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Dear Parents

I am delighted that you and your child have chosen Newman Catholic School for their Secondary Education.

I am pleased to welcome you and look forward to a long and enjoyable relationship with your family.

We believe Newman Catholic School is a special place but we also appreciate your child may find the move to secondary school both exciting and, in some cases, frightening. Getting to know a new school can be daunting. I hope this booklet will help you to help your child settle in and, most importantly, help us to work together in partnership in support of your child.

Our aim is that your child will be happy, fulfilled and successful both as a student and as a human being, ready to take their place in society as a good citizen.

With my best wishes

J D McAuley

Fair Notice

Newman School processes personal data about its pupils and is a “data controller” in respect of this for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. It processes this data to:

* Support its pupils’ teaching and learning;
* Monitor and report on their progress;
* Provide appropriate pastoral care, and
* Assess how well the school as a whole is doing.

The Organisation of the School

The school has a Headteacher, who leads the Senior Leadership Team who have specific areas of responsibility. Staff are organised into departments with subject leaders.  Many staff are also tutors.

Your child will be placed into a tutor group with a tutor responsible for their pastoral care. A Head of Year has responsibility for the tutor groups.

If your child has special needs the school’s SENCO (Special Needs Co-ordinator) will be involved with their education and progress in school.

Partnership

In terms of your child’s education, we’re all on the same side! You, their parents, and we, their teachers, want the very best for them. It will help us all to achieve this if we are all pulling together. We hope you agree to support the school in matters of discipline, homework and uniform.

Our rules are very simple and they are all in place for sound practical reasons. School is a community and it is sometimes necessary to compromise a little so that all members of that community can be safe, comfortable and happy. We will send you a list of important dates at the beginning of each school year and we will keep you informed of what is going on throughout the year and of any changes in the rules. We ask that you keep us informed of any changes in your family circumstances which might affect your child by writing to school via your child’s form tutor or head of year.

Briefly, we ask for your support in the following areas;

How can I help as a parent?

Moving from primary to secondary school is an exciting and significant event in the life of your child. It is an important milestone which, for many parents and teachers, marks a change in expectations regarding crucial life-skills such as independent working and self-organisation.

When a child starts at secondary school, they are expected to cope with a whole variety of new experiences and changes, many of which demand skills and abilities that they have not had to use before. The problem is that these skills do not spontaneously develop in children in the summer before they begin secondary schools; they have to be taught and our children need support in developing them.

Most parents would like to help reassure their children, prepare them for these changes, and support them in developing the skills they need, but feel they lack the information and expertise to do so. For many of us our own experience of secondary schools is all we have to go on.

The top two worries that Y6 children express (see the ‘Top 10' worry list) are social concerns.  Although common, most children report that they are no longer worried about these after just one or two weeks at school!

If your child expresses these worries it is useful to tell them this, and to emphasise that everyone else will also be feeling anxious. As there will be many more children in Y7 than in Y6, everyone has a good choice of friends, and even children who move up with several children from their class tend to make new friends at secondary school.

The remaining worries are nearly all to do with the new organisational demands that they know will be placed upon them. Luckily these are the areas in which we can help the most.

You need to help your child to achieve independence, while supporting them in getting there. To achieve the balance of doing too much or too little for your child is hard - a useful rule of thumb is

‘never do anything regularly for your child that they are capable of doing for themselves’.

You do not need to be an ‘expert’ or devote your life to your child’s schooling to help your child to get it right!

Time spent early on in establishing habits of work and independence is an investment that will save endless time, battles and heartache in the long run. The habits and routines that children develop in Y7 are those that will stay with them throughout their secondary schooling and often throughout their working lives - it’s worth the effort of getting it right to start with (so much easier than putting things right when they’ve gone wrong). If you can help your child to do this, you will really be making a difference.

Children’s top 10 worries about starting secondary school

IF ANY OF THESE CONCERN YOUR CHILD PLEASE CONTACT SCHOOL

School and Community

Newman Catholic School students do many things in and out of school which make us proud of them. We are particularly proud of the effort which goes into our work for charity. Our students have marvellous ways of raising money to support charities.

Money

Any money payable to school must be brought to Student Services, preferably in a sealed, labelled envelope.  Tutors will not take money from pupils.

Cheques are preferable to cash - these should be made payable to
‘NEWMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL’

School Parliament

We have a democratically elected School Parliament through which your child can make suggestions about fund raising and also about many other school matters which affect them like uniform, school meals etc.

Our students are well known in the local community and we expect the highest standards of behaviour at all times. Students rarely let us or their families down, but when there is unacceptable behaviour on the streets or on school or public transport, we would deal with it in the most appropriate manner. If such behaviour does occur parents/carers would be contacted to come into school as quickly as possible to resolve the matter. Again we rely on your support in such circumstances.

The School Day

Before your child starts:

• Reassure your child that they will quickly get to know their way around (most have it mastered within a couple of weeks), and that they move around as a group to start with. Teachers are very understanding about children getting lost to begin with and usually help is at hand if it is needed.

When your child starts:

• Get a copy of your child’s timetable (it will usually be written in their planner in the first week). Keep this on display so that you and your child can refer to it.

• Encourage your child to learn what lessons they have on which days so that they can become independent.

• Make sure your child knows what to do if they are late or get lost.

• Get your child a watch.

The School Week

The school week is 25 lessons long - each lesson lasting 1 hour. The major difference for your child from primary school is that they will change teachers and rooms between most lessons.

Your child will have lessons in many different subjects throughout the school year:

Art, English, Drama, Citizenship, Spanish, Geography, History, Information Technology, Mathematics, Music PE, RE, Science, Technology (Design and Technology, Food, Textiles)