Headteacher’s update

Good afternoon Stanley Families.

Please take a moment today to see my letter regarding industrial action and how it impacts our school. With the number of staff we have in the NEU union, we are unable to be open in a safe capacity on Wednesday 1st February. I will review this for each strike day and I do understand the disruption this causes and also the need to secure the future and appropriate finance of our schools. Thank you for your patience and support with this matter.

This week we have had two hate crime officers from Merseyside Police conducting assemblies for your children. It was great to hear their strong clear message,  which resonates with ours, accept all others, think before you communicate and be kind. Students were told about protected characteristics and given examples of what constitutes as a hate crime and the powers the police have to tackle this.

It is hard to imagine that this time last month we were in the throes of a Christmas break and now with the lighter mornings and evenings we are heading towards spring at a rapid pace. This week in school we have seen a marked improvement in student attendance, unfortunately we also saw a wave of illness through our staffing team. We understand how challenging children sometimes find it to meet school expectations when they have a stranger in front of them for the lesson, however, during these times we are setting the same curriculum work that students would have received should they have had their normal teacher and we do expect children to show all adults the same kindness and respect that they show us every single day.

I currently have other professionals approaching me to find out how we have done so well with stopping mobile phone usage in the school during the day, this is something more schools want to be able to do. Can I please ask that you continue to support this from home by communicating through the office if you need to get a message to a child. We encourage students who need to contact home to also use this facility. It is a challenging conflict for any child to choose between following our expectations and communicating with home using their phone.

And finally, after another busy week with your amazing youngsters I’m pleased to announce that due to the growth in our student numbers again this year, we are able to expand our family of teachers and staff. Please keep an eye out on our vacancies page for any roles https://stanleyhigh.co.uk/vacancies/. We want to get the absolute best staff in front of your children and working with your children.

Have a wonderful weekend.