Principal's update 7 October 2022

Published on 07/10/22

Dear Parents and Carers

Last night we opened our school doors to around 500 visitors, as we welcomed Y5 and Y6 students and their families to our Open Evening! A huge thank you to our wonderful student helpers who showed our school in its very best light and represented the true nature of our school community. A special thank you to our Student Ambassadors, who directed visitors around the school. Some of them spoke to a hall full of guests about their time at HVC. It was fantastic to hear about their positive experiences in our school.

What’s going on in school?

Y7 and Y9 played football against St Philip Howard on Tuesday. Y9 played extremely well and won their game 2-1. Despite a great effort, Y7 unfortunately lost their game 2-0.

Year 7s have a weekly library lesson in our fabulous, well-stocked library so that they can read, borrow and share books. Mrs Mummery, our librarian, has recommendations for all our students and will help them find a reading book to grab their attention. Teachers use the Accelerated Reader system to monitor students' reading and to encourage students to stay in the habit of reading for pleasure. Accelerated Reader offers a choice of more than 40,000 books so there is something for everyone and students do not have to restrict themselves to books from school. If you would like some suggestions for good reads, the AR book finder is a great tool for parents and carers to use: you can access it at www.arbookfind.co.uk

Rehearsals for our production of School of Rock begin on Monday after school. This is for all acting roles only and will take place from 3.30 – 4.30pm in the hall. Please email Miss Starbuck if you have any questions.

We are looking forward to our first LEAD day on Monday 17^th October. Our Learning, Enrichment and Development days are off timetable days and give us the opportunity to focus on important PSHE themes and topics. Each year group will be involved in a different activity and further information will be sent by email next week.

Y8/9 Information Evening

We would like to invite parents and carers of our Y8 and Y9 students to school on Tuesday 18^th October for our information evening, where there will be the opportunity to chat with tutors and other members of staff. The evening will run from 4.30 – 6.30pm. More information will be sent next week.

Information from Y10/11 GCSE Information Evening

Information from the Y10/11 GCSE Information Evening is now available for anyone who missed it on the school website: GCSE Information Evening

ClassCharts

Students and parents and carers can now view timetables on ClassCharts.

Lunch queue feedback

We really value and appreciate the feedback from parents and carers who attended our recent Y7 Information Evening, as well as feedback from our student survey. We have taken on board comments regarding lengthy queues at lunchtime and have opened a 3^rd till. This has had a really positive effect and our lunch queues are now moving much more quickly.

Cardiac Risk in the Young CRY Heart Screening

We have made a commitment as a school community to ensure that all of our students have access to cardiac screening with an ECG, which is a simple way to diagnose most cardiac abnormalities. We have booked a screening event on Tuesday 1^st November at the College for our current Y11 cohort. Further information has be sent to Y11 parents and carers earlier today. Y11 students will have priority booking for this screening, but we will make any additional places available to Y10 students once Y11 have had an opportunity to book.

Hope Valley Pathways Post 16 Open Evening

Hope Valley Pathways, our Post 16 SEND provision will be holding an Open Evening on Wednesday 12^th October from 5 – 7pm. Tickets can be booked via our website.

PTFA Newsletter

The latest PTFA Newsletter has been added to our website: PTFA Newsletter

DLD Awareness Day – 14^th October

Friday 14^th October is World Developmental Language Disorder Awareness Day. This is a hidden but common disability that affects 1 in 14 people, causing difficulties understanding and using language for no known reason. People with DLD struggle with reading, spelling and maths and often suffer with anxiety. The organisation RADLD (Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder) wants to increase awareness of growing with DLD, highlighting that it is a lifelong, permanent disability.

Thank you for reading our communication. Here are some helpful email addresses, should you need to contact us:

attendance@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to report a child’s absence
enquiries@hopevalley.chorustrust.org for general enquiries
pastoral@hopevalley.chorustrust.org for any issue with a child’s wellbeing
principal@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to contact the Principal
safeguarding@hopevalley.chorustrust.org to report safeguarding concerns. If a child or any young person is in imminent danger, then please report this to the police.

Kind regards

Mrs G Jones

Principal
Hope Valley College