The Lister Weekly Update #14

It's the Year of the Reading at Lister and what better way to celebrate than diving into World Book Day? The big day is on Thursday the 7th of March. Teachers will be dressed in costumes inspired by their favourite characters and students will be voting for the best (or worst?) dressed teachers. We will also be running a short story competition - we believe that great readers make great writers - but the highlight of the day will be a 7 chapter mystery (one chapter of the mystery will be delivered in each lesson) for all students to solve.

You might ask why we invest so much time and effort on emphasising reading. Research from the Reading Agency tells us that: “Reading for pleasure is more important for children's cognitive development than their parents' level of education and is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.” We are always aiming for excellence with our students and the best route for them to achieve excellence is to read every day. Please make sure you encourage them to be a reader.

In this week's assemblies we are gearing up for International Women's Day on Friday 8th March (next week's assemblies are on World Book Day). To celebrate this day we will:

• Have special displays around the school.
• Encourage students to thank the inspirational women in your life!
• Sell purple ribbons to raise money for the Malala Foundation who are working towards ensuring all girls receive an education.
• Create a whole school display in the agora of how Lister will #InspireInclusion.
• Listen to some poetry from female icons.
• Run an event dedicated to women in sports.

A reminder that on Thursday 7th March we will be holding our half termly parent workshop follow by headteacher drop in. The theme of the workshop will be Safeguarding including E-safety and Mental Health.

For year 11, the final round of mock exams before their final GCSEs is just around the corner. The timetable for the assessments will be shared with Year 11s soon, but there is no need to wait for the timetable to be published to begin (or continue) revising. For some students revision might be doing past papers, for others it's about preparing revision notes or using revision websites to brush up on their knowledge for the exams. What you can be sure of is that their Year 11 teachers will have guided their students towards the most useful steps to take in order to be ready for their exams. More than anything else, being organised, getting a good sleep pattern worked out and hard work pays off.

Please help and encourage your children with taking the right steps towards those successful futures.

Each week we want to celebrate particular students who have won the most praises in their house and in their year group. Keep and eye out for you child aiming for excellence and having their name highlighted here!

Our Thought of the Week, this week, is related to the theme of International Women's Day. Please discuss the thought with your child.