News

 

 

Monday 3rd July

 

Dear Parents, Carers and Students,

Welcome to our newsletter for the eleventh  week of the Summer Term 2023. It’s Week A and our whole school assemblies are taking place, led by Ms Jackson on the theme of change. Our fortnightly character focus remains as ‘empathy’.

Our programme of trips and visits for all year groups continues this week and next week sees a group of new Y10 embark on an immersive experience of rural life on Jamie’s Farm in Wiltshire. The grand finale of our enrichment programme will be our whole school sponsored walk around Osterley Park on Wednesday 19th July - letters have been sent home and my thanks for Ms Virdi for leading on the organisation of the event.

Tomorrow - Tuesday 4th July - we welcome next year’s Y7 cohort for primary transfer day and we look forward to meeting their families at 5pm tomorrow to report back on the day.

Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th July are strike days. Further to the letter issued on Friday, a reminder that trips and visits will still go ahead on both days, but school will be closed for all other students who will have online lessons delivered by non-striking staff. Details will be provided on your child/children’s Google Classroom year group page.

Finally, the weather is predicted to be cooler for the coming week so our ‘heat wave’ adaptation to school uniform has been removed. Therefore, full school uniform is required to be worn and this includes coming and from school each day.

With best wishes for the week ahead.

 

Stephen Davis

 

Osterley Walk 

A reminder that students are encouraged to find at least ten sponsors for the 10k walk to Osterley. Parents and carers were sent a letter last week via email, and parents have already made generous donations to our JustGiving page. Our aim is to raise at least £2000. On Wednesday 19th July, students should wear their full PE kit for the day - and we will give more practical information in our bulletin on Monday 17th July.

 

Metal detector screening 

Today (Monday 3rd July) our local schools liaison police officers were in school to oversee the screening of all students in new Year 8 and Year 9. All students proceeded through an airport style set up, with bags and outerwear searched by Lampton staff, and then students passing through a metal detector. I am pleased to report that no illegal items were found, although many students were dispossessed of other prohibited items such as chewing gum and water pistols. Full information on the prohibited item, and the screening process can be found in our behaviour policy. 

 

Safeguarding Briefing - Online Safety: random connection apps

We are aware that some young people in the school have accessed random connection apps such as Omegle and Minichat through their mobile phones. These apps operate in a similar way to dating sites, and are very dangerous places for young people to be. In theory all users on the site are 18+, but age verification is very weak. Needless to say, these apps place children at immense risk of child sexual exploitation. 

 

Although we teach students about staying safe online through the computing and PSHE curriculum, and through tutor time and assemblies - some students still take risk. Please check your child’s phone: if they have apps such as these they should be deleted immediately and you should consider restricting your child’s access to a phone until you know that safety measures are in place. 

 

As a school, we consider it important that parents should i) delay giving a smartphone to their child for as long as possible ii) ensure they monitor and limit their child's phone use - through Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link iv) ensure internet filters are turned on at home and on your child’s mobile network.