BLOG WEEK ENDING 19TH JULY

As we reach the end of another school year at WGSG it is with a real sense of achievement and pride. As a school we have achieved so much in terms of both individual and school success. I am delighted that we have had a visit from The Good Schools Guide, who have asked to feature the school in their prestigious guide for 2024/25. We have successfully re-gained our Investors in Careers status despite a more rigorous framework, and we have also seen more individual student achievements in national and international Sport, Music, Dance and Drama this year, not to mention a range of academic achievements outside of the ‘standard’ exam curriculum.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all our parents and carers who take the time to speak to the school about their child’s achievements and concerns, the three-way partnership always ensures that our students are at the centre of the decisions we make. It is always lovely to be able to share a thank you email with the staff, so thank you for taking the time to do this, it really does make a massive difference.

I would also like to thank our superb staff community for all that they have done this year, the extra sessions run, the weekends given up for trips and visits and the evenings spent marking. I am sure that parents, carers and students alike would like to join me in thanking them for all that they do each day to ensure the highest level of education. I am particularly grateful this year as colleagues have taken on additional classes and teaching to minimise the impact of some long-term staff absence. Recruitment in education is a challenge at the moment and the demand for high quality supply staff, far outstrips availability.

Parent/Carer Briefings and Communications. We have introduced a range of new ways to share what is happening in school and garner your feedback. As a result of this, we will have a range of briefings across the year for each year group, all of these will include an opportunity for questions and for us to gain feedback from you.

I will also include in my start and end of term newsletters the key dates for the coming term in the hope that this helps with management of diaries and forward planning.

In terms of curriculum, all the terms teaching, enrichment and knowledge organisers will be shared with parents and carers at the start of each term in Years 7, 8 and 9 so that you can clearly see what is being studied, but also support your child’s education with asking those all-important questions about their learning.

We are also currently planning next year’s enrichment week so that we can get costs out to you in term 1, and so allow a more staggered payment plan for next year, our thanks for your feedback on what has worked this year, it has been hugely appreciated and very helpful.

Summer Building Projects. Over the Summer, I am pleased to share we will be refurbishing two of the older toilet blocks in the main building. The large block by the main hall and the ones on the top floor. This is a costly piece of work for the school, but much needed and long delayed. The toilets will be refurbished to be individual cubicles, with a sink area and a purpose-built drinking fountain in each area, which I know will be a much-welcomed addition on the top floor. Funding in schools is incredibly tight and we have been able to complete this work because of savings made over the past two years. It remains my hope that we will be able to raise some funding across the next year to complete the final two but at a cost of £120k this is not a cheap project.

We will move over to our new catering provider CH&Co from September, and this will bring in a range of new choices and a different menu for students. We will continue to ask the students for their feedback but please do let us know your thoughts as parents/carers as well.

Buses. September will bring with it the challenge at the start of the term with bus capacity, we anticipate that until students settle into their routes, and the bus company and KCC see the need, that we will have some capacity issues. Please do discuss with your child the plan for it they miss their bus, or the bus is full, whilst we will do our best to support, we have no control over the bus provision for the school. We will work tirelessly to support changes if they are needed but our experience is that it is better to be prepared with an alternative plan. We will always make sure that students have somewhere to wait until parents/carers can collect if there are issues. In the first week we will support the new Year 7 students in managing this and expect our older students to help them as well.

Sporting Special! We waste no opportunity to celebrate the many achievements of our students and this month, our talented sports students have had opportunities to shine! Sports Day is a brilliant school community event for us all, and this year was no exception. Congratulations to all competitors! … and thank you to all our super-enthusiastic House supporters, you were brilliant at cheering on students, showing support and encouragement to everyone!

Whilst we had to reschedule the Track events, it was definitely worth it as we had glorious sunshine and perfect running conditions for the day! A fantastic time was had by all, with a beautiful atmosphere created by supporters and competitors alike. It was amazing to see so many students in their House colours, with a sea of banners and hair ties. A special mention must be said for the following students for outstanding performances, beating our school records! Manroop J jumped an outstanding 1.55m in the High Jump event. Kamso U has beaten the school record, which has not been challenged for 28 years!! She achieved an outstanding jump of 4.90m. In Year 7, we had three students from Hepworth qualify for the 100m finals, with Naomi C in being the overall winner in the final.

Thank you so much to the members of staff who supported the PE department in the running of the day, it couldn’t happen without you! We also extend our thanks to the PTFA for running a refreshment stall.

District Athletics on Tuesday 2^nd July 2024 We had a fantastic District Athletics meet this year! WGSG were responsible for the event at Dartford Harriers, hosting an array of schools from Dartford and Gravesham. We had extensive parental help, from running the Long Jump event, starting the races, as well as taking pictures for us. Thank you so much for your help and support, the day wouldn’t have been so successful without you!

The students performed amazingly well, we are so very proud of them all. As staff were busy running events, the students independently organised themselves, getting to their races and events on time. Their performances were outstanding, as individuals and as a team. Their grit and determination were clear to see every time they took their place. They represented WGSG with pride and we are so proud to be their PE teachers.

Particular mentions to be made:

Year 7: 1^st place in the 1500m was Sadie M, well done! Well done Chloe A 1^st in the Long Jump, you are the new school long jump record hold with an amazing 4.41m, beating the school record which has not been beaten for 14 years! 3^rd place in Shot Put Manisha Sathish- well done Manisha, you are the new school record with 7.30m!

Year 8: 2^nd place in 200m AND High Jump: Manroop J. A phenomenal performance particularly in the 200m, missing out on 1^st place by only 34miliseconds! However she beat our school record (which hasn’t been beaten in 12 years!) with a time of 26.58s. 3^rd place in 800m: Jasmine C. 3^rd place in 1500m: Neve A. 2^nd in the Relay: Kayla K, Jasmine C, Lil M and Manroop J. They beat the District school record, with a time of 57.07s. Well done TEAM Year 8!

Year 9: 1^st in 100m AND Long Jump: Rebecca T. An outstanding performance by Rebecca! 3^rd in Shot Put: Nelly H. It was a fantastic throw of 8.02m.

Year 10: 1^st in 100m: Keriema B. Keriema has beaten the school record, which hasn’t been challenged for 28 years, with an outstanding time of 12.47s!! 1^st in 200m Candy O, beating the school record (12 years old!) with a time of 26.15s. 1^st in 300m: Hope M, also beating the school record with a time of 45.1s. 2^nd in 800m: Isabelle H. 3^rd in High Jump: Hope M. 1^st in Long Jump: Kamso U. 1^st in Shot Put: Maya E. 1^st in Relay: Joanne A, Alicia B, Candy O and Keriema B. They beat the District school record of 8 years, with a time of 53.19s. The Year 10 team were outstanding, what an accolade of results!!

Overall, we can confirm the results were as follows…

Year 7: 6^th out of 14 schools entered. A fantastic achievement for their first ever Athletics

Year 8: 4^th out of 16 schools entered!

Year 9: joint 2^nd place out of 15 schools entered!!

Year 10: 1^st place out of 13 schools entered!!

Football opportunity! Local team The Dartford Royals, are currently looking for new players for their U13 side – training starts in September. For more details please see below.

Please join me in congratulating WG6 student, Frankie Curtis on his (latest!) ballroom dancing achievement. He writes, “I competed at the NATD Grand Finals at the Winter Gardens Ballroom at Blackpool. I competed in six competitive events and partnered other students for their event alongside my teacher to help out. In total, I placed 2nd in my ballroom solos and couples and 3rd in both my Latin. Overall, it was very tough as it was a national competition with people all over the country coming to Blackpool but also international competitors like the Malta dance school so it was quite tough this year. in the All-Adult event we got to semi-finals, this was against every adult couple so against about 120 other people.”

Safeguarding Matters. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you have a concern about a young person at WGSG, please contact the school office or email [email protected] Please note that this email address is only monitored during working hours in term time.

If you have an urgent safeguarding concern outside of school hours, we recommend calling the police on 999 or Kent Social Services directly on 03000 411111/ Bexley Social Services on 0203 045 5440.

If you have a wellbeing concern, Kooth is a free online counselling service, providing young people aged 11-25 years with a safe and secure means of accessing support with their emotional health and wellbeing needs from a professional team of qualified counsellors: https://www.kooth.com/

Helping your children to stay safe online

10 tips to stay safe online

Be careful about talking to people you don’t know and trust in real life – anyone can pretend to be a child online. If you do talk to people you don’t know, don’t give away personal information – such as what street you live on or where you go to school, or share your location with them. Say no to any requests they send you for images or videos of yourself, and stop talking to them
Set your profiles to private, to limit what others can see
Think carefully about what you share and with who. Once you’ve shared an image, you’ve no control over what the other person does with it. Remember, it’s illegal to take, share or view sexual images of under-18s, full stop
Be mindful of your digital footprint. What you post online now could come back to bite you later, like when applying for jobs, college or university
If you see something upsetting, or someone bullies you, tell an adult you trust. Report it too
When reading news online, ask yourself what the source is, when it was published, and whether it could be a hoax or made up. Read beyond the headline too
Remember, people try to make their lives look more exciting and interesting online. There’s a lot people can do with photo editing to make their photos look better. So don’t assume everything you see is a true-to-life representation
Watch out for hoaxes and scams, like messages you’re meant to forward on or that ask you for payment details or your password
Take any content that seems to glamourise gang lifestyles with a very large pinch of salt – it’s not as glamorous as it looks. Be wary of schemes promising easy cash for receiving and transferring money too, they’re almost definitely criminal activity
Watch out for loot boxes or other parts of games where you pay money to take a chance on getting a reward – you can get sucked into spending lots of money on them

Source: The Key Safeguarding (thekeysupport.com)

Don’t feel confident starting a conversation with your child about what they’re up to online? Read this advice from the NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety

Sextortion – a guide for parents

Sextortion is when victims (often teenage boys) are tricked into sending nudes and then blackmailed for financial gain. Perpetrators will pose as young, attractive girls online and spark up conversations. They will find out details about them and soon turn the conversation to things of a sexual nature. They then ask them to send nude images or to go on webcam, naked. Once this happens, the offender will send a message telling them that they have the images saved and will publish them online and send them to their school and their families, unless they pay them.

Source: Two troubling new safeguarding trends to be aware of | Tes

You can find more information and a useful guide to help parents and carers prevent and deal with incidences of sextortion on the Internet Matters website HERE.

Support over the holidays

Please find links below to organisations providing support over the summer holiday period:

Mental Health:

Food Banks:

Kids Eat for Free and other meal deals: