Start of Term Updates September 2024
Thu 22 Aug 2024Dear Parent/Carer,
Re: Start of Term Updates – September 2024
Welcome back. Whether you are continuing the Swanshurst journey with your child, or you are joining us for the first time as a new Year 7 or Year 12 parent/carer, we are really looking forward to working with you in the year ahead. This letter provides you with lots of useful information about the start of term in one place so please read carefully. We hope you find it useful and feel well informed before the new term begins.
Fantastic Results – Year 11 and 6th Form
We were delighted to welcome Year 13 and Year 11 into school to collect their examination results during the summer. The achievements of all pupils have again shown that hard work leads to success, and that Swanshurst continues to provide a superb education which leads to strong outcomes. As you will know Ofsted highlighted that “All pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, achieve strong outcomes”.
This is true again in 2024. In 6th form, our key measures remain strong, and the majority of pupils are progressing to excellent universities, apprenticeship providers and employers to continue their education or to begin their careers. Students progressing to university are going on to study Dentistry, Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Optometry, Fine Art, Radiography, Nursing, Neuroscience, and Architecture amongst many others.
In KS4 once again, students have achieved excellent results. We are especially pleased that the number of pupils achieving grade 9-4 in English and Maths has increased again to 73%, Combined Science results in all areas are the best they have ever been, as are results in GCSE History, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Like all of you, we feel incredibly proud of pupils, and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank-you to staff for their skill and efforts leading up to the summer examinations. Thank you also to all of you, our parents and carers, for your continued support. We know you will join us in congratulating all pupils on their achievements and wish them all the very best in their next steps. We are looking forward to welcoming another very full cohort of Year 12 pupils in September during 6th form enrolment to continue their journey with us.
Congratulations Letter from Ofsted
Towards the end of the summer term, I received a congratulatory letter for our school from the HM Chief Inspector who said: “The inspection framework sets a high bar for being judged outstanding, which makes it a challenging and exacting standard to achieve. I would therefore like to commend you and your team on your exceptional work. I hope that you and your whole school community are very proud”.
We know you will be exceptionally proud of the judgement Swanshurst received. As a parent or carer in our community, you are part of that success and we’re sure you will share our feelings not only for the report that was written about our school, but also for this congratulatory letter.
School Priorities 24-25
A great school is built on great leadership and partnership with you at home. Each year, staff and governors carry out extensive evaluation activities to ensure we remain exceptional. This year, our main school development priorities cover 4 main areas to sustain excellence and it is important that you know about these. This will enable you to be familiar with the priorities your child may talk about at home. For example, reading, homework and independent learning skills are areas where you will see further developments this year.
We will continue to grow and develop Swanshurst in these areas:
- Sustaining Exceptional Teaching by:
- Continuing to ‘Teach to the top’ using demanding texts and ‘Thinking Hard’ strategies
- Continuing to take every opportunity to create awe and wonder, a love of learning and build curriculum connections
- Sustaining Exceptional Learning by:
- Continuing to maximise all opportunities for pupils to achieve the Pupil Pledge in full
- Introducing new sequencing for independent learning (homework)
- Further develop adaptations for SEND pupils by:
- Continuing to drive and incentivise SEND pupils’ participation in all parts of school life, especially extra curricula opportunities
- Continuing to adapt tasks and activities so that all SEND learners’ needs are met
- Provide support for those who most need it by:
- Implementing a renewed approach to our ‘Pupil Premium First’ strategy
- Continuing to drive our rewards policy to achieve exceptional levels of attendance and engagement.
Once pupils are settled back into the new term, we will write to you to outline our independent learning (homework) programme for the year with suggestions on how best to support your child/ren in their work.
West Midlands Academy Trust
As we move into the new academic year, our reflections on past achievements move to our future plans to secure the continued success of Swanshurst. We’re sure you will join us in feeling a sense of satisfaction in our work as we are now in a position to help support and collaborate with other like-minded schools locally. We are doing this through our progress towards becoming an academy and joining the newly established West Midlands Academy Trust.
As you know, we wrote towards the end of the summer term about strike action from the National Education Union that could extend into the new academic year. Throughout the summer we have continued to work hard to avert this but wanted to bring you up to date on where we are with the union. Some Q&A are included which can be viewed by clicking here
Continuing our partnership with families
As your child joins their new year group, it is important to note the fastest and most effective way to communicate with their pastoral team. The names of each Head of Year and the associated email address to reach your child’s team are:
Year 7 Mrs J Wright year7postbox@swanshurst.org
Year 8 Mrs N Bowler year8postbox@swanshurst.org
Year 9 Ms J Revell year9postbox@swanshurst.org
Year 10 Ms L Broadbent year10postbox@swanshurst.org
Year 11 Ms R Cheema year11postbox@swanshurst.org
Year 12 and 13 Mr M Smith sixthformpostbox@swanshurst.org
Key dates for this half term
Swanshurst is a busy and exciting place to be – there is always a lot on offer and many things to engage with for pupils and parents/ carers. To help you to plan as a family, here are the key dates for the half term ahead:
Wednesday 4th September Year 7 Values Day and Year 12 Enrolment
Wednesday 11th September Open Evening
W/C 16th September Open Mornings
Wednesday 18th September Year 11 Parent/Carer Information Evening
W/C 30th September Year 12 Assessment Week
Wednesday 16th October Year 13 Parent/Carers’ Evening
Wednesday 23rd October Year 7 Settling In Evening
As always, thank you for your continued support and engagement in our partnership work with you during your child’s time at Swanshurst.
Yours faithfully,
Mr M Dunn
Head Teacher