HEADTEACHER’S LETTER 16.10.20

16^th October 2020

Dear families

It has been an incredibly busy half term that seems to be flying by. Students have settled into their timetables and there is a very industrious atmosphere round school as you observe our young people engaging with their learning. The second half of this term is fast approaching. This is a key period for our Year 11 and 13 students who will be preparing and taking mock examinations and it is essential that they now start preparing for these important assessments.

Changes to School Timetable

We are making adjustments to the school day for different year groups. This is to allow us to facilitate specific school activities for certain year groups. These changes may impact your child’s start and finish time each day. Each year group is being briefed about these changes and will know when their start and end time is, which gate they should be entering and exiting the school from and when their break times are. A full breakdown of the amended timings is attached to the bottom of this letter.

Uniform Update

We anticipate that the patches for the school blazers with the new school logo will arrive just after half term. Following this we will be holding uniform appointments in school for all new year 7 students, to be fitted and to purchase a new school blazer. We will also be asking students in years 8 – 11 to bring their blazers in to school for a timetabled slot, where we will be ironing cover patches on to their existing blazers. We will send out further details at the start of the new term.

Students should continue to wear a white shirt, mid-grey trousers/skirt, year coloured tie and sensible school shoes. The ID card lanyard and a sensible facemask is also part of the school uniform until further notice, and your child should be wearing this in school every day.

The mid-grey V-neck jumper is optional. Students who wish to wear a jacket to school may wear a smart black or navy jacket or coat to and from school. The coat should not be worn on school premises.

The guidance for PE remains the same for the Autumn term. On the days where students have PE lessons, they should arrive to school in their PE kit. The changing facilities in school we be closed based on government guidance. This means that students should arrive to school in their PE kit, complete all lessons in their kit and go home in their kit. As the old PE kit was branded, we ask students to wear a plain red PE t-shirt and navy PE tracksuit bottoms. If students do not have this colour kit, they may wear a plain t-shirt and tracksuit bottom (not leggings or running tights) of a different colour as long as the colour and fit are both appropriate. On these days, students will obviously be wearing suitable PE trainers for their PE lesson. This is the only time that students should be wearing trainers.

We hope that all students in years 7-11 will be in their full school uniform with the school blazer by the end of the Autumn term. We will write to you again once the new PE kit and school jumper is available for you to purchase, or swap with any 2019 SJCR branded uniform.

Incident Friday 9th October

You may be aware that there was an incident last Friday after school on Copley Street involving an adult member of the public and some of our students. I want to reassure you that this matter has been reported to the police by the school and an investigation is underway.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to impress upon your child the need to go directly home after school and not to linger.

Stepney All Saints School Radio Station

The Performing Arts Department are launching a Stepney All Saints School Radio Station. It will involve contributions from the whole school community and will be shared in form time and uploaded every fortnight to the website for students, staff and parents. This is to be launched on Friday 23^rd Oct.

We are looking for broadcasters, reporters, interviewers, performers and researchers from all year groups to run the station. Students who are interested should email their name, form and area of interest to Mr Holder on craig.holder@stepneyallsaints.school. In addition, the Performing Arts Department are running a competition for a radio jingle on the Music Google Classroom. We would like to encourage all students to support this exciting new project.

Clubs

We are recommencing our enrichment programme at Stepney All Saints. The importance of activities beyond academic work must not be underestimated. Extracurricular activities complement our students’ studies to develop as well-rounded individuals. Indeed, countless studies demonstrate that students who participate in enrichment activities have a marked improvement in their grades. This can be attributed to skills they learn such as better time management to accommodate their hobbies and class activities, better organisational skills and a boost in their self-esteem. Skills learnt in clubs such as debate can be applied in the classroom too, as students learn how to express themselves better. In addition, students can make new friends with similar interests and can take up activities which are new to them.

We will operate clubs within the year bubbles. The full programme will be shared immediately after the half term break and we will advertise this via the school website and social media. Please encourage your child to participate.

Student presidents

This year, in a break with tradition, we have decided to appoint Student Presidents, rather than a Head Boy and Head Girl. Our new student presidents this year are Awo Awil, who joined us last year from Mulberry School, and Shanaz Conteh, who has been with us since Year 7. They both impressed the interview panel with their presentations on improving charitable giving across the school, and we are looking forward to hearing more about their ideas and initiatives for 2020-21.

Key Events for this Academic Year

Our half term break is fast approaching and runs for one week from Monday 26^th October. Please note that during this week school will be closed. Other key dates are listed below. Please check our website and social media feeds for regular updates.

Autumn Term                   

Autumn Half Term Holiday                           Monday 26th Oct – Friday 30th October

Last day of Autumn Term                              Friday 18th December

Spring Term                                                      

Staff INSET day                                                  Monday 4th January 2021 (no students)

Academic Review Day                                    Tuesday 5th January 2021

Spring Half Term Holiday                               Monday 15th February – Friday 19th February 2021

Last day of Spring Term                                 Friday 26th March 2021

Summer Term                                  

Start of the summer term for students   Monday 12th April 2021

Summer Half Term Holiday                          Monday 31st May – Friday 4th June 2021

Last day of Summer Term                             Friday 16th July 2021

I will be writing again in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please check our website and social media feeds @StepneyAS for updates on what is taking place at our school.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Woods

Headteacher

The letter can be downloaded here – Headteacher letter 13.10.20

Changes to School Timetable