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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
Communications
We believe that effective communication between
home and school is critical to the success of the student. There
are a number of channels for regular communication from school to
home: a newsletter, Mini Manners, is produced by the Headteacher
and staff and published at the end of each half-term, for instance;
while the school magazine, Manners, is produced by a team of sixth
form girls and published annually. The website is regularly updated
and the latest edition of Mini Manners is available from the website,
as well as calendar information and various other items of information
about the school. Letters are sent home as necessary when more specific
information needs to be communicated – eg for visits and trips
and are also available in a password protected area of this website.
Each student is issued with a planner which can be used for brief
messages between school and home – either way – and
parents who wish to contact the school more formally can either
write or ring the school and ask to speak to a member of staff such
as the Head of Sixth Form or the form tutor.
Parents’ evenings
Year 12
There are two Parents’ Evenings (with
students) in the academic year.
• Early December (Term 1): an assessment of transition from
GCSE to AS level work and current progress (in terms of attainment,
effort, motivation etc) prior to the first AS level units in the
following January
• Early July (Term 3): an update on transition from AS to
A2 level, current progress and discussion on realistic post-18 plans
particularly for higher education
Year 13
• Mid-September: Parents’ and students’ surgery
evening for students with problems over Career/Course options for
post-18 plans. Individual appointments with the Head of Sixth Form
• Mid-October: Parents’ and students’ evening
with the full academic staff. This is the final, full opportunity
for staff to talk to parents on academic progress prior to the A2
level module examinations in January.
Sixth form reports
Year 12
One formal annual academic report on progress
in each AS subject is prepared for parents for the end of the spring
term (Term 2). A reply slip is included for parental comment. Interim
internal appraisals of each student’s performance take place
prior to the end of each term when form tutor review appointments
take place with each student.
Year 13
One formal annual academic report on progress
in each A2 subject is prepared for parents early in the spring term
(Term 2). The report is in two sections—the upper half represents
the summative subject statement for the Progress File and the lower
half of the report includes statements for constructive improvements
to be made in order that targets are met.
Parents’ information evenings
There are periodic Year 12/13 information
evenings for parents (and students if they wish to come) on a range
of issues pertaining to the sixth form.
• Mid-September: Open University higher education units for
sixth formers (Young Applicants Scheme) presentation given by the
West Midlands regional organiser for OU and senior leadership team.
• Mid-October: Presentation evening given by an admissions
tutor of a leading university on interview skills preparation for
higher education.
• Early February: Higher education student finance evening.
Advice from UCAS Finance Services, the DfES Government sources and
the LA (up to 2008). Additional resources will be supplied by the
Student Loans Company.
• Mid-May/June: Introduction to the higher education cycle
for Year 12 parents—a full briefing on all aspects of the
application process, open days, advice sources and networks.
• June: Briefing for Year 11 parents—information/preparation
for prospective sixth formers induction process at the end of June
and early September. This is in addition to the pre-sixth open evening
for prospective (Year 11 to Year 12) students in mid-November each
year.
Friends of the School
Since the school's foundation, there has
always been close co-operation between parents, the school and its
staff. The FOS includes parents, one staff representative and the
head teacher and is mainly concerned with organising varied social
and fund-raising events to support the school. In future years increasing
links with past students and parents will be fostered by liaison
between the FOS Committee and the Alumnae Society. The loyalty and
hard work of all members are much appreciated by the main beneficiaries,
the students.
The Alumnae Association
This organisation, developed in 2006 by an
enthusiastic group of past students, is currently undergoing a restructuring
of its activities and procedures, to ensure representatives from
several year groups are included within the Committee organisation.
News about former students is recorded in an Alumnae publication.
Regular liaison between the Alumnae Committee and the School occurs
and one member of the current staff co-ordinates information with
the Alumnae Membership Secretary and the Friends of the School,
with whom the Alumnae Society hopes to increase its links for the
benefit of the school. Several social events involving former students
take place in the summer months and it is intended to extend the
range of activities in future years. Committee members comprise
past students of different year groups and they are helping to update
an evolving Alumnae website and an events programme towards our
50th school anniversary in 2008-9.
Further information may be obtained from the Head of Sixth Form.
School Fund
We believe that the extensive extra-curricular
and personal development programme we run is vital to the success
of the school, but of course we receive no extra funding for such
activities. Thus we are very grateful for parental support to fund
this programme through generous contributions to School Fund and
other fund-raising activities, and whenever possible, we extend
the power of such contributions by gift aid.
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