Newsletter

Learning Together : Succeeding Together Edition 65 Monday 2nd October 2017

In This Issue • Open Evening

• Tutees of the week

• Track and Field report

• Instrumental and Singing lessons

• Dance Success

• Student Fundraising

• Sports Extra Curricular

• Attendance Policy

• Complaints Procedure

Open Evening Wednesday saw another successful Open Evening. Parents and students from around Wokingham came to see our school, looked around our departments and inspected the new Maths block! Parents were welcomed into the hall with some delightful piano solos from Izzy Newson, Alfred Robinson and Amelia Abbott. They helped set a really positive tone for the evening. We must recognise the fantastic efforts of our tour guides, and thank any parents that assisted with transport arrangements. A special thank you is needed to Jonathan Dodd (Y8) and Molly McGuinness (Y8) for their fantastic speeches in front of hundreds of strangers. Not an easy feat, especially for a Y8 student. More thanks go to Jana Crichlow and Colm Casey (Head Girl and Head Boy) for their speech. Mr Cranham produced a fantastic video to showcase what we do at The Emmbrook. You can see this on our Facebook page, or on the school website. Best wishes, Craig Johnson Director of Business and Humanities

Tutees of the week Every week, tutors are asked to nominate their ‘tutee of the week’. This is based on any positive actions or improvements. Year Leaders then contact home and explain why they have been nominated. Winners for the last few weeks are; Year 7

Week Beginning 18th Sept Week Beginning 25th Sept

Carter Lawrence Connor McNiffe

Daisy Dottson Erin Prowse

Morgan Anderson Josh Fowler

Jack Thornton Lola Breadmore

Sophie Matthews Andy Randrianantoandro

Sophie Oliver Thomas Allaway

Caelan Murphy

Anuraag Chatterjee

Amber Keogh

Jayden Gill

Natasa Sremac

Becky Turpin

Erin Mulvaney

Tom Aslett

Adam Face

Kristian Bell

Joseph Howe

Luke Kellaway

Year 8

Week Beginning 18th Sept Week Beginning 25th Sept

8A Lauren Brandon 8A Harry Wallace

8B Kuba Sczymczyk 8B Ajay Paris Bowen

8C Tyrell Robinson 8B Ella Baker

8D Josh Folan 8D Jonathan Dodd

8E Olivier Zimnowodzki 8D Harry McBain

8E Molly McGuiness

Year 9

Week Beginning 18th Sept Week Beginning 25th Sept

9A - Ben Squires 9A – Kenzie Ballentine

9B - Megan Underwood 9B – Dana Muszka

9C - Abigail Undrell 9C – Connor Cole

9D - Patrick West 9D – Chloe Fidler

9E - Adam Taylor 9E – Olivia Blanco

9F - Milli Westlake 9F – Ellie Meech

9G - Shane Masterman 9G – Michael Fyfe

Year 10

Week Beginning 18th Sept Week Beginning 25th Sept

A Alex McMahon A Molly Shaw

B Zara Sullivan B Alfie Kinch

C C Solly Wheeler

D Chloe Pidgeon D Beth Thomas

E Alfred Robinson E Connor Farmer

F Race Court F Charlie Godwin

Year 11

Week Beginning 25th Sept

11A - Harrison Deer

11B – Emily Sylvester

11C – Madelyn Wellstead

11D – Jade Fox

11E – Faith Bell

11F – Mhairi Robertson

Well done to all those who were nominated. Pete Whitehouse Assistant Headteacher

Track and Field Report Huge congratulations to Joel Cable of Year 11 on his recent success at the English Schools’ Combined Events Championships. Competing in the U17 Boys age group, Joel and his three team mates became the first Berkshire team at any age level to win a national Combined Events title. What is even more impressive is that three of the boys, Joel included, are a year younger, being in the first year of this two-year age bracket. Plenty of personal bests were recorded and there is plenty of potential for next year, all a tribute to the hard work and dedication to training which has underpinned this success. Fantastic achievement, Joel!

Mr. Baylis Curriculum Leader for PE

Instrumental and Singing Lessons If your child would like to have singing and/or instrumental lessons from one of our visiting specialist teachers during the school day, or after school on Mondays/Tuesdays (at The Emmbrook, which is the base for the Berkshire Maestros Wokingham Music Centre), letters are available from Mrs. Wellman. You could also visit the Berkshire Maestros website for further information. This is an ideal time of year to begin having lessons - an exciting opportunity at the start of the academic year. Please contact Mrs. Wellman if you would like more information. Angela Wellman Curriculum Leader for Music

Dance Success We were delighted to find out that Lola Breadmore was placed 5th in the country for under 12 Waltz last weekend at the NATD Medalist competition in Blackpool. With tough competition from international competitors, Lola did incredibly well. We are all very proud. We wish her luck with her regional qualifiers in November. Sandra Hodgson Year 7 Leader

Student Fundraising Erin Prowse in Y7 will be having a 12 inches of hair cut in the next few weeks for an amazing cause. Erin has been growing her hair for 2 years in order to donate 12 inches to a charity that produces wigs for sick children. If that wasn’t enough, she is also raising money via a justgiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/erin-prowse?prompt_event=9eab448&fb_event=c6928f9# We are all incredibly proud of her efforts. Whilst she has already smashed her target, please feel free to donate to this great cause. Sandra Hodgson Year 7 Leader

PE Extra-curricular opportunities • PE Extra-c curricula opportunities

The following clubs will be running until December;

Attendance Policy Attendance and punctuality are key to academic success. The Emmbrook School starts at 8.25am. Students are expected on site by 8.20am and in their tutor rooms with their tutors by 8.25am. Tutor time is invaluable for receiving messages and preparing for the day ahead. This week students will be given an assembly about some distinct changes to our late procedures. Attached to the newsletter is a helpful guide on attendance and what to do if your child is absent Ruth Blythe Director - Pastoral

Complaints Procedure We have recently updated our complaints policy which is posted on our website. Our vision is to be the first-choice school for Wokingham parents, students and staff and to achieve this through our School motto of “Learning together, succeeding together”. We are committed to continuous improvement and welcome your feedback, whether it be positive or negative. All concerns and complaints are considered seriously and always with a view to securing resolution as soon as practicable. It is the School’s policy to investigate concerns and complaints in a timely, open and non-adversarial manner. In our experience, most concerns can be resolved informally either at or before stage 1 of our procedure. Occasionally, however, a concern will be too serious to be resolved in this way, perhaps needing greater investigation or because you feel that the answers given so far have not

been adequate. In such circumstances, the concern will become a complaint and the formal procedure will be followed. In the rare event that the issue is not resolved at stage 2 of the procedure, stage 3 of the procedure, an appeal to a panel of governors, may be invoked. Who should I approach and how? Identified below are the members of staff you should approach depending on the nature of your concern. Subject specific concerns. If your child has an issue in a particular lesson, please make contact in the first instance with their subject teacher. If they are not able to resolve the matter to your satisfaction, then the Curriculum Leader should be involved. If the matter is still unresolved the Faculty Director (who will be a member of the School’s leadership team) will support the resolution. Similarly, if your concern is related to your child’s overall pastoral experience of our School, please raise it with their tutor in the first instance and then their Year Leader. If the matter is still unresolved the Assistant Headteacher Community, who is a member of the School’s leadership team, will refer the matter for support from another senior member of staff. If the concern relates to the direct actions of the Headteacher or a governor, please refer to section 13 “Complaints about the Headteacher or the governors” in the policy. If you are uncertain about who to approach, please contact in the first instance the School’s complaints co-ordinator and assistant Headteacher, Mr. Taj Bhambra, who will be able to advise you. If there is a difficulty in discussing a concern or complaint with a particular member of staff, the complaints co-ordinator can be contacted to support the matter being referred to that person’s line manager. Similarly, if a member of staff feels they would like support in resolving a concern or complaint, the complaints co-ordinator may consider referring your concern or complaint to another staff member. Complaints or concerns should never be raised with a School governor in the first instance, so as not to prejudice their impartiality in dealing with a complaint that moves to a formal stage. For this reason, governors will not respond to concerns or complaints outside of the formal procedure. Our experience has been that the vast majority of concerns are most effectively resolved at the informal stage. Taj Bhambra Assistant Headteacher - Inclusion

Important Dates for 2017-18

23rd October Autumn Half Term

30th October INSET Day 2

Additional details can also be found on our website