercive and controlling behaviour
• the concepts of, and laws relating to - sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, so-called ‘honour’-based violence such   as forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and how to access support, and 
• what constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why these are always unacceptable. 

Alongside the curriculum, the pastoral systems and support for students across the school are designed to ensure that within the school community, there is a zero-tolerance approach to reports of sexual violence and sexual harassment. Even when there are no reports of sexual violence or harassment, staff working with children are encouraged to maintain an attitude of ‘it could happen here’ and this is a regular feature of staff training. 

Outside of schools, there is a range of support and advice for parents who may be concerned about the issue. Some of these can be accessed via the links below: 

https://www.barnardos.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/Harmful%20Sexual%20Behaviour%20-%20Parent_s%20guide.pdf 

What is harmful sexual behaviour - Lucy Faithfull Foundation 

https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/harmful-behaviour-in-young-people-and-children.htm 

Finally, we have been made aware of indecent images of children being circulated amongst shared group chats on social media outside of school and in the local community. The police have asked us to remind parents that it is an offence to make, distribute, possess or show any indecent images of anyone under 18, even if the content was created with the consent of that young person. Please do talk about this law (Section 1 Protection of Children Act 1988) with your child and speak to them about their use of phones and any sharing of images.  

HEART points 

I am delighted to report that there has been a significant increase in the number of HEART points awarded in the last week:

Year 11: 1338

Year 10: 2287

Year 9: 1451

Year 8: 2049

Year 7: 2420 

This is fantastic! Let’s keep it up!

Have a very good weekend when it comes.

Mr M Barrow, Headteacher