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What a great start to the New Year we have had with your sons and daughters. Many of them are really trying hard to improve their work, and I am so pleased to see how many of them are listening to their teachers and teaching assistants. I hope that you are aware that every Friday, as a school, we celebrate the various great work that has taken place for the week that has passed. Last week was a typical week of comments during that assembly, and they included:

• Determined progress with work connected to writing
• Numerous acts of kindness between pupils
• Acts of kindness to staff by pupils
• Sporting success with our weekly nominations for ‘Sportsperson of The Week’ award
• Our pupils working within our community by reading and talking with adults at Jubilee Court
• Pupils taking part in and demonstrating Life Skills

Did you know that staff at Larwood are setting up and running a Holiday Club?

It starts this half term holiday and will be run by Mr V, our resident PE Coach. It will have a sports and arts theme and no doubt will be great fun. Please contact Mr V directly if you are interested.

Please note that as of Feb 1^st, Brandles School formally joined Larwood Academy Trust. You may be aware that Brandles is a secondary school for Social, Emotional and Mental Health related issues. Many of our pupils move there for their secondary education. We have been working with the DFE to enable this to happen for a long period of time. As part of our future collaborative work, we are including:

• Joint staff training opportunities.
• Weekly meetings between Mr Pearce (Headteacher at Brandles) and myself, discussing a wide range of topics that include curriculum, assessment, staffing, transitional arrangements etc.
• Greater joined up working in various areas such as ICT (Mr Newman), site, environment and health and safety (Mr Reid) and how we all approach common issues related to mental health (Mrs Ford). Mrs Smith and Mrs Fitz patrick are also providing support and guidance in relation to financial matters
• Potential joint funding of various services that we both use which should lead to savings that can be redirected towards pupils needs

Thank you for your continued support!

S D Trimble
Executive Headteacher

Larwood Academy Trust

 

Dear all,

It has come to my attention that some of our children are part of a 'WhatsApp' group with other pupils in school. Whilst I am a huge fan of using technology to aid and assist learning/life in general, I am very dubious about the benefits of such groups and I am worried about its potential negative effects, alongside the law in relation to this matter.

I appreciate that my advice in this matter can be thought of as interference. However, it is not constructed in that way, and based on previous cases that I have seen the consequences of such a social media group can lead to:

• Huge friendship issues and fall outs between children
• Unwanted sharing of information leading to challenging, different and unnecessary behaviours/issues
• Lack of sleep due to many hours devoted to keeping up with messages etc. This then has negative effects on relationships, progress at school and overall health and well-being.

Therefore, my advice about this issue and use of mobile phones and this 'WhatsApp' group is as follows:

1. If your child is using a mobile phone on a day-to-day basis, remove it at bedtime and return it when it is a suitable time for use. They are used to this as we remove all electrical items on the door when they enter and they are returned when they go home.
2. If your child is part of a 'WhatsApp' group then please comply with the law, and remove the app from their phone. Since May 2018, you must be 16 years old to use the app. Therefore using it whilst younger is breaking the law.
3. If you do allow your child to use a mobile phone, please consider the fact than as soon as they linked to a Wi-Fi network they can access anything and everything on the internet. Just as my advice would to monitor laptops, and games consoles, it is equally essential to monitor a mobile phone in the same way.

If we can be of assistance supporting you with this matter, please do contact us. Please also contact

me directly if you would like to discuss this matter in greater detail or one of my colleagues.

 

Yours sincerely

S D Trimble
Headteacher

The start of a new academic year always promises so much! New pupils have been welcomed, changes made during the summer term and holiday now seem very old. There are clear examples of new plans continuing to be used to improve upon old strategies, but new ventures are also becoming part of our future plans.

We have welcomed new pupils and some new staff at the start of this academic year. Mrs. Smith is now our new Business Manager, but we retain the use of Mrs. Fitzpatrick for projects. We have also added to our Learning and Support Staff with the addition of Miss Kolthammer.

You may be aware that we had a visit from Ofsted inspectors during Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October. This was something that we had expected to happen as we were due such a visit. Until the final report is published I am not able to confirm the inspection outcomes, however, I look forward to sharing this with you, as soon as it is published.

During the summer term, we spent much time evaluating many areas of school life. As always, all of this material is available for you to read. The relevant section can be found in the following way:

· www.larwood.herts.sch.uk   -  See section tab-‘How Effective Are We?’

Our new School Development Plan highlights the continued need to continue improving in the areas of Progress, Well-Being and Sustainability. We continue to review the quality of teaching and learning every term by using lesson observations, mentoring and data related to behaviour and incidents. We know that we must continue to strive to refine and improve upon our practice, to ensure that all of your sons and daughters receive the outstanding education that they deserve. Your support is essential as we move forwards.

We continue to work very closely with Brandles School, and we are aiming for them to join Larwood Academy Trust by 1st January 2020. This will mean some staffing structural changes at Larwood and I will inform you of these as we move closer to the proposed date above. Any such change made will be completed so that it does not affect the day-to-day quality of educational provision and care that your children experience.

Please do not forget that our half term break starts today and pupils are not expected back until Monday 4th November at the normal time.

I wish you all a restful half term break.

Kind regards,

S D Trimble
Headteacher