Newsletters

This week we continued our series of webinars with a Zoom visitor to our Year 10 GCSE Business group. 

“In Year 10 business we are currently studying human resources management and this week we have been looking in detail at the recruitment process. Jess Payne manages recruitment at Snapdragons Nurseries and hosted a webinar for our class about how they recruit their employees. We learnt all about why recruiting new employees may be necessary, what businesses look for when choosing future employees, what skills and qualities Snapdragons looks for and the methods of recruitment Snapdragons use. We also learnt all about the different contracts that can be given and what training is allocated to staff. This was great as it gave us some insightful knowledge into how businesses recruit, and it allowed us to look deeply into a real-life example.”  Chloe Barton, Yr 10 Business

I would like to thank Jess for her time and sharing her knowledge and expertise with us.  The Year 10 Business group were a credit to the school.  Jess fed back that she thought the group were “professional and very respectful, but fun too!” I think that pretty much sums them up – well done Year 10!

Mrs Green

Free School Meals

Parents/carers of students entitled to free school meals should have received a letter via email on 2 December (or post if we do not have an email address).

If not received, firstly please check your “spam” folder and then phone us on 01225 711165.

Many thanks

Finance Office

Year 7 Rewards

This week another group of students have been awarded their bronze certificates for gaining 100 reward points. It’s fantastic to see all these points accumulating and contributing to the House total (Greenfield are currently in the lead).

Remember that you can check your current totals on Classcharts and see potentials rewards. You can cash in points at any time or continue saving for a bigger prize.

Keep up the good work!

Mrs Addison, Miss Wood and Mrs Stewart

Erica C                         Lena S                          Bogdan D

Cameron B                  Hannah H                    Hashem H

Jude A                          Oliver C                       Olivia S

Hilda T                         Thomas K                    Amber H

Krystian M                   Xavier H                       Koda W

Fynn A                         Daniel K                       Amara-Zoie C

Wes M                         Destiny D                     Lanesia L

Gracie K                       Korey D                       Diana V

Louis M                       Grace A                       Finley G

Finley P                        Natalia C

Education Grant for Students

Our Vocational grant is available to young people aged between 14 and 24 from Wiltshire and Swindon, whose family or themselves are in receipt of a means tested benefit, to support their education and training needs. To be eligible to apply the young person must:

• under the age of 25 at the time of the application
• be studying at school, college, sixth form or undertaking an apprenticeship
• have lived for at least two years in Wiltshire or Swindon
• their parents/guardians or the young person are claiming at least one means tested benefit

Grants available (this must be something that school or college funds cannot pay for) - applications for up to £1000 to help pay for:

• educational resources or equipment
• out of school activities (which contribute to learning)
• course related study/field trips
• travel costs – in some circumstances
• IT equipment

An application form can be requested via this link: Request Vocational Grant Application

The last week of term

During the last week of term, each year group will be raising money for a charity of their choice.  Money will be raised through a variety of activities that students are organising in their year group bubbles during lunch and break times.  The week will culminate in a non-school uniform day on Thursday 17^th December. 

If students have Christmas jumpers we’d like them to be worn on 17th December so that we can create a festive feel for our last school day of 2020.   We ask for a voluntary contribution of £1 per student on the non-school uniform day which should be paid via ParentPay. Details will be on that system.

The charities we are supporting are as follows:

Year 7 – Cancer Research UK

Year 8 – MIND and the local Food Bank

Year 9 – Trowbridge Future and Wiltshire Air Ambulance

Year 10 – Barnardos

Year 11 – Trowbridge Future and Trowbridge Lions

Post 16 – Trowbridge Food Bank

2020 has been a very difficult year for charities and their fundraising so we’re hoping to do our bit to support these worthy charities and to end 2020 with a note of kindness.

On the 17^th December, we’ll have lessons as normal for the first four periods and then everybody will be in their Tutor Group for some festive activities during the last period of the day.

A Reminder – safer internet and social media use

We are a mobile device free school. We hope that parents will be able to monitor and support the use of students’ social media and other technology such as online gaming platforms whilst they are not in school. We appreciate that this can be difficult but we have recently experienced a few incidents where students have used social media outside of school and the impact has been that relationships between students has been difficult in school. We do cover internet safety and proper use within our curriculum but it is helpful if parents are able to support this by having additional conversations at home

All social media has an age restriction guide. If you allow your child to use a social media platform outside of the age restrictions then it can be very challenging for us, as a school, to address any issues resulting from this. The age restrictions are designed to reflect a young person’s ability to safely and responsibly navigate the risks and benefits of using this technology.

Below we have included 2 resources that you may find helpful when talking to your child about the use of social media and may help you to monitor the use of social media by your child. The first is a parent’s guide to social media that has been developed by Internet Matters, NSPCC, Parent Zone, and UK Safer Internet Centre

https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Internet-Matters-Guide-Official-UK-Social-Media-Guidance.pdf

The second is an easy to see guide relating to the age restrictions of different social media apps and services.

We hope you find this useful. If there are any issues you would like to discuss relating to your child and their use of these apps and the internet please contact your child’s tutor in the first instance or their Head of Year.