Dear parents and carers,
In our Christmas newsletter we talked about getting the BASICS right for our students, you’ll be hearing lots about this and I want to write today to explain how we are going to go about it. I’m really looking forward to reinforcing the firm foundations upon which this school has been built and ensuring that our children are ready to learn and preparing them for the future.
Early indications suggest that our year 7 will be full again next year and we will remain oversubscribed. Whilst I am delighted to be able to serve our local area, I want to ensure that, as a school community, we don’t get complacent. The success of our mobile phone policy has shown that with consistency and continuity, we can make a difference and our students respond in a positive way. I have noticed that some standards have started to slip and I need to ask for your support to ensure this does not continue.
Lockdowns and covid restrictions were hard on us all but our job now is to support our young people and provide them with a framework in which they can learn, we are calling this BASICS and we want our students to simply get the basics right.
At Forge, we’ve always taken great pride in preparing our young people for the world beyond the Academy – into work, apprenticeships or further education. The majority of our students already know BASICS and will adapt with ease. It’s important that our students are aware that in the world beyond Forge they cannot turn up late, wear what they want or be unprepared for work/study. We don’t want anyone to fail so we’ll be providing guidance, advice and support to ensure all of our students get these BASICS right and we continue to prepare them for life and remove any barriers to them becoming their brilliant best.
Be on time
Attend every day
Smartly dressed
Instructions followed
Come equipped
Show respect
What does each one mean:
Be on time
Attend every day
Smartly dressed
Instructions followed (from a practical point, students will follow this guidance for every lesson)
During the lessons students will be expected to::
At the end of the lesson, students will:
Out of lesson, students will:
Students will be given every opportunity to get this right without consequence but there will be a ladder of escalation:
It is important to state that a detention is a last resort for us, we don’t want to issue any but there needs to be a consequence of actions. To counterbalance this, we will be ensuring that students are rewarded when they get things right. In the past, we have lost focus on this and we have spoken to all staff this week about issuing achievement points across all key stages. Achievement points will be issued for out-of-lesson behaviour too. Parents will be notified by EduLink when a student gets an achievement point and we look forward to issuing lots!
Come equipped
Show respect
There will be a number of form activities and PSHE sessions surrounding the theme of respect; students and staff will work closely together on this.
DETENTIONS
Same day detentions ensure that students can start the following day with a clean slate. We want to give students every chance to succeed and it’s important that issues don’t hang over them. Parents will be informed about detentions via EduLink, if a detention is not convenient we are happy to have the conversation about moving but we need your support with this.
Our detentions will be staffed by our senior leadership team and volunteer staff, it will be based in the canteen and we will encourage staff to come to the canteen for restorative conversations with students.
IMPORTANCE OF EDULINK
More and more of our communication with parents is happening now on EduLink, it is imperative that you use it to track the progress of your child and have alerts turned on. If you cannot access EduLink or need a reminder for your username and password, please email [email protected] and we will support you.
On Friday we’ll be having a (virtual) whole school assembly and on Monday, form tutors will be working with students on getting the BASICS right and answering questions. It’s important to say that without strong structures and clear boundaries, our young people will struggle to make the most of their learning opportunities. With so much uncertainty over the last two years, it’s important that we continue to work together and provide our students with a stable framework that they can use to their own advantage and succeed with.
Thank you in anticipation of your support. If you have any questions or concerns, please email [email protected].
Yours faithfully,
Dr Lisa Mason
Principal
Ormiston Forge Academy