Penistone Grammar School Advanced Learning Centre

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the opportunity to discuss how they would like their learning experience to be, directly with their teachers, as well as identifying ways learning for all students can be promoted. At the moment the committees are meeting at least twice per half-term, although as they begin to establish themselves and find their feet we expect this frequency to increase. The committees will report back on the progress they have made in a number of ways; to the school’s Senior Leadership Team and Governing Body, to the wider staff body through staff meetings and to all students both through the Student Leadership Team and assemblies. We look forward to keeping you updated with the progress of all the committees in future letters and will be dedicating a section within our website for their activities over the coming weeks. At the beginning of October we hosted our annual Open Evening. This was a fantastic event with over 1,000 visitors attending, including prospective students and their families. The atmosphere epitomised everything that is great about Penistone Grammar School and it was a privilege to be able to share a little taste of what we witness every day with everyone who joined us on the evening. We felt incredibly proud as we walked around school on the night and saw so many examples of our students welcoming our guests, leading activities and sharing their experiences of being students at Penistone Grammar School ALC. There were over 240 students who helped make the evening a success and they were, as always, supported by our amazing staff team who had pulled out all the stops to showcase their own areas. We have included photographs celebrating the evening on our website for you: www.penistone-gs.uk/news. Our Parent Leadership Group programme for 2016/17 also got off to a flying start, with the first meeting of the new academic year taking place on 21 September. The meeting was extremely productive and a number of actions were identified. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who attended; the minutes of the meeting, presentations delivered on the night and the action tracker are available to download from our website: www.penistone-gs.uk/Parent-Partnership. We will systematically update the tracker so you can see the progress we are making against the areas identified at this meeting, as well as those agreed at future meetings. By way of a reminder; all parents and carers of students at Penistone Grammar School are part of the Parent Leadership Group and are welcome to attend any and/or all meetings; the dates for the next meetings are detailed below (please sign up to attend using the link provided): 17 November 2016 Developments within the English Department (16:30 start time) Register for this Event 30 November 2016 Changes to Curriculum and Assessment for Students in Years 10 and 11 (18:00 start time) Register for this Event 11 January 2017 Changes to Curriculum and Assessment for Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 (18:00 start time) Register for this Event Throughout the course of the academic year we will be capitalising upon every opportunity to strengthen our partnership with parents. We recognise that excellent collaboration between home and school is a key factor in delivering a truly excellent educational experience for all our students and to this end we will be writing to you again after half-term to launch our 2016 Parent Survey. We would encourage as many of you as possible to take time if you can to complete the survey as this is central to shaping our school improvement priorities moving forward. At the beginning of September we saw the culmination of a huge project for some of our Year 10 students. The ‘Future of Fashion’ project provided a small number of students the opportunity to work with leading Never Stop Flying Achieving Excellence through a Values Driven Education Page 2 of 4
designer Debbie Wingham to design and create their own outfits. Students worked relentlessly after school and in their own time to create one-of-a-kind statement pieces. On 10 September, accompanied by Miss Spaven, Mrs Hamstead and some of their parents, the students travelled down to London and wearing their own creations, walked the catwalk as part of London Fashion Week. All students had their hair and makeup done prior to the show by Alan Paul’s Team, who work with top models from around the World. The event was a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the students’ work is available to view on the Vogue website: www.vogue.co.uk/future of fashion event. We would like to thank everyone involved for providing such an amazing opportunity for our students, with particular thanks going to Miss Spaven. Our thanks also go to Mrs Gregory and her team within the PE Department who have secured a Silver ‘School Games’ mark. The School Games Mark is a Government-led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. The mark is a retrospective award which validates our success over the previous academic year and is nationally recognised by Ofsted and other organisations. We are extremely proud of our PE department and of all the students who have contributed to the achievement of this accolade. Over the course of last year, this year and next, our students and staff will experience the most significant changes to education that we have seen in recent times. We will do all we can to keep you informed about the changes and what they mean as we move through the coming months. For key stage 4 parents we have uploaded a video to our website which outlines the move from GCSE grades to the new 1 to 9 grading system, as well as information we have shared with students in assemblies: www.penistonegs.uk/Changes-to-Assessemnt-KS4. There are also opportunities for you to come and find out more information in person, either at one of the PLG Meetings detailed above, or for year 7 students, at the Settling-in Afternoon on 20 October with presentations taking place in the Lecture Theatre at 15:30 (repeated at 16:30). We have an experienced data team at Penistone Grammar School ALC and they work hard to ensure we are fully equipped to manage the changes and ensure the way in which we report home is effective in helping you to support your child’s learning. In terms of what you should expect to see so far this year: Students in years 13 and 12 have been issued with their ALPs targets. Effort grades have also been provided to students and a copy has been emailed home. Post-16 Tutors have reviewed the data with students and priorities have been identified for each individual. Students in years 11 and 10 have received their ‘good’ progress measure in terms of the GCSE courses they are studying. Class teachers have also submitted effort grades and each student has undertaken an effort review with their form tutor. You can find information relating to the review within student planners on pages 15 and 16. Year 11 Parents’ Evening took place on Thursday 13 October; it was good to see so many parents in attendance with well over 80% of students and their parents and carers joining us on. We are currently collecting effort grades for those students in years 7, 8 and 9 and they will have individual effort reviews with their tutors over the coming weeks. Again, the outcome of these reviews will be available for you to see on pages 15 and 16 of student planners once complete. For our Year 7 students, there is a settling-in afternoon on Thursday 20 October. By now you will have received an email home confirming your appointment time. The afternoon is an excellent opportunity to find out how your child has settled in following their first weeks as a student of Penistone Grammar. Never Stop Flying Achieving Excellence through a Values Driven Education Page 3 of 4
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Penistone Grammar School Advanced Learning Centre

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