Dear Families

Covid

We have had one positive case in our community since the last bulletin. There have also been a lot of pupils with temperatures who have been required to isolate and take a PCR test.

Please remember, if your child is at all unwell it could be Covid. Keep them home, get them tested and only send them back when they are well and have a negative PCR test.

Evidence for Learning: Parent / Carer Pilot Group

Thank you to the people who have signed up to participate in this group.

We are looking for approximately three more parents / carers, preferably of pupils in Pathways 2 and 3 to join the Pilot Group. Currently, we have no KS5 families represented, so we would ideally like at least one representative from KS5 (Years 12/13/14).

If you sign up for the group you will be asked to:

1. sign up to the Evidence for Learning parent app
2. undertake training
3. provide feedback as requested

This is to enable us to smooth out any issues before rolling out the app to all families.  Please be aware that we are not expecting to present you with the finished article and system, but are rather working with you to get to that point. 

Assembly

This week we celebrated the amazing life of Betty Campbell. Betty was one of the first female teacher trainees in Wales and went on to become the first black Headteacher in Wales.  She was passionate about multiculturalism and ensuring that all young people know about their history.  Thanks to Betty's drive and determination the Welsh education system has it written into law that multiculturalism is taught in all schools, ensuring that the diverse pupil population learn about history from multiple angles and perspectives.

In tribute to this formidable lady, a statue to commemorate her and her achievements was unveiled this week in Cardiff. 

Black History Month

We are celebrating and learning about black history and culture during October. One of the events this week involved some visiting musicians and pupils were able to take part in a music workshop with them. Pupils learned about the different types of rhythms from different parts of Africa and the Caribbean and got to listen to and play a range of different traditional instruments. 

We also had a reading session in the library today which introduced pupils to books either written by black authors or about black people. 

If you have any suggestions for us regarding resources or events that celebrate your culture and history, please get in contact with Mr Hancox, Humanities Faculty Lead dhancox@meadowhighschool.org 

Build

Hopefully you received my letter earlier this week informing you of the unfortunate further delay for us to be able to move into the new building. 

To remind you of the important dates please see below.

Pupils will now be expected in on:

• Friday 22nd October
• Monday 1st November
• Tuesday 2nd November
• Wednesday 3rd November

If you have already booked holidays on the above dates, please provide your booking information to school or your child's absence will be unauthorised. Only bookings made prior to the 6th of October will be accepted and authorised.

The new dates when pupils are NOT in are: 

• Friday 12th November
• Monday 15th November
• Tuesday 16th November
• Wednesday 17th November

Pupils then return to the new school on Thursday 18th November.

Limited places for Key Worker children on the school closure days above

If you are a key worker and have no-one to supervise your child on these dates, please make your child's form tutor aware, so that we can arrange a place for them.

If your child travels to school on LBH transport, and you would still require this please make the form tutor aware of this as well. Please be aware though, that as we are using a training day to pack on the 12th November ,there will be no school transport on that day, and you would need to make alternative arrangements to transport your child.

As staff will be unpacking in our new kitchen and training on new equipment on these days, you will also need to provide your child with a packed punch, drink and snacks.

Thank you for your tolerance whilst we cross these last few hurdles!

Best wishes for the weekend.

Mrs J Rigby
Headteacher