Moving on to Key Stage 4

Your child is about to leave Key Stage 3 and move into Key Stage 4 so I thought it appropriate to introduce myself as the Key Stage 4 Manager and to invite you to contact me if you have any concerns regarding your child’s progress and achievement over the next 2 years. Your child will have a new tutor who they may have met already and important contact details will be shared with you on the first day of next term. The new year 10 tutor team have a huge amount of experience relating to the activities in years 10 and 11 so this will hopefully be beneficial to all.

Important dates

11 September Yr10 Photos

14 & 15 March Independance 4

25 October Yr10 reports home

27 March Orchestral concert

26 October Training day

28 March End of term

26 October – Fri 2 November Half term

15 April Start of term

26 November Yr10 Parents’ Evening

22 April – Fri 3 May Yr10 Work experience

19 December Carol concert

6 May Bank holiday

21 December End of term

27 –31 May Half term

7 January Training day

18 & 19 June Bugsy Malone

8 January Start of term

24 –26 June Drama Festival

4 – Thurs 7 February Guys & Dolls production

5 July Training day

11 – Fri 15 February Half term 16 July Yr10 reports home

27 February Glastonbrooke

23 July End of term

12 March Yr10 reports home

Leadership opportunities

An exciting new opportunity has arisen for a select number of Year 10 students to become HBK Literacy Leaders. Open to anyone who enjoys reading it would particularly suit students who believe in the value of reading for pleasure; who wish to develop their leadership skills and who have an interest in supporting and mentoring younger students.

Applications, available from the Learning Resource Centre (LRC), need to be completed by Wednesday 12 September and given to Mrs Page. More information to what this entails will be shared with students in our first assembly on Thursday 6 September.

Attendance

Overall attendance in this year group seems to be good. Clearly there is strong correlation between good attendance and success at GCSE level and we ask that no holiday is booked or taken during term time. Next year will see more on going controlled assessments for Year 10 and it is important that these are not missed as it can affect final grades. Students are not allowed to take personal study before assessments. If they do it will be recorded as unauthorised absence.

Uniform

Uniform is much improved in all year groups. We still have a number of students who break the rules and we ask you to support us by ensuring that your son/daughter returns to school on Thursday 6th September wearing the correct uniform. The school website has details of the uniform rules for students. It also has a link to the Price and Buckland Website where school uniform can now be purchased online; www.pbparentsonline.co.uk/hinchingbrooke

Mobile phones, IPods etc. will continue to be immediately confiscated if used within the school and grounds during the school day.

School Site

We are currently undergoing maintenance and new building work which is intended to improve the site and safety of our students. We would like to remind students that they are not allowed on the school site out of school hours unless attending a club or formally organised activity. Unauthorised access is treated as trespass.

Communicating with School

If you are reading this as a hard copy then you can still register for ParentMail which keeps you immediately updated with the news and events in school. Likewise our newly updated website www.hinchingbrookeschool.net is excellent and worth logging in to regularly. All staff can be emailed using the generic email address prefixed with the relevant staff initials e.g. jh@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk You are welcome to contact us at any time and we appreciate any updates on student success and other more administrative matters. Please do inform us immediately of any change of contact details so we can maintain the accuracy of our records.

For changes in contact details and registration for ParentMail and +Pay (online payment and cashless catering) please contact communications@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk Staff initials can be found on the school website under Contact us>Staff Contact Details

Finally

We hope that you have a very pleasant summer break and look forward to welcoming out "new" Year 10 team on Thursday 6 September

Thank you for your continuing support.

Jackie Hodgson

Key Stage 4 Manager

Email: jh@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk

Telephone: 01480 375700 ext 5752