Useful Information & News for Parents

A School in Mourning

Friday, 28 May 2010 00:00

By now, we are sure you will be aware of the tragic death of Charlie Smith, one of our year 9 students.  For some of our students, coming to terms with this news has been extremely challenging.  We have students within the school that knew Charlie both through school and the scouts who are dealing with the loss of a friend.  As parents, carers and guardians can we ask you to use your discretion in helping your child deal with this event and to contact the school office should you require further advice or support.

Heads of Year

Sprowston's Parent Support Advisers

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 08:46

Sprowston's Parent Support Advisors are available to give parents and carers advice and support. If you are unsure about where to go for help, they may be able to point you in the right direction.

A Parent Support Adviser’s role is mainly to support you and your child to get the very best from your school by providing support, advice and information. They can help you with any worries you may have in relation to your child’s education, behaviour or attendance, and provide support on how best to deal with it.

Find out more about how the Parent Support Advisors can help you and how to get in touch with them.

Transition to Sprowston Community High School

Monday, 10 May 2010 10:00

We sent parents of students joining the school in September a welcome pack which included an Admissions Form and a Form asking which language your son/daughter might prefer to study. We have begun the process of arranging groupings for next year so please return these forms as soon as possible.

If you have not received a welcome pack, please contact the school office. Alternatively, download the documents from our Moving Up to High School pages.

Sprowston Parish Fete - 19 June 2010

Monday, 24 May 2010 11:16

Criminal Damage Clampdown in Sprowston Residential Area a Success

Monday, 24 May 2010 11:01

Twelve people have been arrested after police pledged to crackdown on anti-social behaviour and criminal damage in the Sprowston area.

Officers from the Sprowston and Spixworth Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) stepped up their patrols and targeted known offenders as part of the neighbourhood priority, set three months ago.

Residents asked the team to specifically target anti-social behaviour at Sprowston Recreation Ground and criminal damage to surrounding properties which resulted in:

• 130 hours of high visibility patrols being carried out on foot and by car.
• A section 59 warning being issued to a moped which was being driven erratically - which could result in police seizing his bike if caught riding anti-socially a second time in the next 12 months.
• Cannabis warnings and fixed penalty tickets issued.
• Alcohol being seized from underage drinkers.

Sprowston and Spixworth Sergeant Peter Scott said: “We have carried out a lot of work to deal with some of the issues raised by residents, which we are determined to put a stop to.

“We have pledged to continue our work to prevent further incidents and will use all means at our disposal. Criminal damage is an offence which not only affects individuals but also the wider community.

“The SNT is committed to working with our partners and members of the community to find solutions to long term issues in the area. If you witness any incidents please call us with as many details as possible, times, locations and descriptions, so we can take swift action”.

Along with anti-social behaviour and criminal damage at Sprowston Recreation Ground, residents asked the team to pay attention to inconsiderate parking at the local schools and anti-social behaviour at Sparhawk Park, where older teens are misusing the play equipment, at the priority setting meeting held on Monday evening, 17 May.

Updates from previous priorities:

Inconsiderate parking at local schools, during dropping off and collection times for pupils, in particular White Woman Lane, Lodge Lane and Cannerby Lane.

Extra patrols have been carried out at dropping off and collection times. Any vehicle seen parking inconsiderately has been asked to move on or given a £30 fine. In total 7 fines were issued by officers from the Special Constabulary. Parents at the schools have been notified of the enforcement being carried out and made aware of the dangers of inconsiderate parking. Traffic wardens have suggested double yellow lines are painted along Lodge Lane/St William Way, restricting parking. The request has been forwarded to HighWays.

Overweight HGV's using Spixworth Road and Crostwick Lane as a short cut to other areas.

Officers have monitored the situation and traffic officers have reported that there are no signs along Crostwick Lane with Buxton Road. Highways have been contacted regarding this.

Local residents have been asked to note down details of offending vehicles and forward to police to follow up and make contact with the transport manager. Since adopting the priority there have been no complaints from residents and no vehicles contravening the restrictions. Subsequently the priority status was no longer needed.

If you have any neighbourhood issues affecting your quality of live or community contact your local SNT on 0845 456 4567 or visit their neighbourhood page at www.norfolk.police.uk.

Reminder to Parents of Students Involved in the Spanish Trip 2010

Monday, 24 May 2010 10:50

Thank you for your continued support in returning the various forms and payments for the Spanish trip to Cantabria.

There will be a meeting on Thursday 27 May 2010, between 6.00pm and 7.00pm, in room FB13 (upstairs in the language block) for both parents and students involved in the Spanish trip. During this meeting we hope to give you more details of the trip and also answer any queries you may have.

We look forward tio seeing you there.

What is One to One Tutoring?

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 08:59

Since June 2009, we have been offering One to One tutoring to identified students in Years 7, 8 and 9 in English and Mathematics.

So far more than 40 students have benefited from this particular intervention. They have been chosen because they may have had a particular problem with an aspect of English or Maths or because they have been off school for several weeks due to illness or an accident.

Sessions usually run after school so that the school day is not interrupted. The tutors are qualified teachers and come in specifically to work on this particular scheme.  Each student has 10 sessions of 1 hour specifically designed to help that particular student.

Our students have valued this experience as you can see from the following comments:

• “It’s good to have a teacher focus on just you.”
• “I can write better and my grade has gone up from 4M to 5M.  I am just getting on better in English.”
• “It helped me to ‘read between the lines’.  I can write in paragraphs now and more effectively.  I can mind map and answer more questions.”
• “There has been some improvement in my punctuation and now I need to practise what I have learned.”
• “I can talk to my tutor about things I find difficult and I don’t feel embarrassed.  I could practise my maths more.”

If your son or daughter is identified for this tutoring, please be aware that this is one of many strategies we employ to ensure that our students have the best possible chance of meeting their target levels.


Mrs V Beames
Assistant Headteacher

Latest Learning Zone Newsletter Available for Download

Monday, 03 May 2010 00:00

The summer 2010 issue of The SEN, the Sprowston Community High's newsletter from the Learning Zone, is now available to download. In this issue: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Asperger Syndrome.

Download The SEN summer 2010 issue (.PDF, 950 Kb)>>

Skill Force: Waypoint Project

Tuesday, 04 May 2010 12:32

Many of you will have been surprised to spot the school on the news over Easter as a result of the high profile visit of David Cameron.

We didn’t learn of the visit (focussed on our involvement in the Skill Force project) until the Thursday we broke up and what followed can only be described as “entertaining”. For the next 5 days we experienced visits from the Metropolitan Police, the Flying Squad, various Press Officers, Brigadiers, Chief Executives and Party Officials. Plans changed at least 10 times a day and the invasion of the “Press Pack” and TV cameras on the school field was an interesting sight!

For us, the important part of the visit was the young people David Cameron had come to visit. We had been stunned and delighted that 34 Year11 students had agreed to sacrifice the first week of their Easter holiday to engage in the Waypoint project, designed to develop Wider Key Skills. All week, these students had worked with humour, enthusiasm and a real desire to get it right.

Seeing them engage with David Cameron, Chloe Smith, Michael Gove and the Press was a joy. They were articulate, confident young people who had skills in abundance. They were not intimidated by this unique experience and instead took it in their stride, enjoying the opportunity to be a part of history unfolding.

School Uniform

Tuesday, 04 May 2010 11:51

As the weather gets better, it is a good time to reflect on our uniform rules and to remind students what is expected. In particular:

• Length of school skirts: We do expect that girls wearing skirts wear them at an appropriate length which is just on/slightly above the knee. If girls have skirts which do not meet this requirement we would ask them to wear school trousers or buy a new skirt at an appropriate length. From this week, all girls who continue to wear inappropriate skirts will be asked to go home to change and/or offered an appropriate skirt/pair trousers from the school shop to change into.
• We will only allow students to wear a coat or school sweatshirt/fleece. Cardigans and hooded tops are not part of the school uniform and will not be accepted. These will be confiscated from students if they are seen and returned only to an adult.
• Students are permitted to have one stud per ear. We do not allow any other facial piercings and will not allow students in to normal lessons if they cannot or will not remove nose/eye/lip piercings. Please do not allow your son/daughter to get such a piercing as they will be asked to remove it before it has healed. This often places us in a highly regrettable position of not allowing students into lessons- where we need them to be!

Some students argue that uniform doesn’t affect their learning and therefore shouldn’t be such an issue. They feel that by “picking on them” about it we are being deliberately difficult. This could not be further from the truth. Our rationale is:

• We are extremely proud of our school and our students. What our students wear and how they present themselves reflects the way in which they approach school life and their willingness to be part of the school “team”.
• We have high expectations of our students in ALL aspects of school life- if we can get the basics right (uniform, punctuality, equipment) we can move on and get the learning right.
• One of our key aims is to prepare our students for the world of work. In the workplace there will be expectations regarding dress codes and what is and isn’t appropriate.
• Like any other civilised and effective community, we have rules which maintain consistency and fairness. If we have a uniform, and we do, it is important that we enforce it in a clear, rigorous and honest way.
• In some cases, our uniform rules reflect wider issues such as health and safety or “decency”. It is important also to stress that we do listen to student and parent voice when it comes to uniform. The black sweatshirts were introduced as a direct result of our Key Stage 4 students telling us that they wanted something different; unlike our neighbours (Sewell Park and Open Academy) we have not gone down the route of shirts and blazers because we have listened to you and know that uniform needs to be affordable and easy to launder.

We will continue to listen