This week was our first week of the ‘normal’ timetable and we have been very impressed by the number of young people who have been following theirs independently and without issue. The size of the building means that we are all covering a lot of steps every day, so I am sure they have been coming home pretty tired at night!

Homerooms have been a really positive start to the day and staff have reported how much they are enjoying working with mixed year groups. These support a settled start to the day and give us the opportunity to reinforce daily messages around our values and core expectations.

Young people have done particularly well in terms of the beginning and end of the day, and entrances and exits. Those who were having issues with their cards have been supported by staff this week whilst teething issues have been sorted. However, we would ask for your support in reminding your young people that these need to be in school, on lanyards, each day. These are need both for access and for purchases in our food court.

We had a few early technical challenges in the canteen. Unfortunately, systems there took a couple of days to settle leading to us having to abandon the digital and go with handwritten notes! This caused some delays in the first few days but the team are now getting everyone through within the first 15 minutes of any rest break. It’s also worth remembering that young people have two rest breaks so are able to bring/buy food twice within the day.

We’ve begun a focus this week on timekeeping and attendance. There has been lots of success in getting used to our period times and in allowing time to cross the campus after e.g. playing football with the staff (thanks, team!), reading in the library, or just going to a walk in the fresh air. Young people know that they should always start, moving 5 minutes before the next lesson starts to get back to the atrium. We continue to recommend that young people remain on campus throughout both rest breaks to support their safety and wellbeing.

With regards to attendance, all young people are registered 7 times per day via our SEEMiS information system. It is important that parents understand that we don’t just follow up a ‘no show’ first thing in the morning, but also run anomalies reports throughout the day which highlight if a young person has been in school but then missed a class. Key messaging has been around attendance being credited for being in each class, not for simply being in the school building. If you have any concerns about your young person’s attendance, please contact the House Team.

As I’m sure you’ll understand, three year groups transitioning simultaneously means that we have had a record number of queries to our school office. We have a very small admin team so please be assured that we will always get back to you as soon as we can.  You may find it helpful to review our Communication policy which highlights anticipated response times for any query: The Rosehill Way: Communication between home and school Please remember that we can only meet with parents when an appointment has been made.

We have had a range of visitors to the campus already and expect this to continue. They have universally commended the efforts required to undertake and enact such a significant change for so many people. As I keep saying to the young people- everyone is new and it’s important that we continue to support each other in this exciting establishment phase.