Parental Update 1 - 4th September 2026

Dear Parent / Carer,

Parental Update 1

Before beginning, can I apologise for the considerable length of this first parental update, I assure you they aren’t all this long. Now back to the Update…

A warm welcome back to all of you after what I hope was an enjoyable summer break, and a special welcome to those new Year 7 parents (and the several new families in other year groups) who have joined our Lasallian family this year. It has been lovely to see the students return and credit to you all, how smart they are in their uniforms.

It has been a very packed and interesting week – with our new IT system, Synergy, being rolled out which we all need to get used to using . As well as IT changes, we have some uniform changes and again more praise is needed for our students who have been excellent in stepping up and meeting these expectations. I will talk about the changes later.

Looking ahead to next week, our Year 7 students have their baseline assessments – these are nothing to worry about for the students and no revision needed, just a way of us identifying any gaps in learning. We also have a few photographs to mop up for those we were unable to fit in this week.

Whole School Focus – School Organisation and Structures

Often the school will receive calls from parents wanting to speak to me directly about an issue, as this is what often happens in a primary school. As I am sure you can imagine, in a school of 1200 students and 150 staff, there are layers of management and leadership who will pick up and address issues and more importantly will know more about them and be better able to help you.

To help you identify who you should contact the key people are highlighted below and attached a list of key contacts:

1. For subject issues, the class teacher will support students helped by their Head of Department (HOD).

2. For pastoral issues (behaviour, attendance, wellbeing), we have a tiered structure of staff to support students. This structure is different to those in most primary schools as we have far more students. The structure is:

• Form tutor: this is your child’s daily contact for most low-level things in school.
• Pastoral Support Manager (PSM) or Learning Mentor in Yr 7 , 8 and 9: the PSMs/LMs deal with the mid-level issues that a student might face and support their Head of Year with the Year Group.
• Head of Year (HOY) or Pastoral Leader (PL) in Yr 7 , 8 and 9: the HOYs/ PLs oversee the whole year group, pick up the more serious issues and direct the work of the PSMs and Form Tutors.
• Senior Leader (SLT): each Year group is also overseen by a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Mrs Jess (yr 7), Mrs Critchley (yrs 8 and 9) and Mrs Mulhall (Yrs 10 and 11)
• Headteacher: this is me. I oversee standards across the whole school and all aspects of school life. I generally deal with the high level, whole-school strategic issues rather than individual issues, or at least try to!
• Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): this is Mrs De’Ath and she has ultimate responsibility for the safeguarding of staff and students across the school.

3. For SEND Issues, our SENDCo is Mrs Thomas who is a member of the SLT.

GCSE Results

We were very pleased with the very healthy jump in our GCSE results this year – a testament to the hard work of students and parents and the school improvement work of the staff. Most pleasing of all, was the significant jumps in outcomes for our most disadvantaged students. The results are still awaiting validation and links to these results (once validated) and previous years are on the website.

Staff Changes

This new year we have welcomed in a number of new staff:

• - Miss Brown       PE Teacher
• - Mr Blaney          Maths Teacher
• - Mr Roberts        Maths Teacher
• - Mrs Whalley     English Teacher
• - Ms Jones           Learning Assistant
• - Mr Stafford        Learning Assistant
• - Ms Berry            Learning Assistant
• - Ms Hudson       Learning Assistant
• - Mr Mather          Pastoral Lead Yr 7

We wish them a warm welcome and a good year ahead.

School Systems

We have now moved to Synergy from Edulink and School Comms. Our 2 main systems are:

• o ParentPay (we had this last year): this is for paying for school trips, topping up dinner money and all financial things. Please do not use this to send messages to the school. (Year 7 families will be receiving their logins over the next week whilst Year 8-11 families should have logins from last year)
• o Synergy: this is for all other aspects of school life: checking timetables, behaviour and reward points, attendance and communication with staff. (Year 7 will be receiving their login details over the next 2 weeks whilst Years 8-11 should already have received them). Please see Synergy page of school website for all info and link to account resets. For best results we recommend you download and use the Synergy App.

Canteen

Can parents please ensure their child has money on their account (this can be done online through ParentPay (year 7 will be receiving login details very soon) or by bringing cash in. As for students on Free School Meals these are automatically credited but only if you are registered for free school meals with the LA.

In terms of access to the dining room, we have a rota which changes each half term. This half term the rota is:

• Early lunch: Year 7
• 1.10pm: Year 11
• 1.15pm: front of queue passes
• 1.20pm Year 8
• 1.25pm Year 9
• 1.30pm Year 10

Uniform Expectations

The students have looked very smart this year and this really does have a positive impact on attitude and behaviour. I just want to clarify a few expectations to ensure home and school are on the same page (all are also available on the school website):

• o Training shoes are allowed but must be fully black – including no coloured logos and no reflective labelling.
• - Earrings / nose piercings are not permitted, where piercings are new, we will allow students to have clear plastic retainers.
• - False nails or eyelashes- these are not permitted
• - All students must have a school bag and their school equipment

Sanctions: Any student not meeting our uniform expectations by Monday 8^th September will be taken out of circulation from the main building and activities until the matter is corrected.

With regard to PE kits: Students should come into school in PE kit (only on days they have PE) and they don’t need to wear blazer over PE kit, and can bring other coloured training shoes to change into for PE).

PARKING!!!

It wouldn’t be a start of year update if I didn’t mention parking. We have a number of complaints from local residents about parents parking inconsiderately at the start and end of the day. So please when dropping off or picking up children please do so, well away from the school (it won’t hurt your child to walk a few hundred yards) and not blocking driveways., thank you. In short DO NOT PARK NEAR THE SCHOOL GATES!

Please can I also remind parents that the school car park is not to be used at the start or end of the day for dropping off and collecting students (unless by prior agreement)

Message from the National Children’s Commissioner

As children and young people return to school for the new academic year, I am writing to ask for your support in making sure pupils at your school have the opportunity to take part in my national survey, The Big Future. I have only heard from less than ten children at your school.

The survey can be completed here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigfuture.

I have already heard from hundreds of thousands of children and young people across England, and the majority of schools have now taken part. It is crucial that children at your school have the chance to add their voices too, so that their experiences, views and aspirations are represented when I present the findings of the survey to Government.

Attached Information

Alongside this week’s update there is also:

• - Parental Information Sheet

Forthcoming Events (dates in bold indicate a change to normal finish times)

September:

• o Mon 7^th – Fri 18^th: Year 7 Baseline Assessments
• o Mon 7^th: Photographer Catch Up Session
• o Thu 17^th: Tenerife Trip Parental Meeting 5pm
• o Thu 17^th: year 8 Parental Information Evening 5.30pm
• o Fri 25^th – Sun 27^th: Year 10 Hawse End Educational Visit (EV)

October:

• o Thu 1^st Open Evening (school closes at 12.10pm) – No buses
• o Thu 8^th: Year 10 High Prior Attainers (HPA) Information Evening 5pm
• o Fri 9^th – Tue 13^th: EV Year 9 Geography Trip to Tenerife
• o Sat 10^th: Year 11 Alton Towers EV
• o Thu 15^th: Pastoral Parents’ Evening (online) for Years 7-10
• o Thu 15^th: Year 11 Parents’ Information Evening 5pm
• o Thu 22^nd: Students finish for half term (3pm)
• o Fri 25^th: Laetare Trust INSET Day (students do not attend)

Half Term

And finally…

For our new Year 7 parents, this is the point at which you can stop reading the bulletin as all the useful information is above, the rest is just my weekly waffle.

We were lucky enough to have 2 holidays this summer, both without our two grownup sons – the first to Malta, which though beautiful felt like visiting the sun it was so hot. The second was a last-minute road trip planned by Mrs R via Le Shuttle, through Northern Europe: Lille, Brugges, Luxembourg, Saarbrucken, Strasbourg and Arras.

I had mentioned to Mrs R that this was a lot of driving – but she pointed out that most of it was broken up in stages and she offered to drive some of it. The reality of this was that after packing the car, she turned the car around outside the house and then I covered the other 1480miles. To be fair she was a very able co-pilot along the way, when she stayed awake.

The trip itself was wonderful enjoying the culture, sights, food and drink of each area. Alongside that, of course Mrs R wanted to do some shopping. So every city we arrived at, I tracked down where the Cathedral was for us to visit, then Mrs R tracked down the local Zara for her to shop and me to stand in the air-conditioned doorway getting suspicious looks from the various security guards.

Then in the evenings it was drinks then a local meal, mostly delicious, though Mrs R’s choice of what translated as “Nanna’s Stew” just appeared to be a dog bone in hot water. Nevertheless, we returned at the end of it bringing back lots of lovely memories, a whole boot of wine and for me, about another stone in weight.

Have a good weekend.

Andrew Rannard

Headteacher