Parent Bulletin Friday 2 December
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Parent Bulletin Friday 2 December 2022
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Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Wildern Weekly. I am Mrs Gilmartin and I am The Learning Hub Manager at Wildern School. My aim is to support students and give them every chance of success during their time here. Every child matters and every moment counts is our school motto and in The Learning Hub we believe every student should have the opportunity to involve themselves in school life as much as possible.
I am also an Art Teacher here at Wildern and run year nine Art Club with Mrs Lynch. We have entered work for the Murray Parish Trust and you may have seen our hare Lulu in reception. We meet every Tuesday after school so if your child is interested, please encourage them to come along.
I am supported by Mrs Exall our emotional literacy support assistant (ELSA), Monica our counsellor and Rufus the school dog.
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The Learning Hub is a calm, consistent and welcoming area of the school and we work with the Directors of Progress and Achievement and Directors of Learning to enable quality pastoral and curriculum support. I have worked at Wildern School for ten years now and I would say working with students and families requires good communication. I feel very lucky to work with the students that I see and feel as a pastoral team we work hard to support our young people. Rufus loves being in school and is regularly made a fuss of when he see’s students. His favourite venue is the school canteen as he gets a delicious lunch from Dan the Canteen Manager. I cannot say the word canteen now without him licking his lips!
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Quick links - In this issue...
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All Years
Attendance: Even in these post “COVID” days it is important we focus on attendance and the impact poor attendance had on GCSE grades for Year 11 students in 2022.
On average, students who had an attendance of less than 90%, achieved 1.5 grades lower in EVERY subject in the summer GCSE results in 2022 at Wildern than those who attended for over 96% of the time.
Even students who attended 90-91% of the time achieved a whole grade lower in EVERY subject.
Missing lessons means missing learning opportunities, valuable feedback from teachers as well as having to spend time catching up which can be challenging. If for any reason there is an unavoidable absence and your child is able to complete work they should look through each of their Google Classrooms to see the work being covered in their timetabled lessons.
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All Years
Tickets for the Music Christmas Concert can be purchased here
Cost of living: Our message is - if we know we can help. We appreciate it may be difficult to talk about but please do feel free to contact us on wildern@wildern.org.
Christmas celebrations and end of term arrangements
WINK: Sexting - what it is and how to talk to your child about it (face to face)
**Free school holiday activity clubs**
Rotary Young Chef Competition: Last call for students in Years 7 - 10 to enter this competition on Wednesday 11th January 2023, 3pm - 5pm at Wildern School. The competition requires students to prepare a main and a dessert of their choice. All ingredients will be purchased for the competitors by Rotary. Menu ideas must be submitted to Miss King by Monday 12th December.
Year 7 & 8
There are no reminders for Year 7 & 8
Year 9
Geography: Iceland Trip
English: Students will begin their spoken language assessments in class next week. To support the preparation and rehearsal of these speeches, Year 9 students will bring their books home from class. Parent support for students during this key part of students’ GCSE study is much appreciated.
After Christmas students will study the Shakespeare play ‘Othello’ in the Spring term. We recommend that students have a copy to annotate in class and support study, with the ‘Oxford Schools edition’ being particularly useful.
Year 10
Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award info
Year 11
ESPs this week
Monday - History / Geography
Tuesday - Spanish / German
Wednesday - Art / Photography
Business Studies information
Art and Photography coursework deadline: Tuesday 3rd January 2023. Coursework is worth 60% of students final GCSE grade
ICT Exam: Monday 9th January. This is worth 33% of the final grade for ICT. All students have been given a copy of the Wildern revision guide and have other revision resources available on Google Classroom
English: After Christmas, students will return to their study of ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J B Priestley. If your son/daughter does not yet have a copy of this text, we would ask that this is purchased for them ahead of the Spring term. We would recommend the Heinemann plays edition. Do contact your child’s teacher if there are any issues. English Language and Literature revision guides are available for £1.50 each. Your son/daughter can collect a form from finance to purchase these.
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Living with COVID - our current recommendations
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As the months get colder there are more viruses and illnesses going round. We are aware that whilst testing for covid is not routine, some people still have access to or have purchased Covid testing kits.
We are working at the moment on the 'Living with COVID' Government guidance that has now been withdrawn as of the start of December. This gave the advice that if a child or young person has a positive COVID-19 test result they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day they took the test, if they can. After 3 days, if they feel well and do not have a high temperature, the risk of passing the infection on to others is much lower. This is because children and young people tend to be infectious to other people for less time than adults (for adults it is 5 days).
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New - Water Bottle filling fountains
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We have finally had our new water bottle filling stations installed! These were originally ordered a year ago and have been place around the school site to enable students to quickly and easily fill their bottles.
These can be found opposite the bike sheds by block 2, at the outdoor seated area by the hall/opposite the leisure centre and by the Pod by block 3. There is one more that will be installed in the coming weeks.
This was originally a suggestion of a student via the mywildern form.
If your child has an idea to help us improve their school experience, please encourage them to submit it via the mywildern suggestion form on the wellbeing hub page of the school website.
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We are always open between 8:45am and 3:30pm. Please remember to register with your teacher and collect the pink lanyard. The best times to drop in are:
- 11:10-11:25am - Breaktime
- 1:30-1:55pm - Lunchtime
- 3:00-3:15pm - After School
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Dan and his catering team can adapt the majority of meals to any dietary needs if they know in advance (your child can speak to them by visiting the kitchen before 8:30am that day).
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* correct at time of sending, but may be subject to change
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* all fixtures correct at time of sending, but may be subject to change
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KS3 Cooking Club - The December workshop (Stained glass gingerbread) will be taking place on Thursday 8th December 3pm - 4.30pm in 512. Students must sign up with their food teacher, prior to the date to attend.
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What Parents Need to Know about TikTok
TikTok is a free social media platform that lets users create, share and watch short videos ranging anywhere from 15 seconds to 10 minutes in duration. The app gained notoriety for its viral dances, trends and celebrity cameos and can be a creative, fun platform for teens to enjoy. Now available in 75 languages, it has more than a billion active users worldwide (as of spring 2022) and is most popular with the under-16 age bracket. In fact, a 2022 Ofcom report found TikTok to be the most-used social media platform for posting content, particularly among young people aged 12 to 17.
In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as age-inappropriate content, dangerous challenges and contact with strangers.
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Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts
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Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts
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