Dear ALS Community,
After a short hiatus (my thanks to Mrs Dhadda for picking up the weekly email mantle), normal service resumes. Since Henry joined us on Saturday 16th January, I’ve received so many kind messages, cards and gifts for Henry from the ALS Community. I can’t put in to words how grateful I am for your thoughtfulness and generosity and Mrs Preston has asked me to send her thanks as well. Little Henry is a very lucky boy to be joining such a wonderful community.
I’d also like to take the chance champion the midwifery department at Warwick Hospital. Henry’s birth was a little more complicated than we’d have liked and over his first ten days we had to visit the hospital (or have a home visit) more or less daily (all is fine now – relatively normal new born things I’m told!). Every person we have interacted with has been exceptional – from those who helped deliver Henry to the midwives answering the phone at bluebell in the middle of the night, we couldn’t have received better care and support.
For next week, our school mantra comes from Dedicas: Be ready to put in the work that isn’t seen. I can well appreciate (now more than ever!) that you will be trying to juggle your own professional responsibilities as well as supporting your personal ones, too. Whilst it might seem that this effort isn’t seen, I know it will be appreciated by your children in the long run. Depending on the age of your child, they may not yet know how much you do for them (or they may simply not say it) but, in the long run, they certainly will. From my view, I’d like to say thank you for all that you’re doing in the background to keep your children able to learn effectively whether they’re on site with us or at home with you. On the theme of our school values, it’s worth noting the kindness (go Amicus!) or Freya, Year 7, who has donated her hair to LP Trust. Well done, Freya – your kindness will make a real difference.
We know schools will not return before the 8th March so we will have at least two more weeks of remote learning after half-term. For some, there is certainly screen fatigue starting to set in and this is completely understandable. The collective effort of our teachers to deliver their live lessons and the pupils to do their very best has been gargantuan. I know that both Mr Owen and Mr James have been hugely impressed by the output of their schools respectively. That said, it’s important to take some time away from the virtual and to get some fresh air. Please do take time to encourage screen breaks during break and lunch over the school day and then in the evenings. I know the pull of gaming, mobile phones and social media is the relaxation technique de rigueur for many children (particularly teenagers) but children must have time away from their screens. I recognise that the volume of screen time with live lessons and remote learning is high but this is balanced against the need to support children’s learning remotely. I’m sure there’ll be some discontent from children to have screen time restricted outside the school day but it really is important. On this topic, we’ve been celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week with care packs to support our Junior school children to spend some time away from their screens. My thanks to the Junior School team and Operations team who made this happen for the children. I know that the week has been well received by pupils and parents.
Yesterday, Year 9 had their Parents’ Evening that also provided a chance to discuss their Options for GCSE. It is our custom to avoid pre-blocked options for pupils and instead we allow children to pick their options in their favoured rank order and once all the options are submitted I then set out to build our subject groupings around the interests and choices of that particular year group. Whilst this takes a fair bit of work, it gives our children the flexibility and breadth to build a curriculum that best suits their interests. With Year 9 our first year group to have over 40 pupils in it, I’m looking forward to the challenge of planning their GCSE subjects! Whilst it’s not possible to get it perfect for every pupil, we get a lot closer via this route than if we pre-built the choices. If your child is in Year 9 and you have questions before the submission deadline on Monday, please do get in touch with Mrs Bottrill ([email protected]). Please submit your forms to Mrs Nunn ([email protected]). If you don’t have a child in Year 9 but you’re interested to see our current GCSE offering, you can find our Options booklet here.
Though the past year has been challenging in a variety of different ways, I feel like there is soon to be light at the end of the tunnel. Soon, I’m sure, children will begin resuming learning on site and in the not too distant future I hope we will be able to have aspects of our school that have been long absent such as multi-year group assemblies or to hold a long awaited Parent Event (Mr Smart’s BBQ apron will need dusting off) to celebrate. For the challenges we have faced, though, I hope we can acknowledge the good that has come from it, too. Our school community has never felt closer or stronger.
For September 2021, ALS is on course to have around 325 pupils across Reception to Year 13. For parents who have been at ALS over the time I’ve been Headteacher (my thanks to the ‘old guard’), you’ll have watched the school flourish and double in size from five years ago. Though our year groups may be larger, our class size will stay the same and we will keep small class sizes at the heart of our school because they unlock so much achievement and aspiration in children. I understand that the success of ALS may be seen as a double edged sword for those who have always valued our family feel and I want to promise that we will never lose sight of what makes ALS such an outstanding school; small class sizes, excellent teaching and the very best pastoral care with our genuine focus on happiness and confidence. I’d like to think that, if anything, as we have grown we have doubled down on the ethos and values that makes us such a wonderful school. In the future, I want to promise the ALS Community that we will always do things ‘our way’ (I can almost hear Mr James saying “the right way”) and we will always stand for our values of Hard Work, Honesty and Kindness which seen to have shone brighter than ever over the past year. We will always focus on children’s happiness and confidence first as this is at the heart of academic success.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
