Wisepay More and more parents/guardians are using our on-line payment system, Wisepay, to pay for trips, uniform, school meals etc. and we strongly recommend all parents use this system. <strong>The</strong> system is a web-based application, managed and maintained in a secure data centre. All users are able to access the service on-line using a standard internet connection. <strong>The</strong>re is a link from the school’s website. Parents are able to pay by debit or credit card. <strong>The</strong> system is accessible 24/7 allowing parents flexibility to pay at a time and place that suits them. We also have a computer available in school which can be used by parents who do not have access to the internet at home. Please contact the school for details. We recommend that students do not bring cash into school and the school will not be held liable for any lost cash. Cashless Catering <strong>The</strong> new cashless catering system has been up and running for just over a month. <strong>The</strong>re have been a few teething problems but these are being sorted out gradually. Parents can see what their children are eating on a daily basis via Wisepay. <strong>The</strong>re is a set daily spend limit of £4 on the system which parents can increase or decrease as they wish but the school needs to have this instruction in writing or via email. Please note we do not allow students to ‘overdraw’ on their accounts so parents/carers need to ensure that they ‘top’ up their child’s account regularly to ensure they have enough money to purchase food. We have been made aware that some parents are sending in small amounts of cash for the school to put this money onto their child’s Wisepay account. We will be unable to accept cash payments for school meals from now on. Be the First to Get the News Sign up to Parentmail and be the first to receive Rough Notes plus any information concerning the <strong>School</strong> such as bad weather arrangements. It’s so easy, all you have to do is send your email address to Alix Smith (asmith@woodroffe.dorset.sch. uk) to set up your Parentmail account. Health & Safety Please would parents/guardians NOT pick up or drop off students outside the school buildings before and at the end of the day. This causes problems with traffic as the school drive is only single lane. <strong>The</strong>re is no reason why students cannot be dropped off in bus bay or along by the zebra crossing so they walk up to school. Bus Bay Please would parents/guardians not park in bus bay either at the end of school or when you are waiting for a school trip to return. It makes it very difficult for coaches to park and students to alight safely if there are cars blocking the bus bay. Also please do not park where you might cause an obstruction or reduce visibility for other car users and the buses – especially at the right hand side of the school drive. Stay Warm this Winter If there’s one place in <strong>School</strong> that’s really exposed to the elements, it’s got to be Top Pitch. So what better way to wrap up than with a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a named hoodie. Available from the <strong>School</strong> Shop or online via Wisepay, students are guaranteed a little warmth as the weather gets colder! You’ll also find Navy V-neck jumpers stocked in the Shop, perfect for wearing under the <strong>School</strong> blazer! <strong>The</strong>re has been some confusion with the Wisepay system and the shop. <strong>The</strong> Biometric System (finger recognition) cannot be used in the shop. Uniform items costing more than £10.00 can be purchased online using Wisepay and for convenience, ties can also be bought at a cost of £6.00. All proceeds from the Shop are returned to the <strong>School</strong> to support the students’ education. Many thanks for all the support you continue to give. Gillian Butcher, Shop Manager. 01297 445435 gbutcher@woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk Students on Site Early We are seeing a number of students arriving early in the morning, some before 8.00am. <strong>The</strong> school is not open to students until 8.30am and accepts no responsibility for them if they are on the school site before this time. Harvey Werb Now that the sudden visit of the Ofsted team is fading into the distance, it is worth taking a moment to reflect upon the reality of what goes on in class at <strong>Woodroffe</strong> and the experiences of students as they pursue their day-to-day studies. Two recent incidents illustrate what I mean. First, as part of the last staff training day, we asked three students to show us some of the things they had been working on recently. Harvey Werb took us on a journey through his ICT experiences at <strong>Woodroffe</strong>, demonstrating astonishingly sophisticated website design skills; Dominic Kirtley entertained us with an enthusiastic introduction to the complexities of the music industry, demonstrating each stage in the production of a cover version of a song he and his friends had recorded and then transformed using the music program Logic Pro; and Moss Hayman left us all thinking about how limited our own ICT skills were as he showed us a series of fascinating videos created using sophisticated animation techniques. Usually it is members of staff who lead our training sessions but this was much more powerful. Teachers were really excited by what they saw and inspired by the skills and maturity of the students. It is sobering to think that there are, in fact, many students working at the level of the three described above all over the school and it is always a pleasure to pause for a moment to celebrate their achievements. <strong>The</strong> second incident relates to a reading class I took part in recently. A group of students was asked to read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and be prepared to join in a discussion of the novel for two hour-long sessions. Though not particularly well known, the novel is a classic of African and, indeed, world literature, and was undoubtedly new to the students. Any doubts I may have had regarding the class’s ability to appreciate the complexities of the story were quickly dispelled by both the intensity and the depth of the discussion. Given the right stimuli, it is clear that students of this age can take part in complex and intellectually challenging discussions, which would not be out of place among groups of undergraduates. Both events serve to remind us what we are here for. It was very heartening to learn that we were successful in jumping through the Ofsted hoops but an appreciation of the depth of learning going on all over the school is a much more profound experience. Ofsted were right, this is an outstanding school but it is the quality of the students’ involvement in their day-to-day learning which makes it so. Dr R P Steward Headteacher