Dear Families,

Welcome to the academic year 2023/24. I hope that everyone had a lovely summer break and you were able to spend and enjoy your time as families together. As this is my first newsletter of the year it has a lot of important information for you, for example our behaviour and uniform expectations, to ensure you are aware of the standards we expect; the standards that led you to choose West Hatch for your children.

As always, we start the year with excitement; fresh new uniforms, start of term haircuts, lovely tans from a summer of fun and (some) sun; I'm sure many of you will have been stationary and shoe shopping in recent weeks as well! There will undoubtedly be challenges over the course of this year but we are all excited to have our students back this week and looking forward to the year to come.

For families who had children in Year 11 or 13 this summer I know the holidays would have been a challenging time, waiting for results to come amidst a backdrop of the news reporting on grade boundary changes and harsher marking conditions. I talk about our results below but a huge congratulations to all of our students, they really did perform very well considering the challenges they had faced over during their studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read the messages below; I hope they provide you with the information you need to support your children to be successful at West Hatch. I look forward to seeing many of you at the gate or our Information Evenings over the next few weeks.

Daniel Leonard

Headteacher

As I mentioned above our students performed fantastically well this summer. Over the course of the last few years they have had to face national lockdowns, staff absences due to Covid, many of them have had to isolate themselves; there have been teacher strikes, Royal Funerals and Coronations; not to mention the impact all of this has had on our students' mental health. To compound this the Government decided to make grade boundaries in line with 2019, therefore not taking any of these difficulties into account. For our students to perform so well under these challenges is something to be very proud of.

In terms of overall school results, at A Level our students achieved 26% A*/A grades and 53% A*/B and 75% A*/C. These are increased significantly on outcomes in 2019 for the school by 10% at A*/A, and 15% for A*/B. They also put us within the top 10 schools in Essex for A*/A. 90% of our students studying vocational qualifications achieved a merit of above with over half achieving a Distinction or Distinction*.

At GCSE we are measured on the number of students achieving a Grade 5 in English and Maths combined. Our students achieved 48% in this measure which is 15% above our 2019 results and also well above national averages this year.

Below you will see some of our stand out performer's at GCSE and A Level.

However, I want to use my newsletter to celebrate some of the young people who really excelled; please see our highest achieving students from this year's examinations below.

A student receiving a +3.0 achieved on average of 3 grades above what was expected based on their KS2 outcomes across all of their subjects.

Please find below a reminder of some of the school's key expectations. A link to the school's Behaviour Policy can be found at the bottom of this section.

Each year our staff get into conflict with some students because of simple things like uniform. The school's expectations are clear and easy to follow, please can parents and carers support their children in getting these simple things right.

Firstly before we broke up for the summer I sent out a consultation regarding the uniform for the next academic year 2024/2025. Please note there has been NO CHANGE to the uniform for this year. Girls are still required to wear the pink striped blouse and boys a white shirt with tie. This was clearly set out within the consultation email and will not be changing for this academic year, please make sure your child has the correct uniform as per the list below. If you would like to contribute to the consultation please use the link.

Coats

Please remember that students are only permitted to wear Black, Navy Blue and Dark Grey coats and they must be plain. This is an easy thing to get right but something that regularly causes conflict in school. The school does not permit students to wear hoodies - zipped or not. Please ensure your children have the correct coats as I'm sure we will not continue to see this lovely weather for long.

Shoes

Students must have black leather school shoes and are not permitted to wear boots to school. This is and has been very clear in our uniform policy for some time. If students arrive at school without school shoes and no medical note for wearing different shoes, then they will be expected to change into the schools' shoes. Refusal to do so will result in the student being isolated from their peers until they are wearing appropriate footwear.

Skirts

Skirts must be on the knee. This is a slight change to previous years and is in place to stop any kind of ambiguity about skirt length. We will be putting in place new skirts for the next academic year for some year groups.

Hair, nails and make up

Students may only come to school with a hair colour that would be considered a natural colour and that includes any additional items they choose to wear in their hair such as beads ,which must be transparent.

False nails and nail varnish are not permitted and students will be asked to remove them in school. Students in Key Stage 4 may wear minimal make-up.

Please also note that students are not permitted to wear nose or tongue piercings and are only allowed to wear a single stud earring in each ear.

Uniform

Please find below our uniform list and Sixth Form Dress Code.

All students are expected to place their phones in a slot at the front of the classroom for every lesson.

If a student refuses to do so they will be isolated and their phone confiscated. If a student is caught with a mobile phone having said they do not have one, their phone will be confiscated for 5 days including the weekend.

Please support the school with this rule, we are only doing it for the benefit of your children.

Students will also have their phones confiscated if they are using them or have earphones in while they are walking around the school. Students are only allowed to use their phones during break and lunchtime.

Please find below the school's current Behaviour Policy for your perusal (this is under review for the new academic year and an updated version will be sent out shortly)

The picture below shows the school's expectations and the sanction students will receive if they do not meet these expectations. There are two very slight changes to last year with a detention for uniform infringements added to S2's.

If your child feels unwell in school

Please remind your child that if they start to feel unwell in school they need to report to the main office and the first aid team, after getting a note from their class teacher. Your child shouldn't be calling home to let you know they feel unwell, the first aid team will assess your child, and then they will notify you.

Picking Up and Dropping Off

Can I please remind you to be respectful of the local residents and the parking restrictions when dropping your child to and from school. Cars should not be parking on the zigzag lines near the school entrance and doing U turns in the middle of the road.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Tuesday's

Breakfast Club

We will be starting up our Breakfast Club next Monday (11th September). If your child would like to buy breakfast in the morning before they start school, then the canteen will be open from 8am to 8.30am and on offer will be bacon rolls, yoghurt, fruit and toast.

Please find below our Safeguarding and Pastoral Teams. Safeguarding your children is our number one priority at West Hatch. I hope this information supports you in knowing who to contact should you have any pastoral or safeguarding concerns for your child.

Pastoral Team

Head of Year 7 - Mr Blain

Head of Year 8 - Ms Fraser

Head of Year 9 - Mr Limon

Head of Year 10 -Mr Orton

Head of Year 11 - Mrs Reid

Head of Sixth Form - Mr Windsor

Head of Austen - Mrs Fell

Head of Brunel - Miss Clements

Head of Fiennes - Ms Lord

Head of Newton - Miss Howarth

Head of Roddick - Miss Duddridge

I would like to remind you about the MyEd App which the school has purchased on behalf of our parents, and we have received excellent feedback from you about this service. This App allows you to view a huge amount of school information as well as key material specifically about your child, for example timetables, rewards and behaviour logs, as well as accessing their progress checks. We highly recommend that you download the App. For more information on what it does, how to use it and how to download it, please see the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=uNb6ZIrxdTQ

Please note that when signing up for the App you must use the same contact email address and mobile number that the school hold for the Priority 1 contact on your child’s record. The reason for this is that the system will link your child/children to your MyEd account automatically based on the information we hold and the information that you enter when signing up. This is also where the security codes will be sent to for the initial configuration of the App. If your contact information has changed please let the school office know of these details via the admin email before signing up for the App.

Here are the links for the App if the QR code doesn't work:

Apple iOS App: -
Click here for the Apple version

Google Android App: -
Click here for the Android version

Please find below reading lists from our Librarian suggesting a selection of books your child may be interested in reading.

Information Evenings

Wednesday 13th September - Year 12

Thursday 21nd September - Year 10

Tuesday 26th September - Year 11

Tuesday 10th October - Year 9

PPE Examinations for Year 11-13:

Monday 20th November - Friday 1st December

School Musical

Wednesday 6th December - Friday 8th December

Closures and Early/Late Starts

Wednesday 20th September Inset Day -School closed to students

Thursday 28th September - Early finish at 1.30pm due to the Year 6 Open Evening

Friday 29th September - Later start at 10am

Monday 23rd October-Tuesday 31st October - Half Term (school starts on Wednesday 1st November)

Monday 4th December - Inset Day -School closed to students

Tuesday 19th December - Early finish at 1:30pm for Christmas Holidays

Progress Information

Please note there are some changes to when our students will receive information about their progress this year. More information is to follow but parents will be able to get live updates on progress with a final report available at the end of each term. Year 11 and 13 will receive additional reports after each PPE series. We will let you know how to access your child's progress information in due course.

It has been so lovely to see our new smiling Year 7 and 12's in school today as they embark on the next chapter in their educational journeys; I look forward to seeing them flourish over the next few years at our school. I'm excited to see the rest of our students join us tomorrow for a new academic year.

Our new Year 11 and 13 students have a great deal to live up to this year and we are confident that as a result of their hard work and the support they receive from our staff, they will perform as fantastically as this years cohort did.

I would like to thank you all in advance for your support this year and particularly thank those parents and carers who took the time to write to me at the end of last term, the staff and I very much appreciate you doing so.

The only way schools can be effective is through open and honest communication. Please do ensure you keep in contact with the school, via your child's Form Tutor and Head of Year in the first instance, or the Head of Department if it is related to a specific subject, should you have any concerns.

Daniel Leonard

Headteacher