Parent and pupil newsletter 21 Sept 2018

Educational visits for your diary

Education and learning take place outside the classroom as well as inside. We have begun our programme of visits with three planned so far this term;

1. French Institute Yr8—11 French 2nd October

2. British Museum Yr7 History 5th October

3. French Institute Yr7 French 11th December

Punctuality and attendance

All our students should be aiming for 100% attendance and our minimum is 95%. School starts at 8.45am and we expect students to be on time. If they are going to be late, please call school to let us know. If they are absent please write or email to explain the reason.

CEM testing

All students at Bales College start the year with a series of online tests. This is a system run by Durham University and the results help us build a picture of the academic potential of our students. They will show where their strengths lie and how we might support them to improve their learning. Students change and mature as they move through school and this system is designed to help us get the very best from all students.

Year 7 students taking CEM benchmark testing online

Photographs of students

We will be using a photographer to take photographs of students working round school in the coming weeks. This is part of our normal process of generating images we can use in future years.

Music Club

Last week saw the beginning of our extra-curricular activities for years 7 & 8. These activities run from 3.15pm until 4pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Details of the activities we will be doing in Music Club are below.

In Music Club students will work as an ensemble to learn a musical piece. It will be an opportunity to work in a band environment. Everyone will take a differ-ent part in the score and there-fore a different role in the music. All students will be playing on acoustic guitar. We will be cover-ing jazz, pop and rock music as they are well suited to beginners, and are styles generally liked by everyone.

Mobile phones

Please remember these are not allowed in school, and ideally should be left at home. If students have their phone out during the day they can expect that it will be confiscated, and returned at the end of the school day

School uniform

We are proud of our students and of the way they look. We would value your support in making sure they wear correct school uniform at all times.