Dear Parents,

as we move to the close of another year, as usual I would like to remind you what our priorities are as a school for this year:

• Promote a more active, quality, classroom experience for all our pupils
• Give more opportunities for our staff to train others in ‘excellent’ classroom practice
• Improve the progress and attainment of pupils in mathematics and monitor the progress of groups of pupils closely
• Link our specialisms to everyday teaching and learning practice
• Develop stronger parental partnerships in relation to curriculum planning and pupil progress

As I write, there is a thaw in the exceptionally cold weather, which I hope will continue. The unusually cold start to the month was a trial for all of us, especially for those who travel on school or public transport. School transport is the responsibility of the Local Authority (LA), who contract services on behalf of schools. During the snow and the freezing weather following it, a number of services were unreliable and this caused confusion and anxiety for some. I have asked to meet with the LA transport department to make it clear that some (but not all) of their contracted bus operators are delivering a below-par service and listen to how they intend to address this. I will write and tell you what was agreed separately in the new year. My advice is, that if a school service bus does not arrive after about 20 minutes, it is reasonable for a pupil to make other arrangements with their parent. What those arrangements are is not for me to determine, except that a reasonable attempt to attend school should be made. Pupils not able to attend school due to weather/travel difficulties are marked with a special code which shows this and the absence will not count against their attendance record. Thank you to all of you for your help and supportive acts during this time – our attendance remained broadly the same during the bad weather, so well done to our pupils and their parents!

Two important policies are on our website: the Severe Weather Policy and the Attendance Policy. It is important that all parents know what the Attendance Policy says. Here is a summary:

• Parents should inform school of pupil illness no later than 9.30am on the first day of absence, and then contact school every other day during a child’s absence
• Students can not be sent home without being collected by a parent or family member over age 18. (Nobody else may sign out any pupil on the grounds of health and safety)
• Pupils in Year 9, 10 and 11 will not normally be given authorisation to take holiday in term time – these are GCSE years
• Up to 10 days’ holiday leave is allowed as long as attendance is at least 90% and permission has been requested (ie, writing to ask, not to tell me, you are taking your son/daughter out of school!)

Most pupils in Year 11 have just completed some examinations (for example, their maths GCSE), their trial examinations in other subjects and controlled tests. I hope that the outcomes will be a ‘pat on the back’ for some and a useful ‘wake-up call’ for most when the results are made available in January. The focus of every Year 11 pupil must be on their learning programmes. It is critical that every opportunity is taken to progress further towards target grades. There will be additional classes operating in the spring term, but I would urge Year 11 pupils and their parents to discuss together which classes they need to attend: there is little to be gained attending additional lessons where pupils are on target and there are few concerns. Focus instead must go on those additional classes for subjects where pupils are less secure.

We currently run an Extended Schools Service two evenings each week. The additional funding the school received to deliver this comes to an end in March, so we are aiming to continue the service until May/June. To do this, we will only be able to offer the service on a Tuesday evening after school (finishing at the usual time 5.45pm) from January. However, the library/Learning Resource Centre will remain open late on a Thursday evening until 5.30pm. This would make an excellent venue for Years 10/11 to use in order to revise, research, etc, for forthcoming examinations. In the summer term, we will be investing in activities for Year 6 coming to Ribblesdale the following September.

Our pupils continue to achieve in sport at both local and national level, and our Young Enterprise Team ‘Protogenia’ excel as always, winning the best advert and best business plan in East Lancashire. We hope all of them do well in their respective finals. Many more successes are profiled in this edition of RibbWord.

‘Charity begins at home’ – at Ribblesdale! Since September, we have raised for: Sports Relief £1,198; Mary’s Meal £440; CarersLink £115; Derian House £32; Christies Hospital £279; Year 7 Readathon £2,236; Children in Need £1,029. That totals over £5,200 since September. Many other fundraising events have taken place, including Dodgeball last week, raising just under £2,500. This is a stunning amount and credit and thanks go to everyone who has organised an activity or contributed to it.

Year 7 Parents’ Evening will be held on Thursday 6 January (the first Thursday after the break), so please, if you have not already done so, return the reply slip to the student services office immediately.

Our website has up to date information and articles – please check it regularly. Transport/Weather information is also on it and you can subscribe to RSS feeds if you wish. If you are receiving this letter by e-mail, please see the latest edition of RibbWord on our website.

I wish everyone connected with the school a very happy and enjoyable Christmas! School opens for the spring term on Tuesday 4 January 2011. Pupils should be on site for 8.45am.

Yours sincerely

S A Smith

Headteacher