Headteacher's Newsletter

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely break and were able to share some time together as families over the bank holiday weekend.

This is always an important term for schools with the final push before examinations for Year 11 and 13; indeed many of our students have already started this week with their Language Speaking Exams. My own son is taking his GCSE's this year so I know first hand how powerless you feel as a parent with so little time left until the public examinations start. Rest assured however, that our staff will work tirelessly to support the students in their final weeks and I hope the students give the required time and effort to achieve their potential. We have seen an improvement between the PPE examinations in November and March, which suggests they have been putting in the extra effort.

I would like to wish all of our students sitting exams this year the very best of luck as the exam series kicks off in earnest over the coming weeks. I would also personally like to thank all of our staff who will provide the students with so much support and time over the next few weeks, we really are very fortunate to have such a committed and caring staff body.

The summer term is always an exciting one where, over the course of the term, many minds are set towards the next academic year, as well as lots of opportunities to celebrate students' achievements from this academic year. We have reward trips for Year 8-10 for those students who have bought into our values, and Graduation Day for our Year 7s; letters for those invited to Graduation Day will be sent home shortly along with feedback to those who have been set targets for attendance and behaviour. Our Year 11's and 13's will have their Leavers events and Proms and we will also be running Awards Evenings and Sports Award Evenings next half term. Finally, once exams have finished we start to look towards the next academic year with transition days for our new Year 7's and Sixth Form students and our Year 10's will get the opportunity to be Sixth Formers for the day; an exciting few months ahead.

Over the course of this term all students in Year 7 to 10 and Year 12 will have summative assessments for all subjects so that we can judge their progress over the course of the year and update DPR accordingly. Please look out for the information from each subject with revision lists for students and encourage your children to access and use the revision we send out later in the term.

With the GCSE exams a matter of weeks away, every Tuesday for the next three weeks, all departments will be hosting revision sessions for Year 11 students. All staff will be involved so it is a great opportunity for students to seek support. Please encourage your children to attend these sessions and hopefully many attended the first one yesterday.

Other intervention sessions for Year 11 and 13 will also continue as usual.

During the recent holidays, work commenced on a new exit for students which will open at the end of the school day and will consist of a bus queue and a Chigwell pedestrian exit. We were due to take handover of the new exit last week but unfortunately there have been delays due to supplies and we hope to have the handover at the end of this month.

Once completed, students will not be permitted to leave the main school gate and turn left towards Chigwell or leave the new gates and turn right. Also, students will not be allowed to get on the bus unless they have queued at the new exit. The Governors have agreed to spend a significant amount of money on this new gate and I believe it will transform the end of school, making it a much safer experience for all our community. There will be more information and pictures to follow once the work is completed.

We are looking forward to hosting our Year 7 Graduation Day on Saturday 6th July. This is a day where our Year 7 students and their families gather to celebrate their successful completion of the academic year with performances, awards and fun on our school fields.

We are seeking local business sponsorship to be able to hire bouncy castles, games and other activities for the event. If you, or a family member works for a business who offers community event sponsorship we would be delighted to hear from you! Please contact Victoria Schaefer, Deputy Headteacher, at vschaefer@westhatch.net to register. Please find below our Sponsorship Guide Price outlining the packages we offer.

We have had a several complaints from the local residents of Cedar Park, that a small number of our students are walking through their private grounds. Students should not be entering their grounds and if they are caught this will be seen as trespassing. Please speak to your children and reinforce that they should not be accessing Cedar Park.

It was a pleasure to welcome Mrs Judge back just before the Dance Show this year, having returned from maternity leave; but she had been ably replaced by Miss Kay who did all the hard work before Mrs Judge returned and took all the glory! As always two fantastic evenings for all those watching and a wonderful opportunity for us all to say goodbye to our Year 13's who have entertained us so brilliantly for so many years, and helped choreograph many of the younger students performances. We wish them all the best of luck in the future. I'd also like to thank our wonderful staff who performed for the audience so beautifully.

Our staff have really made an effort to increase the number of school trips over the last couple of years and we hope to increase this further over the next few years. I know many students in KS3 have enjoyed our History and Geography trips and we have more to come this summer term. We will also, as noted above, have rewards trips/events for students in Year 8-10 this summer and our Duke of Edinburgh award students will be going on their expedition in May. I'm also exceptionally excited for the Malawi Expedition taking place in July 2025 for our KS4/5 students.

During the Easter holidays our staff took 84 students on a ski trip to Italy. This is a huge responsibility and I want to personally thank Mr Tester, Trip Leader, and his team of staff who gave up their holidays to give our students this wonderful experience. Thank you also to the families who have written in to thank the staff, it is very much appreciated. I hope the students enjoyed their adventure to Italy and made some life long connections along the way.

Two West Hatch teams competed in the Thames Gateway and East London regional heats of the National Reading Champions quiz. The quiz consisted of 75 questions from 8 different categories, all from the wonderful world of literature. It was a challenging but exciting event for our students, an opportunity to use their wider reading knowledge in competition against other schools. A much smaller event, compared to previous years, which saw 6 teams battle it out for a place in the finals. West Hatch Team B came a respectable 3rd place - missing out on the top spot by 5 points!

The competition is led by the National Literacy Trust and funded by the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). It celebrates keen, young readers and champions the important role of teachers and school librarians in promoting reading for pleasure.

Mrs Sheikh, school librarian said “As part of our World Book Day celebrations we entered this competition. The students were so excited to be taking part in a national competition and there was a real buzz around the library. It was great to see how both teams had prepared and worked together on this Quiz. They should all be extremely proud of their achievements.”

Team A: Sophie Burrell, Isabella Sidloff, Bianca Matos and Sydney Bourne

Team B: Sophia Dobson, Hollie Patel, Adriana Akramova and Halima Miyanjee

It's been great to see a number of our students take the option of wearing our new school polo shirts since we returned. I think they look really smart and although it's not quite the weather we would have hoped for yet this term, I'm sure they will make a difference to the students feeling comfortable in the coming months. Just to note that students are not required to wear their blazer if they are wearing the polo shirt and they do not need to be tucked in. Please also remember that only the school polo shirt can be worn purchased from one of our outfitters with the schools badge, as can be seen in the picture.

As always we will be celebrating the end of Year 11 and 13 this term with a day packed with fun and opportunities to relive memories from the last 5 to 7 years.

Our Year 13 Leavers Day will take place on Friday 10th May and the Year 11 Leavers Day on Friday 24th May. Both Year 11 and 13 will start their study leave on Friday 10th May and are only required in school for their examinations thereafter.

A number of our sports teams have excelled this year as you will see below, but I wanted to particularly highlight our U16 girls football team who unfortunately lost out in the Semi Final of the County Cup this week, in what can only be described as a match in the weather of all four seasons! However, they have shown such a positive attitude this year and are fantastic role models for the rest of the school's sports teams. We will sadly be losing a few of the team after their exams this year but they leave a legacy and I'm excited to see where our girls football will go in the future. You can see the team below in their new kit, sponsored kindly by the Academy of Women's Leadership.

The Target Team has been busy over the last term, participating in lots of sporting fixtures throughout Essex. A group of our year 7’s were invited to Great Baddow Tennis Club to take part in a tennis workshop. They were able to learn some new skills and play rallies against other schools. This was great preparation for our summer term of PE and everyone really enjoyed the opportunity to work with the professional coaches.

They have also taken part in the Kurling County Finals Competition at Basildon Sporting Village. West Hatch Team A & B were able to compete against other teams from Essex. They used their target practice skills to get the Kurling stones as close to the middle of the target as possible, they even strategically decided to knock their opponents out of the target area which gave them a higher chance of scoring. Well done to all our students involved in the Target Team, you are a credit to the school.

U16 Girls West Essex & Harlow District Runners up.

• Year 9 West Essex 6 aside Competition: Winners
• Year 9/10 into the quarter finals of the Essex Cup.
• U16 West Essex 6 aside Competition: Winners
• U16 Essex County Cup = Semi-finalists & Last- 16 of the National Cup

Football

U15 Forest School 7aside Spring Invitational Tournament - Runners Up

Rugby

U16 West Essex District Cup into the final which takes place this week.

Year 8 Third Place in District Competition.

Congratulations to the U16 Netball squad for reaching the semi- final of the Essex Plate. We wish them all the luck for their West Essex District Final against St Marks on Thursday 25th May.

Year 8 West Essex & Harlow District Cup = Winner (Photo below)

Year 9 West Essex & Harlow District Cup = Runners up

Parent Events

Thursday 2nd May - Year 7 Parents Evening (online appointments)

Thursday 23rd May - Year 10 Parents Evening (online appointments)

Student Events

Monday 22nd April - Yr.10 PPEs begin

Friday 10th May - Year 13 Leavers Day

Friday 24th May - Year 11 Leavers Day

Monday 6th May - Bank Holiday

May Half Term - Monday 27th May to Friday 31st May

Early Closure on Tuesday 4th June (School Improvement Planning afternoon for Staff)

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and thank you all for your continued support over the coming term. Hopefully we might even see some sun at some point in the next 14 weeks.