It was wonderful welcoming all our students back to school on Friday. The Senior Leadership Team spent a lot of the day walking around the site visiting classrooms – it was fantastic to see students already engaged in learning and working effectively.
Over the summer we hosted a Summer School for some of our new Year 7 students. They engaged in a variety of activities and we would like to thank all the staff who organised and helped with this.
Over the holidays the support staff have been extremely busy improving the site for the students. The projects include improvements to IT and the computer suites, renovation of our Food Technology room, a new area for our Pastoral Team, more classrooms in the Skills Centre, new lighting in the Hall and Drama Studios, a fantastic new outdoor space in the Quad and work on the Bereavement Garden so that it is a calm environment for reflection. There have also been improvements to displays across the school, so that they support learning more effectively. We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Mr Burton-Doe (Senior Bursar), Mr Stone (Site Manager), Mr Tarry (IT Manager), Mrs Wrench (Graphic Designer) and their teams for all the hard work making this happen.
Our values underpin the work we do in the school every day and as we start the new academic year, we would like to remind the community of what these mean in practice:
We Care
We Aim High
We Learn and Achieve Together.
Care – means treating others and the environment with kindness and respect, showing consideration, tolerance and good manners.
High Expectations – means recognising the value of education and always striving for the best in terms of work ethic and behaviour.
Learning – means valuing intellectual growth, supporting different learning needs and encouraging responsibility, independence and a ‘can do’ attitude
Achievement – means rewarding and celebrating success in all aspects of school life, including academic, sporting and artistic pursuits.
Working together – means being inclusive and supporting each other both inside and outside of school.
We are proud to be part of Team Hamble.
New Staff
We are currently fully staffed and in the very fortunate position that we have been able to recruit additional teachers and support staff to work with the students. We would like to welcome the following staff to Team Hamble:
| Name | Staff Code | Role/ Position | Department |
| Ms Campbell | CCN | Teacher | Science |
| Mr Dudgeon | SDN | Assistant Head of Science | Science |
| Mr Eason | MEN | Head of Business, IT & Computing | ICT |
| Mr Etherington | AEN | Teacher | Maths |
| Miss Fernandez | FFZ | Teacher | MFL |
| Mrs Gutierrez del Rio | LGO | Teacher | MFL |
| Mr James | RJS | Head of Year/ Teacher – Geography | Pastoral/ Geography |
| Mrs Kinahan | RKN | Teacher | Design & Technology |
| Mr Lewis | PLS | Teacher | English |
| Mrs Marshall | KMN | Teacher | Art (with some D&T) |
| Ms Martinez Sykora | VMA | Head of MFL | MFL |
| Mr O’Sullivan | SON | Cover Supervisor | Cover |
| Mr Tweedle | STE | Teacher | Maths |
| Mr Vine | JVE | Teacher | RE |
| Ms McColm | LMM | Receptionist | Admin |
| Ms Bennett | MBN | Reprographics Assistant | Admin |
| Mr Turner | TTU | SCITT | Science |
| Ms Jade-Sargent | SJT | SCITT | DT |
| Mr Holland | NHD | SCITT | Media Studies |
Next week is Week 2.
Events w/b 5th September
Monday 5th September – A reminder for new parents/ carers that school finishes at 2:35pm every Monday.
Friday 9th September – Proud Friday starts under the Year 9 canopy at lunchtime. For students new to the school, this is an opportunity for them to show a member of the Senior Leadership Team their best piece of work from the week. We will then recognise this with some rewards.
Future dates:
Thursday 22 September – Open Evening for all Year 5 and 6 students and their parents/ carers. We will be asking current students to help at this event between 5:30pm-8pm. Further details will be distributed in due course.
Letters sent this week
All year groups – Timetables
Our letters are available here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/letters-to-parents/
The Headteacher’s Blog is available here and has been updated this week: https://hambleheadteacher.wordpress.com/
Theme of the Week: New Beginnings
This week the ‘Theme of the Week’ is New Beginnings. Mr Govan will deliver the assemblies and welcome all our students to a new academic year. We would encourage you to read the Headteacher Blog which focusses on this theme.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Each year we usually offer a range of different clubs at lunchtime and after school. These rely on the goodwill of staff to give up their free time; last year we were able to run a variety of groups including sports clubs, arts groups and the popular STEM and Chess Club.
Mrs Baldwin is in charge of co-ordinating the extra-curricular offer and she will be including more information in the Weekly Message next week. We hope that the clubs will begin on Monday 12th September.
Year 7 – Lockers
We are currently auditing the lockers in school in preparation for students to sign up to new lockers if they not already have one. We know that Year 7 students and parents/ carers maybe particularly keen to sign up for this. Once we have completed this audit, we will communicate more information about the process so you are able to sign up to a new locker for your child.
Pastoral Support
We are so pleased we now have a bigger pastoral team and each year group has a Student Support Officer (SSOs) available to work with individuals or groups. Details of the staff are listed below:
Year 7 – Mrs Fry
Year 8 – Mrs Tonner
Year 9 – Mrs Wigginton
Year 10 – Mrs Phipps
Year 11 – Mrs Chalk
The SSOs are additional staff, so every child still has a tutor, Assistant Head of Year, Head of Year and member of the Senior Leadership Team attached to the year group.
We have recently trained 16 Mental Health First Aiders, who are available to talk to students:
- Mrs Phipps
- Mrs Tonner
- Miss Hillier
- Mr Skinner
- Miss Bourhaba
- Mrs Jackson
- Mrs Chalk
- Mrs Brisk
- Mr Knight
- Mrs Clarkson
- Mr Webber
- Mrs Griffiths
- Mrs Goodhead
- Mrs McNamara
- Miss Threader
- Mrs Fernandez-Law
Our ELSA drop ins also continue at break/ lunchtime in the Harbour and our Safeguarding Team can be contacted by anyone (students, parents/ carers, members of the community) at anytime by emailing staysafe@thehambleschool.co.uk
We would also urge you to have a look at the Student Wellbeing resources on our website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/student-wellbeing-resources/
Attendance
It is essential that students attend school regularly and maintain a pattern of good attendance throughout the year. At The Hamble School we expect all students to have over 95% attendance. Research suggests that this is important for a number of reasons:
- To learn
- To achieve excellent qualifications
- To make friends and develop social skills
- To experience new things
- To build confidence and self esteem
- To develop a variety of skills
- To gain new experiences
- To get the best possible start in life.
Young people who regularly miss school without good reason are more likely to become isolated from their friends, underachieve in examinations and/ or become involved in anti-social behaviour.
Parents/ carers can help by:
- Establishing a good routine in the mornings and evenings to that students are prepared for the school day ahead
- Making sure students attend regularly, are on time and follow the school rules
- Arranging dental and medical appointments out of school hours, where possible
- Always informing the school if your son/ daughter is absent due to illness – you can do this by emailing attendance@thehambleschool.co.uk or on the Class Charts App
- Taking family holidays out of term time
- Talking to your son/ daughter about school and taking an interest in their work (especially homework)
- Attending school events and parents’ evenings
- Praising and rewarding good achievement at school
- Discussing any concerns with your child’s tutor.
Class Charts
We use the Class Charts parent/ carer App to communicate and encourage you to check this daily. If you have forgotten your username/ password and your child is in years 8-11, please contact Mrs Rogerson (Data Manager) brogerson@thehambleschool.co.uk
Year 7 parents/ carers will receive their login details this week.
Class Charts can be used for messaging teachers and reporting absence. You can view your son/ daughter’s homework and timetable on the app. We also put all rewards and sanctions (e.g. detentions) on Class Charts.
