Head Teacher's Message

Thank you to Year 10 parents/carers for joining us remotely for this week's Subject Teacher Consultations - we hope that you found them useful and informative. We look forward to welcoming Year 7 parents/carers to their first Tutor Consultation evening on Wednesday 11 November - check your email for details of how to sign up and how the remote meetings are run.

I must express my gratitude for the support that the school has received over the the last seven weeks. There have been some difficult and challenging, and sometimes very quick, decisions to make amid a constantly shifting landscape. The students have adapted incredibly well and have behaved with maturity. The safety and wellbeing of our entire school community (staff and students alike) is at the heart of all that we strive for. With this is mind, there will be no changes made to staggered timings and the structure of the lessons after half-term. We will also continue with the compulsory wearing of face coverings in communal areas around the school.

The DfE has updated their guidance with regard to some individuals who are exempt from wearing face coverings. This applies to those who:

• cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment or disability

• speak to or provide assistance to someone who relies on lip reading, clear sound or facial expression to communicate

The same exemptions will apply in education settings, and we would expect teachers and other staff to be sensitive to those needs. If your child has such a need, please contact the School Office via email: info@rts.richmond.sch.uk.

We return from the Half-Term break on Monday 09 November (08:20/08:35). Don't forget to check the 2020-2021 Term Dates on RTS Website - Students - Term Dates.

Wishing you a restful two-week break.

Ms K Dooley

Reading at Home!

This half term your child was given a reading age score. It is not something to worry about or to cause any stress. But we do want to encourage them to read over half term, as that’s the best way to help them improve their reading. However, we all know that if something is hard, it’s not that appealing especially on a holiday. Hopefully the suggestions here will help you to encourage them to get a bit more into reading, get better at it, and have a nice time together. If they are already bookworms, then these ideas are just as good for them too! Who wouldn’t want a reading den….or a trip to the library.

Ideas to make reading at home fun:

• Book talk - the easiest thing to do is to ask your child about what they are reading at the moment: is it good, should you read it, would they like to find another book by the same author; but also to talk about a book that you have read.

• Create a reading area of the bedroom or living room that includes: a comfy place to sit, a lamp or some fairy lights if you have them, a table for snacks and drinks and a book box with a few different things in it: magazines, a novel, a newspaper, whatever people like to read in the house but give it a place near the reading area so it’s easy access. You don’t need a grand library, just somewhere that you could find something to read and somewhere comfy to sit

• Read together - either reading the same thing, maybe reading to one another or, just read at the same time, so that there’s no competition between reading and something more ‘fun’

• Books in the bathroom: could you keep a couple of things in the loo so that even if we’re not all up for reading for hours on the sofa, we might pick something up to read when no one is watching

Key stage 3 half term reading suggestions

• A Secret of Birds and Bone by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (author of the year 7 English novel right now)

• Little Women a classic with a great film also available if you want to watch something together after reading (available on Amazon Prime)

• Anne of Green Gables- Anne with an E is a Netflix series based around the book which could also be a nice family watch

• Oh my Gods!- Alexandra Shepherd A fun mythological retelling

• Lark- Anthony McGowan (or any of his books in the series of 4 Brock, Pike, Rock & Lark) the stories follow two brothers with a tough family life living in Yorkshire and Lark has them trapped on the moors in a blizzard

• High Rise Mystery- Sharna Jackson is a school murder mystery with engaging child detectives

• Now or Never- Bali Rai a war tale of a young, south Asian man at Dunkirk

Key Stage 4 Authors to try

Check out authors such as Angie Thomas, J.D Salinger, Dean Atta, John Green and Patrick Ness.

Lastly, a few reading strategies:

In classes and reading lessons we have been using the 4 reciprocal reader skills: Predict, Clarify, Question and Summarise. If you do read together, ask your child a few of these questions as you go:

• What do you think will happen next?

• Was there anything you didn’t quite get? (you can always say something you didn’t understand too and ask them to explain!)

• So, what just happened in that bit? Can you tell me? Can you summarise it?

• What questions do you have so far? (and you could add some of your own) try prompting them with who, what, where, when, why and how.

Student Safety and Dark Nights

The following information is based on an article by Andrew Hall, Specialist Safeguarding Consultant.

Don't forget that clocks go BACK one hour in the early hours of Sunday 25 October. This means darker evenings. Research has shown that road traffic collisions increase by 20% in the fortnight after the time change. Sadly, some of those collisions will involve child pedestrians and cyclists. Children under-16 are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users.

The latest available government statistics (2015)* show that 58% of children who die or are seriously injured in a road collision are involved in incidents between 3pm and 7pm. From next Sunday, much of those will happen in darkness. Whilst younger children are also at risk, the data shows that 11-15 year olds are actually at more at risk from accidents that kill or result in serious injury.

The resources below will help remind children, especially teenagers, about road safety and safe cycling.

Teaching Road Safety: A Guide for Parents https://www.rospa.com/media/documents/road-safety/teaching-road-safety-a-guide-for-parents.pdf

Safety First – Cycling at Night https://www.cycletraining.co.uk/cycle-training-and-cycle-safety/safety-first-cycling-at-night/

Be Bright, Be Seen Poster https://6282.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Be_Bright_Be_Seen-A5-Flyer.pdf

*Facts on Child Casualties (June 2015) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/442236/child-casualties-2013-data.pdf