Minerva Learning Trust
5th November 2018

Welcome back!

C Tasker, Headteacher

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a really good (and much needed) half term break.

This next half term is always a busy one. Seven weeks of learning and much more besides! It is our Sixth Form Open Evening this week and next week ‘Core Trials’ begin (Mock examinations in English, Maths and Science for Y11s and English Literature for those Y10s taking the examination in summer 2019). There are a number of tracker reports to be completed over the coming seven weeks as well as the rest of the UCAS applications for our Sixth Formers. Festive fun begins as we head into December with the Christmas Fayre, two concerts and the school panto all on the calendar. We also have some fund raising endeavours underway – this week forms are making poppies (attached to coins) for a giant display in honour of the 100-year centenary of the end of World War One and over the coming weeks Crucible House are fundraising to rescue some chickens!

We could not do all we do without the support of parents and carers and our wonderful students. Feedback from both these groups is very much valued. When parents and carers fill in comments on the feedback forms at Parents Evenings the Senior Leadership Team read every one of them and we do take your feedback on board. The vast majority is overwhelmingly positive but parents do sometimes ask us about homework or to explain what the data on the trackers really means. With this in mind we have made some changes to the tracker letter and the trackers themselves. As regards the former, hopefully Show My Homework has helped to resolve many issues for parents around homework.

Student voice is also important at High Storrs School. Every term representative from the Student Council join a Senior Leadership Team meeting and raise two issues that are concerning them. In response to their thoughts on the length of queues in the Dining Room we are going to introduce different timings for different year groups this half term. This will also give different year groups a bit more space on the field and the opportunity for younger year groups to get on the football pitches, for example.

So! Lots to do and lots to look forward to!