Mr Atkinson's Friday Update 08.04.22

Good afternoon,

Over the past two weeks it has been great to start having parents and carers back into the school building.  This has been part of the work completed by Mrs Spicer (AHT), Mr Moore (AHT) and Mrs Dean (SDHT) on revision techniques and practices in the run up to the exams. During these sessions, the year teams also spoke about well-being and linked to this, I wanted to share the attached document with you, giving information about a parental support group run by the NHS Mental Health and Support Team who work within school. The session is designed to give you more strategies about how you can support your child. I must stress though this is not just open to those families where pupils are taking exams, it may be that you want to be prepared for the future and therefore you are more than welcome to attend the sessions being run no matter which year group your child is in.

This week also saw the first full week of Ramadan in school. The students observing this have been a credit to their families and their faith. However, there is one person who really stands out for me and that is Moeez A in Y9 who last week joined myself and Miss Shah to talk about Ramadan. He talked to the whole school about his experiences and hopes within Ramadan and feedback from this was amazing with Mr Holmes (Teacher of Art and Technology) saying it was like a podcast with Moeez leading the way! Thank you to Moeez for stepping forward and sharing his thoughts with the school about his faith and the importance of this time of year.

Also, thank you to yourselves for responding to the parental questionnaires which are being sent out after the respective parents’ evenings. This feedback reflects the positive behaviour of the students themselves and also the impact of the staff. Thank you to those who personally commended staff this has been passed on and really gave staff a boost during this term. However, one aspect that was raised was 'communication' and Mrs Spicer is working on this area and each half term she will be sending out the key dates and also curriculum content for that half term so you know what is being studied so that you can support your child. Secondly 'enrichment' was raised.  This is another aspect we are currently developing for the next academic year now COVID-19 restrictions have eased and we will be providing more information as to what is on offer term by term. Within this we are also looking at 'experiences' that can be offered to supplement the curriculum such as the very popular Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) award run by Mr Morse (Teacher of Science) with the help of other staff volunteers.

Next half term there will be changes in the pastoral teams. This is due to the promotion of Mr Bridge (Junior) into the role of Head of Y8 and Y9 which will fully take effect once Y11 has left.  As part of this restructure Mrs Roberts (Current Head of Y7 and Y8) will then be working on transition (as well as Y7) now we can re-establish visits to our feeder primary schools allowing Y6 students to learn about LORIC before they join us, allowing them to develop the key skills which are a key component of life here at Bingley Grammar School. Finally, we know that changes can lead to feelings of uncertainty for some students and for those students who have 1-1 support or additional needs, they will be made aware of when these changes will be happening so they are prepared for this.

Finally, once again thank you for the feedback from the recent surveys the positive feedback really did make a difference to staff. I hope all enjoy some time off from work over the next two weeks and best wishes to those families who are observing Ramadan over the coming weeks.

Click here to view the NHS 'Raising Yorkshire Puddings' Parent Support Group flyer >>