St Anne's Catholic School St Anne's Catholic School

Parent Update 22nd January 2021

22nd January 2021

Dear Parents,

I hope this latest communication finds you well.

One of the joys of teaching is finding out how former pupils are getting on after leaving us. I was taken aback this week to see a former head girl and local city councillor, Satvir Kaur, sharing a picture taken four years ago of her meeting Vice-President Joe Biden. She was in the United States working with others on Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign. I thought I would share with parents just because it's so topical this week and because democracy is an important value that we all share. Satvir, and other alumni, have been in to St Anne's over the years to talk to pupils about their careers after leaving St Anne's as part of our alumni programmes. We look forward to the day when our Friday Futures events can take place in person again. In the meantime, our careers programmes are taking place remotely to support pupils with their next steps.

Year 9 Parents - KS4 Curriculum Information Event (Options Evening)

St Anne’s would like to welcome you, and your daughter, to the start of the process that will ultimately open the doors to the future that your daughter aspires to. Our aim is to enable you all to make wise and informed choices that will help your daughter to have a positive, happy and successful Key Stage 4 and transition through to sixth form.

We will be holding a KS4 Curriculum Virtual Event on Tuesday 26th January from 5-6pm, where key pieces of information will be shared and you will have the opportunity to ask questions, via a chat message. There is a link to the event below. If you are unable to make the live event, clicking on the link after the event will take you to a recording of it. Parents of other year groups (particularly year 8) are welcome to watch too if you are interested as the information does not change that much every year. However, this is an annual event (normally in person!) so feel free to wait for the year your daughter reaches year 9.

If you have any questions that you would like us to look at prior to the evening you can click on the link below and submit a question in readiness for the event.

Click the link to access the event on Tuesday 26th January from 5pm: KS4 Curriculum Evening Link

You will be receiving the KS4 Curriculum Information on Courses booklet through the post which is another source of information you will need to refer to when you and your daughter are considering the courses that she will choose to follow at Key Stage 4. A pdf version of this will also be available on our website.

GCSEPod

Some parents may be aware that we use GCSEPod in some subject areas and for independent learning but for ALL families, there are some really good parent guides here: https://www.gcsepod.com/parent-resources/. We particularly like one on 'Good Tech Habits' here: https://www.gcsepod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tech-habits-for-web.jpg

Connection to the internet

If your daughter or son are having issues with connectivity, or they are only able to connect via the mobile phone network, please do get in touch as we have ways of supporting you with better internet connectivity. Speak to their Head of Year and we will help you. We have mobile routers from the DfE and sims cards from mobile phone companies who have donated them to schools for free.

Y8 Parents - Reports

We have had to adapt the way we do reporting as students and staff are mostly off-site. As a consequence, the Y8 reports that were due to be sent to you on Friday 29th January will now be sent to parents on Friday 5th February.

Have a good weekend and God Bless

James Rouse

Headteacher