We were delighted to see so many parents/ carers at Year 7 Parents’ Evening this week. A positive relationship between home and school is vital to student success and we really do believe that by working together students achieve the very best academic and personal outcomes.
A reminder that if you have any questions or concerns you can email general@thehambleschool.co.uk and this will be directed to the relevant member of staff. General questions must always be sent to your child’s tutor. Subject specific enquiries will be sent to the relevant teacher or Head of Department. To support our staff with email traffic and ensure communications do not get missed, please send all initial enquiries to General.
We would like to remind parents/ carers that we operate a 48 working hour response policy.
Next week is WEEK 2
Events w/b 15 January
Monday 15 January – Saints Foundation Men’s Mental Health Workshop.
Wednesday 17 January – Year 7 and 11 Group Photos.
Letters
You can find all letters sent home over the week here – https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/letters-to-parents/
This week we have emailed home the mock exam timetable to Year 11.
The canteen menus can be found here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/food-and-drink/
Please check your child’s Attendance regularly on Class Charts
Theme of the Week – Academic Excellence
This week the theme is ‘Academic Excellence’. Students in all year groups will be focussing on how they can achieve the very best outcomes in their studies and ensure they have a ‘can do’ attitude in lessons. We will also be looking at independence, study skills, revision and homework.
Mrs Valleley (Deputy Headteacher) will be leading the assemblies on this theme and providing students with tools to ensure they can work effectively at home. We have noticed that some students are either not completing homework on time or submitting homework which does not meet the expected standard. We would urge all parents/ carers to check Class Charts daily and ensure that they look at their child’s homework and the time suggested to complete the tasks before the submission day.
If you need support accessing Class Charts, please email classcharts@thehambleschool.co.uk If your child needs any help with homework, we run a Homework Club on a Tuesday and Thursday in T1&T4 between 3pm and 4pm.
@TeacherToolkit provides some excellent tips to help you support your child with homework.They state:
Homework is one area where parents can play a very active and encouraging part in their child’s education. On a very basic level, it can help kick-start conversations between parents and children, especially in families where busy work and extracurricular commitments may prevent regular mealtimes together.
While research has shown that regular family mealtimes is an excellent way to boost academic performance, this isn’t always possible for families to achieve. Therefore alternative times have to be manufactured to promote conversation and for parents to demonstrate interest in their child’s schooling.
Homework is a lesson in independence and time management, and students need support to manage these commitments – developing a schedule and helping them balance their homework with extracurricular activities and family commitments is important.
So what can parents do to support their children with homework?
- Create space
Set up a space for your child to do their homework. While making this space in their bedroom is sometimes the easiest option, this automatically makes homework a solitary activity. If there is an option for a space in a communal area of the house this helps promote discussions and it is easier to get involved without it feeling like an intrusion. Wherever the space, give the learner some ownership over it and make it an inviting space to spend time in. New stationery, a comfy chair and good lighting will also help.
- Make it positive
Make parental input a positive thing. If your child has a question about their work, help them, but try not to tell them the answer. Use questioning to help them get as close to the answer as they can. Starting these practices in younger years will mean that when homework becomes a bigger part of their learning outside of school, your child is comfortable discussing it with you and values your input.
- Let them make mistakes
It’s OK for answers to be wrong. Telling your child the right answer and getting them to just write it down means that the teacher is none the wiser about which bits they are struggling with and which they excel at. Help but not too much and leave the mistakes as they are for a teacher to see. Any errors are very revealing and this helps teachers adjust their teaching to address these issues. The chances are, if your child doesn’t understand it, others in the class probably don’t either, and homework is a great way of highlighting this to the teacher.
- Be realistic
Give them time to complete work set. While it is tempting to book weekends full of fun, non-school-related activities, children need some downtime. Allowing them some space in the family schedule means they will be able to start allocating their own time and gives them plenty of time to complete the work set. This will allow more time for discussion, greater conversation between family members and the learner, and an altogether calmer approach.
- Insist work is finished
Do not excuse incomplete work.
There are genuine reasons why homework isn’t completed. However, for a teacher it can be infuriating when students come in with a note from a parent that simply says, “My son/daughter has not done their homework. Signed…”.Trust the teacher’s professionalism – we set homework because it has a purpose and supports the learning journey.
Parent Forum
Thank you for your feedback on the best days, times and methods for Parent Forum. The survey suggested that parents/ carers would prefer these meetings on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Late morning (after the school run) and evening after 6pm were the most popular times. Parents/ carers suggested that they would like a combination of face-to-face suggestions and online.
The schedule below outlines the sessions for the rest of the school year. In each meeting we will go through the key areas of focus for the school, but also have a ‘guest’ member of staff will provide information on a certain issue. We have decided to keep the day time sessions face-to-face so that parents/ carers get an opportunity to come into school. The evening sessions will alternative between face-to-face and online.
Please see below for a list of dates/ times and topics:
- Tuesday 23 January – 10am in school, 6pm online. Community and communication.
- Monday 26 February – 10am in school, 6pm face-to-face. SEND and Inclusion.
- Monday 25 March – 10am in school, 6pm online. T&L and Homework.
- Tuesday 23 April – 10am in school, 6pm face-to-face. Key Groups.
- Wednesday 22 May – 10am in school, 6pm online. PSHCRE and the Wider Curriculum.
- Wednesday 19 May – 10am in school, 6pm face-to-face. Responsive.
- Monday 15 July – 10am in school, 6pm online. Annual Review.
If you are able to attend the next meeting on Tuesday 23 January, please sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/98pRqX5NDW
Men’s Mental Health
On Monday 15 January, 6pm – 7pm the Saints Foundation will run a workshop on men’s mental health. The aim of the session is to give local men the tools they need to better manage their mental health.
This is open to all community members and you do not need to be a parent at the school to attend, so please do bring along any friends, relatives etc.
Click here to sign up: https://forms.office.com/e/3TnwVcnDwM
Would you like to be part of Team Hamble?
We are currently expanding our staffing team to provide more capacity. We are looking for teachers (both ECTs and experienced), leaders and support staff. Please do visit our vacancies page https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/current-vacancies/ and/ or sign up to come along to our Recruitment Event at 4:30pm on Monday 22 January:
https://forms.office.com/e/mjxf7saD7z
Contact Details
Sometimes we need to contact parents/ carers in the day. We also need to regularly send communication via email (and occasionally post). Please ensure that we always have up to date contact information for your child. This includes a telephone number(s) which can always be reached during school hours, email address(es) which are accessed regularly and the current home postal address. We also use Class Charts to send notifications and ask all parents/ carers to have this app and check it on a daily basis (or use the alert function).
If you need to update us with information please email general@thehambleschool.co.uk If you need help with Class Charts, please email classcharts@thehambleschool.co.uk
Year 11 Update
Afterschool intervention will take place on Tuesday and Thursday.
On Wednesday 31 January (6pm-7:30pm) there will be an Achieving Excellence Evening for both parents/ carers and students. The sessions will be bespoke based on your child’s needs. Further details and sign up will be emailed home this week.
Year 11 Mock Exams will take place between Wednesday 7 February and Friday 5 March. A timetable was sent home on Friday.
Maths – To Year 11 students…
Between Thursday 11 and Friday 12 January, our long awaited maths revision resources were emailed to your school email address. These will help you make rapid improvements before your next set of Mock Exams in February and should be the focus of all revision once you have completed your homework. These resources are unique for every student, based on every question in your maths November Mock Exams. You must make sure to open and save the pdf resources within the next seven days so that you have them permanently, else the links will expire and you will lose the opportunity. Please speak to your maths teacher in the first instance if you have any questions about how to use the resource – good luck revising!”
Alumni
If you or a friend/ relative are a former student from The Hamble School and would be happy sharing your story with our current students, please complete the form here: https://forms.office.com/e/J2mhxj3r6e
We are particularly looking for people who would be happy talking to our Year 11s about their careers in an assembly.
Hampshire MHST
On 18 January 5:30pm-7:30pm Hampshire MHST are hosting a Autism Awareness session for parents/ carers online. This is free and you can use the link below:
https://spft-nhs-uk.zoom.us/j/94467970767?pwd=QXZkTDJsRVpiSjZtdmVlOEFDN053QT09
Meeting ID: 944 6797 0767
Passcode: 681206
Celebrating Achievements
We love hearing about what students have been doing outside of school as part of their hobbies.
Swimming
We would like to wish the following students the best of luck in the upcoming Swimming County Championships on 24-25 January and 24-25 February:
- Patrick H Yr 7
- Matthew W Yr 7
- Joe T Yr 8
- Bella H Yr 8
These swimmers, representing Hamble Aquatics, have qualified to participate at the Hampshire County Championships. This is a very hard event to qualify for as there are so many swimmers and the qualifying times are really tough! Good luck and swim well!
Diving
Congratulations to Ella S for being selected for the British Diving Team following the Talent Games In December she achieved two gold medals representing The Hamble School at the English Schools finals in Manchester. She is now national schools champion in both individual and synchro events. This is an absolutely fantastic achievement – Well done from everyone at The Hamble School.
A reminder that we celebrate achievements every Friday with our award recognition system and Proud Friday.
Find out more here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/rewards-recognition/
The students listed below achieved the most reward points this week – Well done to you!
- Year 7 – Alyssa G 7-6
- Year 8 – Emmanuel O 8-9
- Year 9 – Nathaniel H 9-3
- Year 10 – Wiktoria B 10-8
- Year 11 – Olivia S 11-3
You can say ‘thank you’ to a member of staff here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/staff-recognition/ they really do enjoy receiving these each week.
Support
If you or you child would like support with wellbeing, please check out the links of our website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/student-wellbeing-support/
We have recently added information about a number of free parent/ carer courses or events to this section of our website.
