Dear parents and carers
We have been inundated with requests to visit the school form prospective families with children in Year 6, so this week we put on two additional mornings where families could see Wollaston in action. The feedback we have received from families who have visited on both open evening and in the tours has been exceptional and all visitors have been effusive about how confident and welcoming our students have been from helpers in subjects to those who have acted as tour guides and to those encountered on our day tours. I am very proud of all of our students and really pleased with the number of students who have been so keen to show off what a wonderful community we are!
Notices:
Learning Support and SEND
As you will no doubt be aware if your child accesses learning support and/or has an EHCP, we are in the process of recruiting a new SENCO. In the interim we have been lucky to secure the services of Mrs Allen who will work predominantly on with our EHCP students. We would like to extend to her a warm Wollaston welcome. It is therefore an opportune time to communicate with families uptodate email addresses and responsibilities for our learning support team.
Anne Allen – SENCO – senco@wollaston-school.net
Working days Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. All communication regarding EHCP provision, annual reviews and referral pathways.
Ellie Taylor – Assistant SENCO – TaylorE@wollaston-school.net
Working days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. All communication regarding SEN support and intervention.
Katy Bird- Assistant SENCO –Birdk@wollaston-school.net
All communication regarding Admiral House.
Whilst head of year are always happy to help, please do not direct enquiries/requests regarding learning support but rather direct this communication to the most appropriate colleague identified above. You help with this will ensure that we can ensure a timely response to communication from the colleague who is best placed to respond.
Ambition for all!
As you know, a key value for us is ambition and I have been so pleased with how we have started the year. Coming off the back of a year where we achieved our best ever results we are looking forward to emulating this feat once again this year.
It has been great to see how so many of our students are showing ambition on a daily basis in their learning and their attitude especially towards high standards of punctuality and uniform. Sadly, I cannot boast of saying we have achieved this with all students, and I have been disappointed to see this week that as the weather has turned colder a number of students are choosing to wear leggings rather than school trousers or a school skirt. I am requesting support from parents to ensure that your child is appropriately dressed for school in correct uniform. We have not changed the uniform expectations and leggings are not permitted to be worn outside of PE or dance lessons. Being dressed in the correct uniform not only is an amazing sight to behold when you see students dressed immaculately- it is a key factor of being part of our community and being proud to be Wollaston.
Social Science Trip
Head of Social Science, Mr Pomerantz writes: ‘Our Year 11 students enjoyed a fantastic day out visiting the Paradox Museum, followed by the Science Museum in London. The trip perfectly complemented our GCSE Psychology work on visual illusions, loiking at how the brain can misinterpret depth cues. Students engaged enthusiastically with the exhibits, and we captured some excellent photos showcasing their curiosity and learning in action.
The science museum has far more information than we could fit in the two and half hours we visited but was lovely to see displays of brain scanning techniques and phobias display in the psychology area.
This was the first trip that has taken place in GCSE psychology, and we look forward to it becoming a regular event. Year 13 social scientists will be involved in our next outing in February – a trip to a prison to study criminal behaviour!’
Best wishes for the week ahead.
Simon Anderson