PRINCIPAL's BLOG - 24th March 2023

Stay up to date with the latest from our school by following our social media channels. Click the icons below and follow us.

Half term 4

Welcome to my weekly blog and I hope you and your families are well and have had a good week.

Next week marks the end of another half-term and it doesn't seem that long ago since we returned after the February break. Nevertheless, it has been filled with many successes and lots of progress.

To end the term we will be hosting our 6th College event - 'Football Knock-Out'. To facilitate this event the school day will be amended slightly and we will be dismissing students from school at 2pm (see the details below). Students are also permitted to wear their PE kit or a football kit to school on Friday 31st March.

8.35 - 9.00, Literacy Time
9.00 - 10.00, Period 1
10.00 - 11.00, Period 2
11.00 - 11.45, Brunch (all years)
11.45 - 12.00, Registration
12.00 - 13.30, Football Knock-Out event
13.30 - 14.00, Collect belongings from Literacy rooms and dismissal

I look forward to sharing further details and the college winners next week.

Class Charts

The table above provides an illustration of how parent and student classchart accounts have been accessed to date.

Currently, 57.8% of parents have registered and accessed their accounts compared to 83.4% of students.

The parent classchart account is an essential platform to access as the information available for you to view provides 'live' details of your son's attendance, attitudes to learning and is a critical tool for the school to communicate important messages via the 'announcements' function.

I strongly urge ALL parents to ensure you have activated your account using the user guide that can be found here. Should you require any further help with this, please contact our student administrator using the following email address; studentreception@lordswoodboys.co.uk

Ramadan 2023

We know that many of our students have started fasting this week due to the start of Ramadan. We have made some slight changes in school to ensure those student's that are fasting are provided with a space during break and lunch times to avoid being with students eating food.

It is important that parents/carers note that students are expected to continue with learning as normal which includes participation in PE lessons.

Should your son not be able to take part in physical activities due to low energy levels, he should continue to bring his PE kit with him as he will complete leadership and coaching roles during his lessons.

Comic Relief

As you will have read in my blog last week, Friday was filled with fun and laughter as we came together as a school to raise money for Comic Relief. I can tell you that the school community raised an impressive £1300 for the charity, a marvellous achievement. Once again, thank you to parents/carers, students and staff for your contributions and generous donations.

Half-term 5

Next half-term is set to be a busy one as the Year 11 students start their final exams on 15th May 2023. Parents should note that the exam timetable can be found here. It is essential that your son arrives in school having had a good night sleep, eaten a healthy and nutritious breakfast and is in school ahead of the exam start time.

In order to ensure your son has the very best opportunity to succeed we are running an Easter School programme for Y11 students. You can see the timetable here. Students have been made aware when they are required to attend and Mrs. Kang will be writing to parents before the end of next week to outline all of the details you need to know.

Students will be provided with a bottle of water for each exam but it is a good idea for your son to have his own refillable water bottle with him too.

We will be sharing more details about the exam season before the official start to ensure parents/carers and students are fully prepared.

Between now and when the exams start please monitor your son's independent study at home and continue to encourage him to complete his revision as specified by his revision timetable.

Bus Strikes

The bus strikes have caused a considerable amount of disruption this week and it is unfortunate to report that this will likely continue into next week too. It is essential that parents/carers attempt to make every effort to ensure your son is in school each day even if that means that he wakes up a little earlier to walk to school.

Please see the email that Mrs. Greatrix sent to parents on Thursday 23 March below:

Dear Parents/Carers,

Thank you for your support this week as we continue to manage the disruption in school caused by the ongoing bus strike action across the city. We know that you will share our concerns about the impact that this will be having on students' learning, particularly our Year 11 students who are currently preparing for their GCSE exams which begin in May. We are extremely proud of our attendance record and we appreciate your support in helping us to maintain such high standards for your son.

We appreciate the challenges that the strike action will be presenting in having to make alternative arrangements to ensure that your children are able to attend school as usual and are grateful to all students and their families who have made adjustments to their routines to be able to attend as normal.

The latest news this evening indicates that there may be further information regarding the bus strike action over the weekend. However, as nothing has been confirmed, we would ask that you consider how this may affect your son's journey into school tomorrow and particularly into next week. We would like to share our expectations with you and reassure you that we are supportive of any student who may arrive late to school due to walking distance from home.

Please consider all options in regard to making travel arrangements for your son to get to school. This could include;

dropping students off earlier to school and collecting later if required
considering an alternative to National Express services - there are additional routes running via Diamond Buses (full list of routes available via Birmingham Live)
asking relatives/friends to drop off/collect students
encouraging your son to walk to school - we would expect students who live within a 3 mile radius to do so and there will be no late detention set for any student who arrives later (before 9:15am) to school as a result of this.

As part of our safeguarding commitment, we will continue to call and make contact with parents/carers if we have not received confirmation of your son's attendance. Your cooperation will be much appreciated and we would kindly ask that you contact us by telephone/email should you have any difficulties regarding transportation.

Year 11 students who have not been able to make arrangements to attend school will be expected to attend support and catch up sessions on Monday next week between 3pm - 5pm in support of their GCSE preparation. If you are a parent of a Year 11 student and have any question or concerns about the recent information shared, please email o.king@lordswoodboys.co.uk or r.kang@lordswoodboys.co.uk

Once again, thank you for your support. We will continue to review the current situation and guidance and provide updates to the messages shared above if this is required.

Sport fixtures and training schedules for week beginning 27 March 2023

Weekly sports round-up from Mr Janes, Director of Sport

The Year 7 ESA team beat Turves Green Boys' on Wednesday evening. The boys were 2-1 down at half-time, however, a strong second half performance saw the side run out 4-2 winners. Dodzi Sanchez scored two, whilst Enoch and Captain Phil Baldy also scored.

The Year 9 ESA team were on their travels this week as they visited Queensbridge for a league fixture. Conditions impacted the game but the boys showed great patience and resilience, taking a 1-0 lead into half-time with a Shamesh Williams goal. The students increased their performance levels in the second half, with Omar, Sakou and Adeeb all scoring to secure a 4-0 win.

Friday morning Cricket was busy with the students coming in to develop their Bowling and Batting skills. Year 11 GCSE PE student Simon Dhillon also took part in a practical moderation with Mr Deeks and Mr Preece in order to secure his final practical grades.

The Year 11 GCSE students continued their Rock Climbing Moderation as the boys developed their technical skills as well as their safety support understanding.

If you have any questions relating to the details above, please use the contact details below:

Mr Deeks, Lead Professional for PE, j.deeks@lordswoodboys.co.uk
Mr Janes, Director of Sport, d.janes@lordswoodboys.co.uk

Music schedules for week beginning 27 March 2023

Weekly music round-up from Mrs Lowndes-Ford, Director of Music

Music Clubs

Please note that music clubs for the final week are not taking place due to time spent recording and supporting Year 11 Music Technology students.

Dance club and Steel Pan Band will rehearse at the normal times and piano lessons will take place next Friday.

Peripatetic Lessons

Lessons will run as normal next week. The lesson timetables will be on display at the start of the week in the Music department.

Final Week Events

We are looking forward to our next rapping workshop on Monday 27th March with the Year 9 students. A summary of the event will be shared next week.

Please note the following changes to Violin Lessons - Monday 27th March from 11am ( not Tuesday 28th) for this week only.

I hope you have a good week and I look forward to updating you with more news next week. Until then you can always contact me directly at: l.williams@lordswoodboys.co.uk

Mr. L. Williams,

Principal,

Lordswood Boys' School.

Lordswood Boys' School • Hagley Road • Harborne • Birmingham • B17 8BJ

Tel:0121 464 2837

Email: enquiry@lordswoodboys.co.uk

For paper copies of any of the information on this website please refer to our publication scheme

Report abuse