Stoke Damerel Community College

Students are being encouraged to dig out something green to wear for mufti day this coming Friday.

Students can come to college in their own choice of clothes, including something green, and money raised from the £1 donations will go to two charities chosen by students.

Dear Parents/Carers

I would like to thank you for the super support you have given in ensuring that all our students are ready to start a new academic year. They are looking so smart in their Stoke Damerel uniform. They really are a credit to you and our College.(Click here for more information about the College's uniform policy)

Our new year 7 students are settling in extremely well and are enjoying their new school experiences.  Our Sixth Form students achieved excellent A level results and have all now left for University or further training. Our Year 11 students achieved outstanding results yet again with 91% 5A*-C grades and 51% including English and Mathematics, the majority of which have now enrolled for our Sixth Form courses. The full results will be detailed in our next newsletter, due out later this month.

As you know, next week includes one of our most important events of the year, our Open Evening for Year 6 students and their parents. As usual many of our current students will be helping staff and parents on the evening and I give our thanks for the support that you and the students give to this annual event.

To allow time for the preparation of this evening and time for students taking part to return to College we will dismiss students at 12.20 pm on Wednesday 12th September. Students entitled to a free school meal will be provided with a packed lunch. The rest of the week will be a normal timetable.

ATTENDANCE

You may have heard that the Government has now decided that a student with attendance of 85% or less is a Persistent Absentee (PA). They are concerned that many students are missing out on their education if they are PA.

So what does 85% actually mean? Well with 190 school days a year (39 weeks) it means that you will miss 28½ school days or 5½ weeks!

• With attendance of 90% 3 out 4 students achieve 5 A*-C GCSE grades including Maths and English.

• At 80% only 1 out of 3 students achieve 5 A*-C GCSE grades.

• If your attendance was 85% from Year 7–11 you will miss 9 months of education!

How can you raise your attendance:

• Don’t take time off school for minor illness, coughs, colds and Tonsilitis – unless you are running a temperature. If you are not well enough to be in school we will get you home – but perhaps with some work to do.

• Even if you are unwell enough to be on anti-biotics or other medication you should be well enough to attend school after 48 hours.

• We will not authorise holidays in term-time for Years 9-11 – you cannot afford the time off, because every lesson is important.

• If you have any issues which you feel are best solved by not attending you’re wrong - TELL SOMEONE. You all have someone in school you can trust – discuss the issues and we will sort them for you.

May 2011 Dear Parent/Carer Please find enclosed a copy of ‘The Word on The Street Ofsted Special’ which is a summary of our Ofsted report for the Section 5 Inspection carried out from 23rd – 24th March 2011. The full report is available for you in hard copy in our reception and on our website, alternatively you can access the full report using www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports or use the QR code on our newsletter.