Good afternoon,

I hope that you and your family are well. As we enter our final week of the calendar year we can look back on a busy and successful week last week and look forward to festivities in school in the week to come.

Christmas Jumper Day – Friday 22^nd December

As is now tradition, we will invite all our students to attend school in non-uniform on Friday 22^nd December and encourage as many students as possible to wear a Christmas jumper to end the term with a festive theme! We will ask all students who can afford to do so to donate £1 to attend in non-uniform. This year's proceeds will go to Sheffield Children’s Hospital in memory of Jude, the cousin of one of our Year 10 students. You can find more details about Jude’s story here.  Students may bring their £1 donation in cash and pay on the way into school, or parents/carers have the option to donate via parent pay.

Reverse Advent for S20 Foodbank

Thanks again for your generosity in making donations to the S20 foodbank as part of ‘Reverse Advent’. There is one week left to go, so let’s make this the week with the most donations so far to support an amazing local charity. A reminder that, as well as food items, the food bank would particularly benefit from the donation of non-food items such as toiletries.

Flu Vaccination Thanks

Well done to our students for their maturity and patience when our colleagues from the immunisation team visited school on Friday. We were able to ensure that all consenting students received their flu vaccination. The nurses commented on how polite and courteous our students were. Thank you, everyone!

Year 11 Parents’ Evening

Parents/carers of students in Year 11 will be receiving invites and booking details to attend our Year 11 Parents’ Evening on Thursday 11^th January. We look forward to a very large turn-out as students and their families continue to receive feedback on their mock exams and continue to plan their revision to ensure they make further progress in the February mocks and then achieve the amazing outcomes they are capable of in the summer.

Footballing Success

Congratulations to our boys’ football teams from Year 8 and Year 10 for securing important victories this week. Our Year 10s defeated Handsworth 6 – 2 to progress to the next round of the cup. Our Year 8s defeated Tapton 5 – 2 with goals from Josh (2), Jacob (2) and Lucas, with the player of the match being awarded to Jack. This victory meant our Year 8 team were crowned Winter League Champions!

Attitude to Learning Reports

Our teachers have been inputting Attitude to Learning (ATL) scores for all students over the past week and families will be receiving ATL reports for Half Term 2 soon. We were delighted that the average ATL for all students in Half Term 1 was 1.87 – meaning the average Westfield Student is recognised as having an exceptional (1) or good (2) ATL across their lessons. We hope and expect ATL scores to continue to improve across the year. Each year we map ATL against GCSE results and know that the better the ATL, the better the results!

Sports Leaders

Well done once more to our fantastic Sports Leaders who led another very successful Christmas Festival for children from our local primary schools this week. Our Sports Leaders are not just brilliant leaders, but brilliant role models for the many children they work with. They embody ‘The Westfield Way’ and set the standard for children who will join our school in the future.

Eckington Sixth Form

As you may be aware, Eckington School has recently joined Chorus Education Trust. Westfield continues to build strong links with Eckington’s new Headteacher, Mr Cronin and the school’s Head of Sixth Form, Mrs Needham. Recently, 65 of our Year 11 students attended Eckington’s purpose-built sixth form centre to experience “A Day in the Life at Eckington Sixth From” and our students returned to Westfield with very positive feedback. 

Any Year 11 students who are interested in joining Eckington Sixth Form in September 2024 should complete this electronic form. The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 22^nd December 2023. 

With many thanks for your ongoing excellent support.

Joe Birkbeck

Head of Westfield School