A Warm Welcome to a New Academic Year!

 

Welcome to the first edition of the Wildern Weekly! We're off to a fantastic start this academic year.

 

It was wonderful to welcome our new Year 7 students this week. We've enjoyed getting to know you and seeing you settle in so well. Our Year 11 students have also made an impressive start to their final year with us during their study sessions.

 

We've been so happy to see so many parents in school and virtually for our 'Meeting Me' sessions. These have been extremely helpful and informative, allowing our tutors to build strong relationships with you and your children, and to share important information and support.

It was also a pleasure to welcome last year's Year 11 students back to collect their GCSE results. It was great to see so many happy faces, and we wish them all the best on their next adventures!

 

Unfortunately, the rain this week hasn't been what we had hoped for, but our students were great at coping with the weather and were grateful for the use of our wet weather rooms. It would be a good idea to remind your child to check the weather forecast and bring a coat on rainy days, with such unpredictable weather so far!

 

We're looking forward to another successful year of working together.

A Toast to Our Community! 

 

We are absolutely delighted to announce that our 'Toast & Talk' Breakfast Club has been awarded a grant of £1500 from the Tesco Stronger Starts scheme! This fantastic result was only possible thanks to the incredible support from our families, students, staff and the wider community who took the time to vote for us in local Tesco stores over the past few months. Seeing our community rally together for this cause has been truly heart-warming.

 

This generous grant will make a huge difference, enabling us to support and grow the club throughout the coming academic year. We aim to provide a welcoming space for students to enjoy a healthy breakfast, talk with peers and staff and positively start their day ready to learn.

 

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to every single person who dropped a blue token in our box. Your support truly demonstrates the strength of the Wildern community. Our thanks also go to Tesco and their charity partner, Groundwork, for this wonderful opportunity to fund projects that make a real difference to young people.

Whole School

Monday 8 September - Week B

Monday 15 September - Week A

Monday 22 September - Week B

Wednesday 24 September - Individual School Photos

Thursday 25 September - School Open Evening 

Friday 26 September - Late opening 10am

Year 7 

Wednesday 17 September - Year 7 Team Building Event

Thursday 18 September - Year 7 Team Building Event

Year 8 + Year 9 

No Key Dates

Year 10 

Tuesday 9 September - Parent Information Evening - Careers and Work Experience 

Year 11

Tuesday 16 September - Parent Information Evening - What year 11 is like, careers and planning for post-16 

Monday 22 September - College assemblies 

We are pleased to let you know that following on from feedback received we are launching Edulink One for all parents and students this week in replacement of our Insight web browser.

 

Edulink One is a web and app-based system that will greatly enhance how we share information and communicate with students and parents. The system will provide one-stop access to your child's timetable, attendance information, achievement (positive erefs) and behaviour points (negative erefs), as well as other important academic information. 

 

We are confident that Edulink One will make communication between students, parents and teachers more efficient and effective. This will include a noticeboard and calendar to ensure you can stay informed about any upcoming events or important announcements should you not wish to follow us on social media.

Here are the updated parent handbooks for 2025/26.

 

This year we have created a general parent handbook that contains all the information you might need in. Please see the Whole School link below.

 

We have also created seperate curriculum information handbooks for each cohort. For any school queries you might have, please check these as they are likely to answer most questions. We will also place these in the noticeboard area of Edulink so you can easily find them for future use.

Thursday 25 September - Open Evening

5.30pm - 7.30pm

For information & to book your space click here

Friday 3 October - Open Morning

9.45am - 10.45am

For information & to book your space click here

Monday 13 October - Open Morning

9.45am - 10.45am

For information & to book your space click here

Music Lessons - Free Trials

We are excited to offer students the opportunity to take part in trial instrumental/vocal lessons at Wildern School. These taster sessions are a fantastic way for students to explore different instruments and see whether they would like to take up regular lessons in the future.

Design & Technology

A letter from Mr J Smith looking at the curriculum and the year ahead.

Year 7 - Dance

Please ensure you have your Wildern PE shorts/Skort, Wildern PE Tshirt

Design & Technology

A letter from Mr J Smith looking at the curriculum and the year ahead.

Year 8 - Dance

Please ensure you have your Wildern PE shorts/Skort, Wildern PE Tshirt

English Overview for Year 9

A letter from Mr J Hillier looking at the year ahead.

Year 9 - Dance

Please ensure you have your Black sports leggings and your GCSE dance Tshirt or Wildern PE Tshirt

English Overview for Year 10

A letter from Mr J Hillier looking at the year ahead.

Year 10 - Geography

Students should all have a folder now in their lessons. We will provide lined paper and dividers. These will live in their Geography classroom unless they are needed for revision.

Year 10 - Dance

Please ensure you have your Black sports leggings and your GCSE dance Tshirt or

Wildern PE Tshirt

English Overview for Year 11

A letter from Mrs Rooney & Mr Collings looking at the year ahead.

Year 11 - Dance

Please ensure you have your Black sports leggings and your GCSE dance Tshirt or

Wildern PE Tshirt

We will be continue to share with parents a summary of what students will be learning about in their subject lessons each half term. This information is something it was felt would enable you as parents to be better informed when speaking to your child about their learning and be able to support them further at home.

 

Please see these links to give you more information about what your child will be studying this half term

Hello and welcome to our new literacy spotlight on the Wildern Weekly. This section is run by Mrs Rooney and Mrs Searle and we are excited to bring you all the news and updates from our LRC and literacy initiatives this year!

 

At Wildern, literacy remains at the heart of everything we do, not just in lessons, but across the whole school. This year, we’re excited to continue building a culture where reading and writing are something to be celebrated, shared, and most of all enjoyed.

 

Kicking off in the Autumn Term, we’ll be bringing back our much-loved Haunting Hooks competition, challenging students to write spine-tingling opening lines to their own ghost stories. This is a great opportunity to stretch creative writing skills in a fun and engaging way. Later in Autumn 2, there will be a festive Letters to Santa activity, giving students a chance to get imaginative with their writing and bring a little joy and magic to the season.

 

We’re also introducing something new this year: Turning the Pages Together. A morning and evening event where students and parents can visit the LRC, explore our shelves, and choose books to read together. This is about making space for shared reading experiences and nurturing that love of books at home as well as in school.

 

Throughout the year, we’ll also be spotlighting book recommendations across tutor time, school displays, and the Wildern Weekly – helping students discover fresh titles and authors they might not have picked up before. Most importantly, we’ll continue to champion the value of reading for pleasure. Whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry or graphic novels, finding a book you enjoy is the first step to becoming a confident, curious and successful learner.

 

Here’s to another exciting year of stories, ideas, and imagination.

Welcome back everybody! The AA have released their figures for school based road accidents and the data is quite alarming. 6000 students injured in road accidents around schools in the UK when walking and cycling in 2023! That is alarming. They offer some great reminders about road safety around schools and you can read that release here (AA Road Safety)

 

This is also a good time to remind parents about driving around the area during school drop off times:

• Please do not drive onto site to drop off or pick up your children, you can arrange to meet them at pick up spots around the village. This frees up the road and car parks.
• Please do not park along the lane and block our neighbours driveways
• If you have a reason to use the car park when picking up a child, please contact the school for a permit. This may be due to disability or injury that prevents a student or parent from walking off site.
• If your children are cycling to school, please ensure their bike is in good health and they have a helmet to wear.

Join us on Wednesday 24th or Thursday 25th September, 16:30 - 20:30 at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College for an exciting opportunity to:

Explore our facilities

Research all courses on offer and QXTRAs!

Speak to our current students and teachers

Enjoy the College's vibrant and energetic atmosphere

To Secure Your Ticket please click image

This is a fantastic opportunity for you and your student to explore an outstanding sixth form college.

 

We encourage you to arrive at the start time on your ticket. Your time slot is limited to 45 minutes.

Parking will be provided on the field. Please be wary of the type and size of vehicle you bring. Accessible vehicles must display their blue badge at all times. Please email marketing@barton.ac.uk if you need support with accessible parking.

 

Following the introduction of Edulink, we have been able to move our co-curricular timetable online so that as parents, you can see the variety of clubs and opportunities that are available to your child. 

 

You'll be pleased to hear we have again this year our Creative Arts and PE clubs, Survival club and Chess club alongside new options including Fantasy football, Busking club, Scrabble club and Speed cube club.

 

There are also clinics and clubs to support academic learning, self-study and coursework.

 

To see what is on offer this term, click on 'Clubs' and then the > arrow to see All Clubs. Here you will be able to peruse all the clubs for this half term, the day/time they take place, the room and how many spaces there are. If you click on the club you will then get more information about this.

 

All students will have a tutor session next week that will take them through signing up for clubs in Edulink. Perhaps look through this list together this weekend and support your child to embrace the opportunities available and sign up for the clubs they are interested in.

Following our letter at the end of last term, work has started to improve our school kitchen. Over the past 18 months, we've been fortunate to secure Condition Improvement Funding, allowing us to update all electrics, water, and lighting across the site. This work is nearing completion and should be finished by the end of 2025.

 

The next crucial phase involves a complete renovation of our school kitchen. This work is scheduled to begin in mid-August and will continue until the October half-term. As a result, we'll have a very limited catering offer during this period.

 

We are able to offer:

• Sausage rolls
• Chicken burgers
• Beef burgers
• Warm paninis
• Jacket potatoes
• Cold baguettes
• Cold wraps
• Bottled drinks
• Biscuits
• Flapjacks

Please remember, we can adapt the majority of meals to any dietary needs if we know in advance (your child can speak to kitchen staff by visiting the kitchen before 8:30am that day). Main A/B vegetarian options are always available - just ask Dan and his team.

 

We encourage all families to use the free school meals eligibility checker, which can be found here, to determine if they qualify for this entitlement. 

What Parents & Educators Need to Know about Group Chats

 

Group chats are a hugely popular way for children to stay in touch with their friends, whether via messaging apps, social platforms or games. These online groups can help them feel connected, strengthen relationships and encourage creativity – but they also come with certain risks. 

 

From teasing and exclusion to privacy worries and inappropriate content, children can experience a wide range of challenges in group chats. This guide helps parents and educators recognise the signs of trouble and offers simple ways to support children in using group chats safely and respectfully.

Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts

 

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Wildern School

Wildern Lane

Hedge End

Southampton

Hampshire

SO30 4EJ

 

01489 783473

 

#WeAreWildern