*** GCSE results update ***

Our progress 8 figure, announced by the government on Thurs 20th October for 2022 Exam Results, has provisionally been given as +0.43 (before late results and appeals). This shows we ensure our students achieve significantly better across all their subjects than all other students nationally and we are ranked 4th in Hampshire by this measure. More information on results is on our website here.

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the Wildern Weekly! My name is Mrs Thomas and my role as Senior Lead for Pastoral, Wellbeing and Intervention enables me to oversee the Pastoral Team at Wildern alongside Mr Chance, Deputy Head for Pastoral. 

 

I am passionate about supporting our amazing students through the challenges that they may face throughout their time at secondary school and I am constantly seeking new ways to do this. I am incredibly lucky at how varied my role is at Wildern and a particular aspect that I love is leading on the Year 6 Transition to Wildern. From my initial visits to each primary school, where I field questions and ease any worries, to the moment they walk into Wildern, looking smart in their new uniform to begin their journey with us. To be involved in this significant step in our students' lives is a wonderful experience. 

I have completed Senior Mental Health Lead training and all students will have heard me in talk in assembly about the importance of well-being and positive mental health. I am determined to promote and raise awareness of this key issue in the lives of our young people and help them to develop the skills they need to navigate this now and later on in their lives.

 

I am also raising awareness to stamp out bullying behaviours in school. You will have already received information about the United Against Bullying Campaign we are running as well as our new Anti Bullying Ambassador scheme. Through both of these schemes we hope to equip our students and staff with the tools they need to tackle bullying behaviour to create a safer, kinder school community and working with students to create a positive culture in school is essential. 

 

I meet regularly with our local Police to raise awareness of local issues educate our students around these in order to help them make positive decisions and keep themselves safe. Our links with King Community Church, No Limits, Barnardo's and Fit4Life continue to flourish and as a result they are all able to offer our students bespoke interventions and support when needed, which can be integral to their personal success. In school, we have created the Wildern Wellbeing Hub on our website where our students can access a vast amount of external support. There is also the #ineedsupport form where students can tell us they need support easily without having to find an adult. In addition, student voice is very important to us and our #mywildern form is where they can share their ideas about how they feel we can improve. Ultimately Wildern is their school and we need to work alongside them to make it the best experience for them it can be.

 

If there is ever a need to talk to us about your child's wellbeing or mental health please do contact your child's tutor or Student Services in the first instance. We care and we are here to help.

Wildern Weekly feedback

Thank you to everyone who answered our plea for feedback; this was really helpful and showed that the overwhelming majority of parents who responded feel the Wildern Weekly has improved the way we are communicating with you. Individual comments also gave us some great information regarding the sections of this bulletin that are most helpful and how we can improve this further which we have begun to implement.

'Meeting me' conversations

Across two days at the start of the year all tutors met with their tutees and parents as part of our 'meeting me' conversations. These were designed to support the tutor/tutee relationship, allowing time for staff to get to know their students, helping students to share any worries or concerns they had with their tutor and for us to take steps to support them with these.

We would love your feedback on these to help with future planning. Please complete this short survey.

Literacy across the school

My name is Mrs Slater and I am privileged to be the Whole School Literacy Coordinator here at Wildern. We have a proud history of positively promoting literacy across the school, recognising that strong literacy skills lead to wider success across all subjects, as well as positive life chances in the future.

 

So far this year we have seen the following literacy events take place:

• The successful Summer Reading Projects completed by years 7 and 9 on Ele Fountain’s novels Lost and Melt
• Reading Ambassadors launched - a student led mentoring programme designed to develop articulation in reading for students in year 7
• The KS3 book club with Mrs Searle (Mondays 3-4pm LRC)
•  The KS4 book club with Mrs Quick (Tuesdays 3-4pm Dart)
• The tutor literacy sessions specifically designed for your child’s age appropriate literacy needs:
  • Years 7 and 8 – Word of the Week/Silent Reading
  • Years 9 and 10 – Word of the Week/Genre of the Month
  • Year 11 – Word of the Week and Literacy Exam Quizzes
• The launch of Millionaire Readers across years 7-11
• Our LRC seasonal competition “Haunting Hooks” across 7-11

You can see more about these events and what is coming up in our Library newsletter. Looking ahead, we have our next LRC competition “Book in a Bauble” and we will be celebrating World Book Day in March 2023.

Millionaire Readers (7-11)

We have launched Millionaire Readers which is an initiative whereby students are encouraged to read 25 texts or more across the school to achieve millionaire status. The average secondary reading book has approximately 40,000 words, so 25 of these would roughly reach a million words read.

The expectation is that all students will have reading material on them in order to take part in tutor activities, LRC sessions for English and are actively reading a range of fiction and non-fiction text types to support their wider academic studies.

All students need to do, is collect a tracker from the LRC, complete the titles of the books read and hand this in at the end of the year to our school librarian Mrs Searle, or Mrs Slater in 901 to achieve point for their house, certificates and prizes.

Please encourage your child to take part and read widely. It is well documented that students that read regularly and around their subjects are more likely to achieve top grades (7-9) at the end of year 11.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding whole school literacy, please feel free to contact Mrs Slater and I would be delighted to hear from you. Additionally, please visit the LRC section of our website to see lists of suggested reading for your child.

Duke of Edinburgh opportunity - Years 9 and 10

Extra-Curricular activities

Please see our updated clubs for the second half of the Autumn term. Focus groups have now launched as well.  More details can be found on our website using the button below. The library is always available to students after school as well. 

What Parents Need to Know about Sendit

 

Sendit is an add-on to Snapchat, not a standalone app: it requires users to have an active Snapchat account, which they then connect to Sendit. It’s important that trusted adults realise, therefore, that any risks associated with Snapchat also affect children using Sendit. Within the app, people play question games like ‘Truth or Dare’ and ‘Never Have I Ever’: users select a question to share on their Snapchat story for their friends to reply to. All responses are anonymous, although – for paying subscribers – Sendit reveals hints about who sent which messages. 

 

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as bullying, harassment and grooming.