WELCOME

A very warm welcome to our new parents and students who are joining us this year.  We look forward to working with all our parents to ensure that we can support your children in their academic and social development in school. 

We have celebrated some excellent examination results for individuals and the school as a whole in the last few weeks.  I would like to wish our students who have chosen to move on to university all the very best. 91% are going to their first or second choice institution and at present 52% gained an A*-B grade.

86% of students gained 5 GCSEs 9-4 including English Maths with 90% gaining a grade 9-4 in English and Maths.  The percentage of grade 9 to 7 grades was 31% with 29 students gaining average grade across their GCSEs of grade 8.  We are particularly pleased as all indications are that this cohort has made very good progress against their starting points so we are expecting a strong progress grade when this information is published.

We wish all our students the very best as they start the next stage of their educational journeys no matter where that will be and hope they keep in touch with us to let us know how they are doing.  They can do this via the FutureFirst website.

In the first two days of term we have emphasised our expectations with students about uniform, attendance, focus in lessons and behaviour around the school site and outside.  We have also gone over our values of Unity Respect Excellence as well as talked about character traits that we are focusing on this year as part of our culture of continued improvement.   

High attendance is vital to success and impacts students’ outcomes, if they are not in school they find it much harder to learn.  Can you please as a parent/carer make sure that your son/daughter is in school as much as possible and highlight any potential issues so we can work with you in overcoming them.

There are a wealth of exciting opportunities for our students to get involved in including drama, music, PE, leadership, outdoor activities, robotics and much more. Please encourage them to get involved in the life of the school and support each other.  

Student services has moved to a larger space and is now situated in the old Focus Room area.  This move creates a better environment for us to support students who have a medical need as well as provide space for the Pastoral team to support with small workshops for interventions around well-being, anger management, social engagement and other support programmes that may be required. 

The examination outcomes this year have been extremely pleasing for us as a school, however, we are not complacent and know that we have areas to work on to improve our support of individuals to help the students who have examinations coming up.

NEW STAFF

I am sure you will join with me in welcoming them into our school community. 

CHARACTER EDUCATION AT CHARTERS

This year one of our foci will be on Character Education at Charters.  Having worked with staff, students, trustees and our parental focus group we have chosen 8 character traits to support our school values of Unity, Respect and Excellence this academic year.

Character Education will support curriculum learning, ensuring that Charters students have the skills and tools they need as they move through their time at Charters and beyond.

We will be making Character explicit in a number of ways; assemblies, Tutor time, Personal Development lessons, literacy challenges, curriculum lessons (via a Character Intention) and Learning to Learn lessons (KS3).

Each half term we will spotlight one of the Character Pillars across Years 7 to 13 in assemblies and the Personal Development lesson. We will also be letting you know when this happens and providing a few suggested conversation starters which you might like to use at home.

Next week our first Character Spotlight is Respect.  At Charters we consider that to demonstrate Respect towards ourselves, our community and our school we must be kind and polite, considerate of others and listen without judgement. Years 8 to 13 will have their Character Respect assemblies next week, Year 7 will have theirs on Monday 18 October.

PDL will obviously be slightly different for each year group but with Respect as the overriding theme.   Year 7 will consider Kindness, Year 8 Gratitude and Humility, Year 9 keeping their cool, Year 10 giving and earning Respect, Year 11 building Emotional Intelligence, Year 12 Empathy and Year 13 Respecting yourself.

A few suggested conversation starters to help you talk about the subject of Respect might be:

• Why is respect important?
• Should we always show respect?
• Why is self-respect important?
• What is a kind act?

COMMUNICATION WITH THE SCHOOL

We believe in working in partnership with parents to enable us to provide the best possible experience for your sons/daughters.  One of our central values is respect, as such can I ask that in communications with us, you are polite and respectful to staff as they are doing their very best to support your children.

The only other thing we would say is that we understand that sometimes parents or carers may be frustrated about issues that arise and we will always do our best to solve these. At the same time, our staff should not have to put up with communication that is rude, abusive or aggressive. As such staff will not communicate with anyone who is communicating in such a manner, I am sure you would agree that no one should be subjected to such communication. 

Furthermore, we would much prefer parents or carers to contact us directly with concerns rather than raise them on social media before we have had the chance to respond.  In our experience social media responses are far from helpful, as individuals do not know the full circumstances of the situations. 

It shouldn’t be forgotten that there is a teaching recruitment crisis and we need to ensure that we hold onto our excellent staff, so please be respectful.

TERM DATES

The term dates for the next academic year have been on the school website since October 2022.  Please make sure that you check these dates before booking any holidays for next year.  We do not authorise holidays during term time.

Term Dates 2023-24

Attendance Policy

ECAs

Each term we run a range of ECAs which help students to learn new skills, meet new friends and enhance their personal development. Please take a look at the ECA page for the Autumn timetables and more information on when each ECA commences.

GYMNASTIC EXCELLENCE

Year 10 students Lucy, Emily and Jess all competed at the Team Gym British Finals at the beginning of the summer break in Newcastle. They placed first taking home gold with their team and now hold the title as British Champions in Team Gym Junior Women’s division 2023. Their first placement also means they have now qualified for the European Championships which will be held in Italy later this year.  Congratulations to them, and we look forward to hearing about their future competitions.

SPORTING FIRST

Year 9 student Holly qualified over the summer for her first National Athletics Competition in the 800m. She competed at the England Athletics U15 & U17 Championships at the International Alexander Athletics Stadium in Birmingham. Such a great achievement and a fantastic experience for her to end the summer season on.

NEWS ROUND-UP

Read our news stories this week by clicking the links below:

Inspiring the Next Generation

Year 7 Freshers Fair

Bronze Arts Award

Character Education - Respect
 

NOTICES

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHER

The school photographer will be taking images of students in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on Monday and Year 12 on Tuesday. Each student will receive an individual QR code which will enable parents/carers to view the images when they pre-register.

Please ask your child for their code when they return from school next week to enable you to view their image and decide if you wish to place an order.

VAPING

Over the summer break you may have seen on the national news that a study has been published regarding the impact on young people of vaping.  As a school we are very clear that vaping in school or being in procession of vapes in school is in convention of our behaviour policy and sanctions do apply.  We will also confiscate any vapes found.  If we believe that a student is in procession of a vape we will follow our search procedures. 

The local authority have published the following information that we are sharing with you so you can have conversations at home with your child about vaping and the impact it can have on their health in both the long and short term.  The presentation can be found here.

SCHOOL COLOURS

Towards the end of last year we re-introduced School Colours.  These are the public recognition of exemplary students who show a consistent commitment to extra-curricular activities. We would like to be able to formally recognise the hard work and commitment that many students put into the life and community of the school. 

Over the next few months School Colours will be awarded to a variety of students and presented at key whole school events and activities. School Colours can be achieved in Music, Drama, Sport and Community.

To be considered for Community Colours, we encourage students to nominate themselves by completing the Community Colours - Self nomination form below:

Community Colours - Self-nomination Form

For more details about the School Colours, please see the website here.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Berks County U12 Pythons (Year 7) are looking for some extra players to add to their squad. 

Training is on the Charters School 3G pitch on a Tuesday evening at 6pm, with league games being played on a Saturday morning. Home games are played at the Charters School football pitches.

If you are interested, please e-mail Andy Smyth for further details - agsmyth76@gmail.com.

Some experience of playing competitively is preferred.

PREPARING FOR ADULTHOOD EVENT- 20 OCTOBER 2023

Green Corridor are an organisation that see the value in everyone. They aim to be a catalyst for positive change and create opportunities for those who have Special Educational Needs (SEN).

There will be a Preparing for Adulthood Event on 20 October 2023.

If you would like to book onto the event, please use the following link: https://www.greencorridor.org.uk/about-4-1

TAKE PART IN PAINTING A GREENER, CLEANER, COOLER WORLD

The Grantham Climate Art Prize is a competition for those aged 11 - 25 to draw attention to the climate crisis and the need for urgent, positive action.

The Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College has identified 9 things you can do about climate change. With our launch partner, Octopus Energy, we are asking young people aged 11 - 25 to design a mural to convey to your community what we all need to do.

Three winning designs will be recreated by professional mural artists in three major cities – in Glasgow, Coventry and London. Winners will receive a £500 prize, with 6 runners-up receiving £250. Their work will also be shown in public transport hubs and billboards across London to reach politicians, decision makers and millions of people before the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference COP28 starts in November.

You must be 11 - 25 before the 22 September 2023 to take part.

To find out more visit https://octopus.energy/grantham-art-prize-2023/ #GranthamClimateArtPrize

We will be hosting an online workshop for young people – details will be shared soon on the website above.  It is not essential to take part if you want to enter the competition – but it will offer some tips and pointers from an artist and climate scientist.

 

    

PARENT CURRICULUM/SUPPORT INFORMATION

    

 

 

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