Welcome to my final newsletter of this academic year. As always this year has flown by and I have particularly enjoyed the last few weeks of celebrating the achievements of our students across all of our subjects and also a number of school events, such as our Year 7 Graduation Day and the Summer Solstice. It has been an absolute pleasure to see our students being recognised for their achievements and efforts over the course of this year and I'd like to thank all of the families who supported these events and helped make them so special.

My newsletter always has important information for you but my end of year newsletter is particularly important with messages that support your child being successful in the upcoming academic year.

I will therefore be keeping my introduction short, but want to personally thank you all for your support this year and hope that you continue to be happy with your choice to send your children to West Hatch. I would also like to thank all of the school's staff and Governors. West Hatch is a special place because of the tireless efforts of the staff, all of whom go above and beyond what is expected for your children. Thank you to all the staff and Governors for their work in making West Hatch such a great school to lead.

It is really important that parents ensure their child's uniform meets the school's expectations before they start back in September. Too often the school gets into conflict with students over their uniform, that could be resolved if parents had purchased the correct uniform in a timely manner before September. Please take note of the information below. Failure to wear the school's uniform correctly in September will result in a half an hour detention, and incorrect items will be confiscated.

From September students will be expected to have skirts that are ON THE KNEE. Please ensure that your child's skirts meet this expectation.

Just a reminder that all Year 11 students are required to have a completely plain black, v neck jumper in September. Blazers will not be permitted for Year 11 and students are not permitted to remove the jumpers during the school day.

A reminder once again that students must have a plain black, navy blue or dark grey coat. Students are not permitted to wear any kind of hooded cotton top, with or without a zip. They are also not permitted to wear quarter or full zip thin sports tops either over or under their blazers.

Finally on uniform we have made some changes to our PE kit, so that many of the items are the same for both girls and boys with a few added options for the girls. Details are in the uniform list above and pictures of the new kits are below.

We expect our new Year 7s joining in September to be wearing the new kit, but we understand that the remaining years will continue to wear their existing kit until they grow out of this and will then be expected to purchase the new kit.

You should have received an email from me regarding the school's uniform consultation. If you wish to contribute and have not yet done so, please use the link below to access the form.

At this time of year we say goodbye to a number of staff who are leaving the school. I would like to thank all of the staff in the list below for their work with our students and their part in making West Hatch a special place. The very best of luck for the future to all those who are leaving us this summer. Parents and carers will be pleased to know that we will be fully staffed in September and ready to support your children both academically and personally.

As a result of the increase in students in the school the Governors and I have made the decision to restructure our Pastoral Team, increasing the number of non-teaching pastoral staff. From September the new Team will be as follows:

Mr Howell - Behaviour Manager

Mrs Titus - Pastoral/Behaviour Lead

Mrs Kahlon - Pastoral/Behaviour Lead

Miss George - Pastoral/Behaviour Lead (new member of staff)

Mrs Sharma - Designated Safeguarding Lead

Miss Bolashadun - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Mustafa - Attendance Officer

Mr Cleere - School Counsellor

We return from the Summer break on Friday 1st September and this is a Staff CPD Day so there are no students in school.

Monday 4th September we have just Year 7 and 12 in school.

• Year 7s arrive for 8.40am and have a welcome meeting in the canteen with their parents.
• Year 12s arrive for 9.30am and go straight to the main hall for an assembly.

On Tuesday 5th September all years are in for 8.40am start and will go to form (even though there isn't normally a form time on a Tuesday).

Please ask your child to check their Teams account before they return so they know what form they are in.

Congratulations to Emma Basco and Aaron Gelkoff who after a rigorous selection process where successful in achieving the roles of Senior Ambassadors. They will be supported by their Deputies who are Aliza Zarras, Rianna Mayor and Freya Stephens. Well done to all of them, they did themselves and the school proud.

It's been a fabulous half term of celebration and reward for our students and we have all loved giving recognition to all those students who go the extra mile, work exceptionally hard and achieve amazing things across the curriculum. Congratulations once again to all our student winners, you are a credit to the school and your families.

In recognition of their commitment to reading this year, our enthusiastic reading group enjoyed a trip to the Redbridge Book Award ceremony. As a group, they read their way through 30 longlisted titles at the start of the year, before voting on a shortlist of 10 in March and eventually choosing a winner for either the children or teenage category.

Mrs Sheikh, our Library Manager accompanied them to the ceremony and said that the students took part in a quiz on the shortlisted books, listened to a motivational speech by guest speaker Dr. Stuart Lawrence, followed by a Q&A session with shortlisted authors SF Said, Christopher Edge and Sufiya Ahmed.

The students were provided with a physical copy of the book and then meeting the authors helped them to engage and relate to the author’s work. They also had the opportunity to purchase books and get them signed. It was a great way to end the year!

Once again Ms Lord put on a fantastic Summer Solstice with singing, musicians, poets and dancers. It truly was a fabulous evening and I am overwhelmed by the talent we have in this school. It gets bigger and better every year and I look forward to seeing the students perform again next year.

Congratulations to all the students that took part in the Athletics District Championships last month and a huge thank you to the PE Department for their time and effort they put into the team.

Year 7, 8 and 9 teams all placed 3rd in the competition, with our Year 10s coming in 1st. The school's overall total combining all four year groups placed us as 2nd. A brilliant and a fantastic achievement for all involved.

A special mention to James Thake and Summer Maw both in Year 10, who made the final in their 800m events. While Year 8 Sammy Geist & Micah Mussington jumped a PB in the triple jump and high jump respectively. Molly Sherrin and Joshua Ssempirra in Year 10 were excellent in their longer distance races (1500m/3000m).

Our biggest success came from Year 9 Amber Higgs-Smith in the pole vault, where she claimed bronze and is now the 3rd best pole vault athlete in the county!

We had a fabulous Sports Day on Thursday with morning activities at school and track races at Ashtons playing fields. The students behaviour was superb and a wonderful day was had by all. Thank you to our amazing PE department for all their work and all the staff who helped contribute to and supported the events. Congratulations to Roddick House for winning the Sports Day and to Newton for winning the House events for the whole year.

Redbridge Council is holding a support event on Wednesday, 26 July, to provide local people with information and advice to help with the rising cost of living. The Cost of Living Fair is taking place between 10.30am and 1.30pm at Ilford Spark Lab, 120-122 High Rd, IG1 1DA.

During the event, there will be information about the help available to people struggling with the cost of living, including the support you can get.

Please join us for support, advice and ideas to help people during these tough times.

The event will have multiple partners on hand to offer advice on the following:

• Support with managing money, housing and benefits
• Improving your wellbeing
• Finding work or setting up a business
• Support for parents, carers and families
• Improving your digital skills and other learning opportunities
• Where to go to get further support and help
• What the library has to offer, such as free books and resources in libraries and online, events and activities.
• Parenting support
• Ideas on free and cheap family activities for all ages

Organisations attending include:

Families Together, Redbridge Children's Centres, Department for Work and Pensions. Many local services, Work Redbridge, Citizens Advice, Redbridge Domestic Abuse Support, Ilford Community Grocery, HSF team, Redbridge Institute of Adult Education, Libraries and several voluntary sector organisations.

No appointment is needed, and the event is open to everyone across the borough.

Redbridge - Cost of Living Fair for families

It's been great to look back on this term and reminisce on all the wonderful events, trips and visits, shows and activities that the students have participated in. Covid set us back a little but it's clear to see we are back in full swing. These events take a huge amount of planning and I can't thank our staff enough for all the amazing opportunities they have offered our students this year. This is on top of the huge amount of support they have given students within and outside of lessons, to ensure they make excellent progress in their learning. I would also like to thank our Governing Body who give up a huge amount of time to support the school in self improvement.

Thank you to all of you who are reading this newsletter for your support, but mostly our wonderful students. We have so many talented young people at this school and I am exceptionally proud to be their Headteacher.

I'd like to once again wish our Year 11 and 13 students the very best of luck and look forward to seeing them all on results days in the summer. Good luck in the future to Year 13 particularly as they finally leave West Hatch and go off into the big wide world!

Enjoy the next six weeks and see you all in September.