Reporting Absences

If your child is going to be absent from school, for any reason, it is imperative you let us know as soon as possible. You can do this by leaving a telephone message for our Attendance Officer, Mrs Berry. The number is 020 8462 2767, select option 1. You need to leave your child’s name, their tutor group and the reason for their absence. When your child is able to return to school, we would appreciate you giving them a note for the tutor/attendance officer to confirm their absence and the reason for it. A note in your child’s planner is not sufficient as they are not
seen by the Attendance Officer.

If you notify us your child is off sick one day and they do not appear the next, we will not assume they are still unwell. We kindly request you call us every day your child is going to be absent.
We run an automatic truancy call system on an ad hoc process so if your child is marked absent during morning registration it is possible you will receive one of these calls.

Errors do sometimes occur during registration when a child is marked absent by mistake so if you are contacted by the automated system and your child should be in school, please let us know and we will do a lesson check.

There are numerous activities which mean students miss registration such as assemblies, sports, educational visits or additional lessons. Unfortunately notification of these may not always find their way to the Attendance Officer so you may receive letters from us too.

We write to parents on a monthly basis if a student has any unexplained absences on their attendance record. We do not wish to offend any parent, or indeed any student, by appearing to accuse them of playing truant. We simply wish to ensure our students are safe and their whereabouts are known by you if we find they are not in school.

A quick telephone call and a letter from you could save us all time later on and will reduce the number of unexplained absences we have to resolve. Lastly, holidays during term time should not be taken. However, we do understand that sometimes they cannot be avoided and such instances will be acknowledged by the school but they will not be authorised.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Hayley J Berry, Attendance Officer

Congratulations

Congratulations to England Cricket Team on winning the world cup, of which ex Hayes student Lydia Greenway is a member of the team.

Easter Concert, 31st March at St Mark’s Church

Tickets are now available from the Music Department, priced £4 (£3 concessions). The concert starts at 7.00pm and features a superb array of items from Wind Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Keyboard Club, Samba Band, Choir and Chamber Choir. We would love to see you there!

Creative Writing Course

Two weeks ago a group of Year 12 and Year 13 English students visited The Wallace Collection on a Creative Writing Course led by author Bridget Crowley. The students were taken on a tour around the collection, focussing on eight particular paintings and objects. Bridget encouraged the students to observe and analyse each item, while also enjoying and appreciating the unique setting they were positioned in.

The students were then led through a series of creative writing tasks, inspired by what they had seen. Bridget’s expertise was invaluable and the students created some superb and original writing as a result. Many took the opportunity to ask Bridget her advice on becoming a published author. Judging by the impressive standard of writing delivered on the day, I am sure Hayes will indeed produce some very successful authors in the future.

Hayes Primary School

As part of our specialist programme, Year 4 from Hayes Primary School spent Wednesday 11th March in BGB creating posters for their project on the environment. Before they came, the pupils had either chosen or written poems for their posters about different types of regions: mountains, rainforests, meadows or rivers.

In the first part of their session, led by Mr Cooper, they had to search for different images on the Internet. When they had found several they opened these up in Photoshop and changed the sizes so they had a background image and some other smaller elements, plants, animals etc. that they then cut out and added on in layers. The final part was to add the text, choosing a line or two from their poems they learned how to change the font, size and colour and add effects.

Working in pairs they created more than fifty professional looking posters. They were understandably proud of their efforts and the amount that they had learned about Photoshop in such a short time. They particularly enjoyed working in the Mac suite with the new computers and working with the Sixth Form helpers.

Year 11 Maths Mock

As we get closer to the GCSE exam period, teachers and students of Year 11 will appreciate a clear picture of exactly where they stand in terms of their achievement in Maths. This will be best done by completing a fully fledged mock exam on the first day back.

There will be an exam briefing at 8:30am on 20th April followed by the calculator exam that encompasses the full content of GCSE Maths syllabus. Students will complete this under exam conditions and it is compulsory for them to attend. Please remind them to bring the appropriate equipment including a calculator on the first day back. The non-calculator exam will be
completed in lessons during the week. We strongly believe that this will result in improvement in achievement and would be grateful for your support.

UCAS Convention – Wednesday 1st April 2009

All Year 12s’ will be attending the annual UCAS Convention next Wednesday at Olympia. Letters and medical forms have gone home, please can I urge these are returned (if not already) on Monday morning without fail. All students are expected to attend this event where many Universities and other Higher Education institutions will be exhibiting and answering
questions. Students must attend registration as normal on Wednesday and we will depart together from tutor bases.

Mr R Dodson, Year 12 Achievement Co-ordinator