Regents Review Winter 2020

The Regents Review Winter 2020

WELCOME Headteacher’s Welcome

Dear Parents and Carers Winter is officially upon us, and the festive season is getting into its stride. These past couple of weeks have seen bauble-clad trees spring into front room windows all over town and families across the globe have relished the shared experience of trying to unravel the fairy lights that were stored in a box at the end of last year. At Regents Park, our classrooms have also enjoyed a sprinkle of Christmas with tutor groups opening the daily advent calendar treat, Christmas bunting and the occasional sparkly tree. Special cookies are on sale this week and we are preparing for our Christmas jumper day. We are excited to have the opportunity to do our Christmas assembly in a new format with music and readings being recorded in advance for all the students to enjoy. It is with great pride that we will also be arranging to deliver some special Christmas treats to some of our families from our Christmas trolley appeal, thank you for all the generous donations from the staff and community members. This term has been a new challenge, but Regents Park has not lost its warmth and in fact we have only grown in our support for each other to overcome the challenges and to become stronger. This is evident in this edition of our Regents Review, which captures many highlights from autumn term 2020. As you will see, we have certainly been busy updating the school with new science labs, catering systems, exciting rewards, remote learning opportunities, new ICT and much more. With almost 850 students now attending Regents Park, it is always a pleasure to celebrate our ethos and to talk with students about their achievements, giving out our ethos badges, making positive calls and enjoying looking at their work. However, a real highlight is my Friday morning when I have the joy of hot chocolate with our ‘caught you being good’ raffle winners. Not only do they enjoy dipping marshmallows in their hot chocolate but they also nominate members of staff for a Friday treat writing them a wonderful thank you message. As they sip on their hot chocolate, we also share our thoughts on how to make Regents Park even better and these comments have driven many of our new initiative and improvements over this term.

Keeping each other safe has never been so important and wearing masks has been a huge challenge for staff and students, but due to the commitment of our community, we have minimised the impact of COVID - well done and thank you Regents Park. We have also increased our safety at lunchtimes and breaktimes as we joined the School Street project. We now close Richville Road to allow students to cross safely to the playground. We are officially the first school to successfully put this scheme in place during the school day and the very first secondary school to get involved. Our new assessment systems are gathering momentum and last week, students in every Year group took time to reflect on their progress and set targets for the rest of the year. Year 11 students were presented with their mock exam results during a specially prepared IAG morning. At the risk of diluting the Christmas wishes, I would be grateful if some essential reminders are adhered to before we return in 2020. Reading is an essential past-time for all young people. It can be a superb tool for enhancing their mental health and sense of well-being. There is a wealth of research which shows the correlation between adult educational and employment success and their childhood vocabulary levels. It is never too late to improve this. Please encourage your child to read. Christmas may bring many new mobile phones, please remember the importance of regularly checking your child’s phone and use these conversations as a way of educating you and your family about online safety. The NSPCC website is an excellent starting point for parents to understand the risks and the new platforms that are out there. Also to understand how to set up parental controls: nspcc.org.uk/ preventing-abuse/ keeping-children-safe/online- safety . Remember during term time, mobile phones must be switched off and put in the bottom of bags before students enter the school gates. Mobile phones and headphones will be confiscated if they are visible at any point inside school hours. Finally, thank you to our wonderful students, our dedicated staff and to our parents for their support during 2020. On behalf of the Governors and staff at RPCC, I would like to wish you a very happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year. Mrs Barnes Headteacher

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