The Week Ahead weekly newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers

First and foremost, I hope that you and your family are well and that you are keeping safe and dry in this somewhat wet and challenging weather.

I wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to you in my role as Chair of Governors, working alongside a dedicated team of faith-filled governors, to talk about our passion and desire to serve and support our school community in a wide variety of ways.   

The governing body works closely with Mrs Prothero and it is our role to lead and support the school across three key areas:

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;

• Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff; and

• Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

One of the things that I am keen to focus on this year is strengthening the link between the governing body and the wider school community. I am very much aware that the majority of work that we do is unseen in the background and therefore it is hard for parents, carers and other members of our community to really know who we are and what we're up to.

We are therefore planning a meet and greet morning at school in order to provide an opportunity to find out a little bit more about the governing body, who we are and what we do. If you are able to join us, then you are warmly invited to come along and it would be great to see you there.

It will be a chance to hear a little from us and also to have some time to chat and get to know each other over a drink and some breakfast at school. The session is planned for Saturday 18th November 2023 from 9.30 to 10.30am.

It would be really helpful to know how many people to expect on the day, so if it’s something that you are interested in joining us for, then please can you reply to this email to let me know that you're hoping to come along.

In the meantime, thank you for your continued support for our school and I look forward to meeting with some of you over a coffee very soon.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Shackleton

Congratulations to Mrs Hutton who has been accepted to support other Early Years Settings, sharing our excellent practice. Her training starts this month and in January she will start supporting other schools. 

We welcome Kelly Walmsley as our new receptionist. She will work on Thursdays up until Christmas, when she will start to work for two and a half days a week. Kelly will be leaving her role as Bradford Central Foodbank Coordinator, leaving a vacancy there if you know anyone who may be interested. 

2.0 Wearing of Uniform
2.1 Students should wear school uniform unless:
• It is a day for PE in their year group in which case they should wear their PE kit to school
• It is the day that upper school can choose to wear their own clothes. (Friday)
• It is a charity or end of term wear your own clothes day
• The specifics of a school trip do not require the wearing of uniform which will be conveyed to parents in a
letter.
• There is an agreed justification why a child should wear an amended uniform e.g. SEND
3.0 Jewellery
3.1 On health and safety grounds we request children not to wear jewellery in our school.
3.2 The exceptions to this rule are:
• ear-ring studs in pierced ears (one piercing in each ear)
• Medical identification bracelets may be worn by children who have significant medical problems e.g.
Diabetes or epilepsy.
We ask the children to remove these objects during PE for health and safety reasons.
3.3 The school advises parents who wish their children to have their ears pierced to do so at the beginning of the
summer school holidays.
4.0 Hair Styles
4.1 Hair colour should be a natural colour and not an ‘extreme’ haircut e.g. tramlines, stars, shaved heads (No
shorter than a number 2), extreme patterns ‘V’ styles, Mohican cuts etc.
4.2 Pupils with long hair should tie it back for safety reasons especially if requested to do so in science or cooking.
5.0 Nail Polish
5.1 Students should not wear nail polish in school.
5.2 Students who come to school wearing nail polish will be asked to go to the office and remove the nail polish
using remover provided by the school.

This is a reminder about parking sensitively. We have received a complaint from a Wealdhere Street resident about a driveway being blocked again. A campaign to have yellow lines added to the streets around school is underway, which is an extreme response and one we hope to avoid. Please make sure you do not block a drive, do not block a corner and do not mount a kerb when you park your car. The council have instructed neighbours to photograph any cars parked badly and to report them to the police and to the council. It would be great if there was nothing to report.

As a school we have decided to close our HSBC bank account, and have opened a new account with the Cooperative Bank.

The new account details are as follows:

Bradford Christian School

Sort code 08-92-99

Account no 63154896

As our HSBC account will be permanently closed in January,  we would be grateful if you would arrange to change your fee payment to the new account as soon as possible.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Please see below information regarding this year's flu campaign. Please use the link and code appropriate to your child's actual school year group.

Secondary, year 7 - 11

Dear parent,

Your child is now eligible for their Flu vaccination, as part of the National Programme for Vaccination.

Please click the following link to complete an E-Consent form for your child to receive this vaccination:

www.bradfordschoolimmunisations.co.uk/forms/Flu

And this is the School code you will need: BF107461

The online consent form link will close 3 working days before your school’s session date.

Primary, year 1 - 6

Dear parent,

Your child is now eligible for their Flu vaccination, as part of the National Programme for Vaccination.

Please click the following link to complete an E-Consent form for your child to receive this vaccination:

www.bradfordschoolimmunisations.co.uk/forms/Flu

And this is the School code you will need: BF107461A

The online consent form link will close 3 working days before your school’s session date.

You may be aware that school has now provided each student from year 5 to 11 with a Chromebook to use in school. These are allocated to individual students, who are responsible for looking after them, recharging them at the end of the day, and transporting them between lessons. In Year 5 all students receive a brand new machine.

Most schools charge a significant deposit for use of Chromebooks or alternative technology. We have decided against this, recognising it is an additional cost at a time when money is tight.

Most of our students are careful and responsible with Chromebooks, and they make it through their middle school and upper school years without a problem.

However, recently we are noticing a small number of students who are not taking appropriate care of their Chromebook. We can not afford to replace them when they are dropped, get wet, or get lost. A new screen is almost the cost of a new Chromebook. We are now expecting students to carry their Chromebooks in their bags to and from lessons.

From now on, we plan to make a charge to families if a student damages their Chromebook. This will be a flat £100 toward the cost of a replacement.

We do recognise that not all damage is the student's responsibility, and we will work hard to understand the cause of any damage before charging you. We understand that there may be wear and tear from daily use.

Thinking of getting your child a Chromebook for home? Check out our recommendation in this short article. Which Chromebook?

Google Classroom Clarification

If you are used to checking your child's google classroom summary of homework, all staff will use HOMEWORK in capitals as a prefix before the task. All other posts will refer to work undertaken in class.

Mrs Wells is extending the second use uniform to include coats for those who need them. If you have unused coats and in good condition that you can donate to this, please hand into the office or email suzannewells@bxs.org.uk

There is a WhatsApp group for parents in primary and middle school. If you would like to be added to the group, please message Rachel Baxfield on 07568 074586. Thank you

During October and into November, Bradford Cathedral is hosting an exhibition of Ugandan Asian migration stories, alongside stories from the Windrush Community. These two exhibitions – which are sponsored by the University of Bradford – open up dialogue between different journeys of hope from two communities who continue to tell important, positive stories of Bradford’s own black history, as well as stories of migration to the city of sanctuary. Read more...