Friday 11th March 2022
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please can I send out another request, further to my last bulletin for volunteers to get involved in the Altrincham College Parents Association (ACPA)? If you can give a small amount of time to help we would be enormously grateful! Our school production of “Bugsy Malone” is coming up shortly and promises to be a great event – this might be something you would like to help out at by serving refreshments? As we return to some semblance of normality there will be lots more things parents and carers can get involved with and we would really appreciate your support.
Please email: headteacher@altrinchamcollege.com if you’d like to get involved! Everyone welcome! Thank you.
Vacancies at our school
We are currently recruiting for a Housekeeper, cleaning staff, a Catering Manager and cook. If you, or anyone you know is interested in working in our wonderful school, please go to the Vacancies page of our school website for more information. Several parents already work at our school – you too could join the team!
Attendance
Persistent Absentees are students whose attendance falls below 90%. We have to report on these figures to the Department for Education on a regular basis.
At our school, we go to great lengths, as you know, to identify barriers to attendance and then strive to remove them so that students’ attendance improves. Our attendance as a school has consistently been higher than National Averages, both during the pandemic and now as we move out of it. This is a wonderful achievement and I am sure the students know they are getting the best possible support at our school. However, as we go forward our attendance still needs to improve. The resilience of students is key to getting them in and keeping them in! Is your child absent but could actually come into school? Is your child a Young Carer but you/they haven’t told us?
Please ensure your child attends school regularly and only keep them home if they are really ill. Thank you.
This process is well underway; however, your child may still need some support in making their decisions about which subjects to pursue. Please encourage them to ask for help from their subject teachers who can give them an idea of what courses will entail. It’s an exciting time for them! They should choose what they enjoy studying rather than the subject their favourite teacher teaches as this may change!
Safeguarding Focus: Cyberbullying
As technological devices have become more widely available, misuse of these has become a problem affecting young people. Cyber bullying refers to behaviours that are intended to harm others using technology, by hurting their feelings, causing embarrassment or humiliation, damaging reputations, and disrupting relationships. Some acts that appear to be cyber bullying may originate because of misinterpretation, miscommunication, or misguided attempts at humour. We know that cyber bullying is less prevalent than traditional bullying, but has many of the same consequences: depression, anxiety, absenteeism, reduced concentration at school, increased risk for suicidal behaviours and so on.
Although traditional bullying has occurred for eons, cyber bullying has the potential to be more harmful because of its unique characteristics:
- it can be anonymous and can happen at any time in any place
- the audience is enormous
- the perpetrator does not see the immediate reaction of the target
- there are no non-verbal cues to help convey meaning
- content once posted is permanent
- one does not need power in the "real world" to exercise power using technology.
How parents can help
- Teach your child(ren) how to create secure passwords.
- Know the websites your child(ren) visit and help them set privacy and security settings properly.
- Teach your child(ren) not to provide personal information on any website.
- Check history on computers used by your child(ren) to know what they are doing online
- Do not allow your child(ren) to have technology accessible 24 hours a day e.g. mobile phones can be left charging in a shared space, laptops are not in bedroom all night.
If your child is targeted:
- Preserve evidence! Take screen shots, print full email headers, save texts, etc.
- Report incidents to the website owner and internet service providers.
- Tell the school about it. Even if the sender is unknown, the likelihood is that the offender is also bullying the target at school - and may be identified.
- Use "report offensive content" options when necessary.
- Block sender or 'de-friend' offender.
- If what has happened is illegal, report it to the authorities (the Police).
- Tell the offender that you do not want to receive any further communications from them, and save that statement as evidence.
- If someone creates a website to demean you, use whois.com to find the person who set up the site. Either report or contact that person, depending on the content of the site.
Please note: if any of the technical information given above is difficult to understand, please seek clarification from school.
Some useful resources to help deal with cyber-bullying:
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/
www.commonsensemedia.org
www.netsmartz.org
How to talk to your child about the situation in Ukraine
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-03-02/how-to-talk-to-children-about-russias-invasion-of-ukraine
This week we have been speaking with students about the war in Ukraine in form time. Some students are understandably worried and concerned; indeed, it is difficult for adults to understand. The link above may support you in discussing this at home. The link below highlights the resources staff have been using in school for your information:
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/teaching-materials-ages-12-15.html
Student Successes!
This week it seems to be students in Year 10 who are really excelling in their sports outside of school!
Maisie K (Year 10) has been selected to represent the North West at the Junior Inter-regional Rowing Regatta (JIRR) event in Nottingham in April!
Maisie rows at Trafford Rowing Club, based in Walton Park. Last weekend she represented the club at the North-West regional time trials where North West clubs race each other for the opportunity to compete at the JIRR. Maisie comfortably won the year 10 double sculls with her partner and she has subsequently been selected to represent the North-West in the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta in April, which is the start of the international competition pathway. It is a massive achievement and her club and our school are very proud of her! Well done Maisie!
Harry St-R in Year 10 is competing this weekend at the British Gymnastic Championship in London (along with Akrya who featured in last week’s Bulletin)! We wish him every success – go Harry!
Also, Emile O is doing great things on his placement with Everton FC - congratulations Emile, this is great news!
(Couldn’t resist adding this image!)
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
The Jubilee Committee met this week and we have decided to hold an afternoon celebration to mark this special occasion on Friday 13 May. This is before the start of GCSEs/A-levels as we wanted to ensure all students were in school and able to participate as a community. Please keep this date in the diary as students will be asked to wear red, white or blue! More information will follow in the coming weeks and will be discussed with students in form time.
This will be an afternoon of fun and lunches will be provided free of charge that day too! We are keeping our fingers crossed that the sun will shine and a street party atmosphere will successfully be created on the school grounds!
Stars of the Week
This week’s Star of the Week goes to Lauren B in Year 8! Lauren has been nominated by our Catering Team for being polite and considerate every day. That’s exactly how we want everyone to behave Lauren! Thank you for leading the way so brilliantly!
Staff Star of the week nominations included Mrs Witchalls, Mrs Hardy and Mrs Drinkwater but the winner is ……Mr Madden our Head of Music! He has been nominated by staff for his positivity, energy and enthusiasm. He also works extremely hard say staff! Congratulations Mr Madden!
Thank you for your continued support of our school! Have a wonderful week ahead!
Ms K Earle
Headteacher
