Bulletin - 4 October 2024

Thank you to the very many students who supported our Open Morning last Saturday. I have received several emails from prospective parents/carers praising our students - I am proud of each of them. Following Saturday’s Open Morning, we have been running Year 6 tours / coffee with me and it has been a real pleasure to take prospective families around our school.

Last night we welcomed Year 11 parent/carers to our Post 16 Vocational Evening as well as parent/carers who are participating in our Parenting Course run by Jacy. The course is running for the next 9 weeks on a Thursday evening at 5.45 pm and if you would like to sign up, please email: Karen.Ellis@Notleyhigh.com.

Fixtures have continued this week and some of our Year 9 students have also participated in the Respect Project. The Respect Project is a 10-week programme designed to develop and equip Year 9 students with tools to help them deal with challenges and to support them in becoming more emotionally resilient. Antony from the national Standing Ovation Project was in school on Wednesday, mentoring students in Year 10 and Year 11 and I was really pleased to hear the positive feedback from the students after their sessions. Year 13 Geography students are currently out of school on their second residential field trip and road safety assemblies continued this week. Year 11 were excellent in their assembly on Wednesday afternoon.

I have dropped in on a lot of lessons again this week and have undertaken several reviews of work in student books and Sixth Form folders. There is a significant improvement in presentation in many books and I was pleased to see the evidence of student progress in Science. The new Science curriculum, and the increase in the number of practicals, is helping students to embed core concepts as well as to apply their learning. Next week I will be reviewing the data from the Year 11 English and Maths mini assessments.

HEART points for last week are:

Year 11: 546

Year 10: 876

Year 9: 1043

Year 8: 2014

Year 7: 1413

Well done to Year 8 for over 2000 HEART points in one week!

In an earlier family bulletin I shared information for parent/carers on vaping – how to spot the signs in young people, risks and proactive steps that can be taken. Sadly yesterday there were two incidents of vapes in school and permanent exclusions have now been issued. As a school we will always support our students to make positive and healthy choices and will signpost external support as well as provide key information through our Personal Development Curriculum. This said, vapes have no place in our school.

If any parent/carer has any concerns about their child(ren) and vaping, please contact a member of our Safeguarding team: Child Protection - Notley High School & Braintree Sixth Form. Further information, including advice and guidance, can be found here: ESCB - Substance misuse and youth vaping.

With all good wishes for the weekend.

Mr M Barrow, Headteacher