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“Through hard work, inspiration, mutual respect and enjoyment, we will achieve success together.”
Headteacher's Welcome
Headteacher's Welcome
The end of the first half term of the year already! Year 7 students appear well settled in now and nearly all students have made an excellent start to the 2022-23 academic year. You will see from this newsletter that the house competitions are well underway as are a range of extra-curricular activities, which are a great way to meet students from other form and year groups.
As well as new students our new members of staff have now setting in to JCS including:
Mrs Barker, Student Support Officer
Miss Davies, Teacher of Geography
Mrs Davis, Teacher of Languages
Mr Faux, Caretaker
Mrs Formston-Jones, Key Worker
Miss Gannon, Teacher of English
Ms Haynes, Counsellor
Miss Hayyat, Teacher of Maths
Mr Jennings, Head of Finance and Business
Miss Manning, Learning Support Assistant
Mr Norris, Caretaker
Mr Phillips, Reprographics Technician
Mrs Ragu, Teacher of Design & Technology
Mr Richards, Learning Support Assistant
Mr Richardson, Teacher of Design & Technology
Mrs Wilson, Teacher of English
Mrs Wood, Learning Support Assistant
Mrs Woodall, Admin Assistant
Since the start of term we have said farewell to Miss Inward (Counsellor), Ms Lock (Learning Support Assistant), Mrs Lynn (Admin Assistant) and Mr Priest (Learning Support Assistant). We thank them for their contribution to the school and wish them every success in the future.
Patrick Harty
Headteacher
Mobile Phone Policy - 'no see, no hear'
Mobile Phone Policy - 'no see, no hear'
At John Colet we have a 'no see, no hear' policy for mobile phones while students are on school site.
During school hours, should you need to contact your child please telephone the School Office and we will get a message to them. Alternatively if a student needs to contact their parent/carer they should go to student support office where they will be allowed to ring home.
Unfortunately, at times parents try to contact students directly which causes their phone to go off during lessons - this results in the student having their phone confiscated as per our school policy and it will be a parent/carer that will have to pick the mobile phone up from the School Office.
School Attendance
School Attendance
We know it is so important for students to be in school every day. Missing 10% of school means that a child will miss 120 lessons each year which will have a significant impact on their learning, and means they are likely to achieve a whole grade lower at GCSE than those students with full attendance. Schools also measure Value Added, which is the progress that students make compared to others. We can see the difference that good attendance made to our Y11 students last year, which again reinforces the importance of full attendance -
Attendance groups Value Added
Above 95% +0.7
90.1% - 95% +0.3
80.1%- 90% -0.2
50.1% - 80% -0.5
0-50% -1.6
We are seeing an increase in the number of students missing school unnecessarily and remind you that students should be in school every day unless they are too unwell to attend. Students do not need to miss school for minor illnesses such as a slight headache, tummy ache, tiredness or a cold. In addition, they should not be absent to visit relations, take holidays or have family days out. Medical appointments should be made outside of school hours unless it is completely unavoidable, and students should be collected and returned to school immediately afterwards. Medical evidence should be submitted via email to support every appointment to attendance@johncolet.co.uk.
We remind parents/carers to report any absences via the school website on the first and every day of absence. The link can be found on the home page by following the 'Absence Notification' icon.
We also remind you that the school day begins at 8.27am and all students should be onsite by this time. We are seeing large numbers of students who are late due to the traffic. We do know that roadworks are an issue in the local area, and ask that you leave home a little earlier to ensure your child arrives in good time. Students who are late to school twice in a week will receive a C3 after school detention, and this can be avoided by simply being on time.
We monitor student's attendance in line with the County guidance, and will contact you should we have concerns. If your child is having difficulty in attending school, please don't hesitate to contact either myself or their form tutor, and we will be happy to discuss ways in which we can work with you to support them. We really do want the best outcomes for your child, and having them in school each day is the best way for them to achieve this.
With kind regards
Di
Di Bull, Attendance Improvement Officer
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee
12 HOUR ULTIMATE FRISBEE - By Sophia Cookson
What is 12 hour frisbee?
12 hour frisbee is a sporting event which takes place every school year. It takes place to raise money for other charities/clubs. This year we raised over £1,300 for the local wheelchair basketball club.
How does it work?
12 hour frisbee is usually held on a school day in July and starts at 5:00am and ends at 5:00pm. To be able to play, at least £20 sponsor money is needed (and of course, parents or carers need to fill in a permission form), and last time we brought £10 in for pizza.
Team arrangements:
There are always 3 teams, and there is always a fair amount of people in each team. Every few hours, the teams rotate. Some people get swapped teams and some do not. Near the end, we regroup and play in completely scrambled teams with new people.
What does frisbee mean to the players?
I have gotten some of the players’ accounts of what frisbee means to them.
Here are some responses:
- “It is a way to release frustration after a long or hard week at school. It’s like a therapy session and it's just a good way to socialise and meet new people.”
- “It is a nice getaway from school after a long week. And it’s a nice way to connect with my friends through something I love to do.”
- “Frisbee is like my way of getting rid of all of the stress from the past week and having a good time with my friends. It also has helped me keep my fitness to a good level, and has raised my self confidence.”
Year 7 House Football/Netball
Year 7 House Football/Netball
House Game
House Game
Here are the final House games results which took place on Wednesday 14th September.
House Games is back for a new year! The sports this term are Football and Netball. There were 2 teams for Football and 1 for Netball. These were mixed teams and students joined the team of their choice.
Well done to 7 Jade, 8 Zircon, 9 Jade B, 10 Amethyst!
Thank you everyone and look forward to the next house games!
House Games Results
House Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10
Zircon 4th 1st 7th 6th
Jade 1st 2nd 5th 5th
Topaz 2nd 7th 4th 4th
Amethyst 5th 4th 2nd 1st
Garnet 5th 3rd 3rd 2nd
Citrine 3rd 5th 6th 3rd
Jade/Topaz B 6th 1st
Current Building Works
Current Building Works
Phase 3 Building Works - The next phase of the building works to redevelop and expand the facilities of the school has start with the demolition of the old fitness suite (shown in the attached pictures). This is the first stage of the construction of three new areas for the School which will deliver over the next 14 months - a new fitness suite and dance studio (in the area shown in the pictures), an extension to create a new Sixth Form block, and the construction of a new Science and IT Block. Although inevitably this will cause some disruption, every effort is being taken to minimise this by sequencing the work and ensuring that any noisy and disruptive work will be paused during the different examination periods over the next year.
MFL House Competition
MFL House Competition
The 2022/23 House Championship has now begun! The first of the house competitions for this academic year was PE's house games. All students from 4 year groups competed in either netball or football to see who would be victorious. Results are in and the winners were Year 7 - Jade , Year 8 - Zircon, Year 9 - Jade/Topaz, Year 10 - Amethyst. All teams played really well and the students really enjoyed it.
Next on the competition calendar was the MFL Postcard competition to celebrate European Day of Languages (Mon 26th September). Students were asked to design and write a postcard to represent a European country of their choosing and the results are just beautiful! There were so many wonderful drawings and the pupils really embraced writing in different languages and even alphabets with postcards written in Turkish, Greek, Slovakian, Ukrainian to name just a few! The winning postcards for each year are being chosen by the MFL team and results are to be announced this week.
Throughout the rest of this half term there are competitions running in Geography, History, English and Art and we can't wait to see all of our students' fabulous efforts.
Reward and Consequence
Reward and Consequence
Recognition points
Recognition points
Recognition points are awarded for our character values; ready, respectful and responsible and for characteristics that promote academic progress; resourceful, resilient and readers. We continue to strive for a rewards based culture where students receive far more recognition points than consequence points. The current ratio is 5.3:1. Recognition points: Consequence points. Congratulations to the tutor groups with the most recognition points at the time of writing. 7J (588); 8TA (678); 9T (906); 10Z (792) ; 11G (778); Year 12 6N (74) and Year 13 (60).
The average recognition points per student last half term was Year 7 - 186; Year 8 - 193; Year 9 - 156; Year 10 - 150; Year 11 - 82 (partial study leave).
The average consequence points per student last half term was Year 7 - 17; Year 8 - 30; Year 9 - 40; Year 10 - 43; Year 11 - 15 (partial study leave).
A few parents have asked why there is not more detail on the Reward and Consequence notifications sent home. This is to enable us to keep the information timely. A template is used to send the message home, this takes information from our data systems. If staff were required to write details on each message the opportunity cost would be time spent on supporting students to learn. Please do celebrate the well deserved recognition points at home and for consequence points reinforce our ready; respectful; responsible; expectations.
School Year Council Representatives
School Year Council Representatives
Year council representatives have been appointed and congratulations to:
Year 7
A - Lowri Jones & Lois David
C - Francesca Morby & Imogen Hamer
G - William Proudfoot & Isobel Watson
J - Rio Palumbo & Phoebe Kirsop
T - Jessica Gomez & Hope Tattersall
Z - Riah Fox & Yuna Lam
Year 8
8J- Noah Merchant & Yaani Khan
8TA- Evie Moore & Thomas Legge
8TB- Zak Mirza & Harry Wilson
8Z- Josh Wilkinson & Freddie Durose
8A- Ellie Sheehan & Liam Kealy
8C- Lexi Sergiou & Ralph Lemon
8G- Anashe Ushe & Dillon Lowles
Year 9
9A - Faith Trustram & Emilia Bloomfield-Jones
9C - Annabelle Cheung & Cara Jones
9JA - Harrison Blake and Millie Raynor
9JB - Emily Heaton & Matilda Clarke
9G - Zain Rehman & Amani Nazir
9T - Lafaye Richards & Keliese Altenor-Brown
9Z - Millie Kyson & Evan Wallace
Year 10
A - Alfie Davies & Nico Wood
C - Isla Lloyd & Emi Archer
G - Chris Savage & Emily Denton
J - Katie Chamberlain & Ethan Crummack
T - Seren - Rae Tobin & Ava van Breukelen
Z - Luke Cooper & Shayen Premathas
Year 11
A - Aidan Lynn & Leo Parr
C - Jacob Philbey & Lee Swain
G - Leo McGuffie & Kane Amato
J - Maddy Holt & Jessica Brickell
T - Dylan Welch & Mila Adams
Z - James Dunn & Jacob Beaney
The Year 11 council have already begun designing decorations for their prom booked at Pendley Manor in July.
Year 7
Year 7
Congratulations to Year 7 for their successful transition period into school. The year group enjoyed a team building day at the start of term - this was a great opportunity for students to get to know one another and to build relationships. Overall winners were the ‘Teletubbies’ group for 7C, well done!
Year 10
Year 10
At the World Hovercraft Championships in Sweden, Nancie Devlin 10Z came 4th in the Juniors competition. Hope Shepherd 10T and Alexia Radford 11G are part of the International Competition Team at Aylesbury Cheerleading Academy that recently won an ‘At Large’ bid to compete at The Summit Championship in Orlando Florida 2023, following their 2nd placement out of 17 teams in their division at Future Cheer Nationals at Bournemouth in July this year, we wish both students the very best of luck.
Tooled Up
Tooled Up
If you haven’t signed up to ‘tooled up’ yet I urge you to. We subscribe to a library of resources for parents designed to boost children’s resilience, self-esteem and mental health to help them thrive throughout their educational journey and beyond.
Fill in your name, email address and chosen password.
Add your unique school PIN. Our PIN is JCS2206
If you already have an account, simply log in here using your email address and password. If you forget your details, use the reset password function to reset your account.
If you ever need assistance, contact the Tooled Up team, who will be happy to help: support@tooledupeducation.com.
Once you are logged in, click on the Resources button in the top left corner to discover the vast library of evidence-based support at your fingertips
Car Parking
Car Parking
Please can all visitors, staff, parents and students who drive to school be considerate when parking nearby. Please do not block our neighbours driveways, park directly opposite them or endanger lives by parking on the yellow lines.
Whilst parked and waiting would you kindly turn off your engine so this does not pollute the atmosphere or have future health implications for your child or the public.
Also, please be aware that the Memorial Hall Car Park and the Wendover Health Centre are not to be used for dropping off and collecting students to and from school.
Halloween Pumpkin Cake
Halloween Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Campus Safety
Campus Safety
Remember that vehicles should not be driven onto campus unless you are authorised to do so by the school office. Please park and walk. Unauthorised drivers are increasing the risk of accident by significantly adding to the volume of traffic.
If authorised to do so, parents should drop-off directly in front of reception. Please do not use the parking bays for drop-off. The car-park directly in front of school is for staff vehicles only.
Full Job Description is available on the John Colet School website.
Free School Meals
Free School Meals
If your circumstances have changed recently and you think you are eligible for free school meals please get in touch via pupilpremium@johncolet.co.uk and we can complete a simple check for you.
Lost Property
Lost Property
We have numerous items of lost property including coats , odd shoes, trainers and water bottles. If you are missing any items, please ask your child to visit Matron's office. All unclaimed items will be donated to charity at the end of term.
Please can I ask that your child's name is put on everything. Thank you
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