Dear Parents and Carers

I hope those who joined The Addams Family productions enjoyed their night out and also feel the deep pride for the courage and performances of our wonderful students.

That theme of pride has run through our celebration assemblies, which came to an end this morning with our year 10s. More students than ever before enjoyed our Christmas lunches earlier this week, and this image might give you some impression of the lengths the catering team went to create a special event for your children.

As we approach the end of an extremely long term there is no doubt that we are all looking forward to breaking up for the Christmas holidays next week. Term ends on Wednesday at 12:30pm, with the spring term starting at the normal time on Tuesday 9 January 2024.

Attendance Matters

From the start of term until today, attendance at CNS is roughly the same as last year. We continue to see variable levels of year group attendance that is as low as 88% in one year and 97% in another:

• Just 147 (out of 1000) students have yet to miss a day of school this year – roughly one third of the number we might have expected just five years ago.
• 589 students, just under 60%, have great attendance (94% or higher) – but this is much lower than in the past.
• 150 students have attendance that is in that cusp between ‘causing concern’ and ‘great’ (90% to 94%) – but that number has risen sharply in recent years.
• Close to one in four of our students’ attendance is less than 90% – in the past this was almost one in ten.

I ought to add that these figures are broadly in line, if not slightly above, national averages.

Boosting attendance and returning to pre-COVID ‘norms’ cannot be addressed through a one size fits all approach. To greater and lesser degrees, children face social, emotional and medical difficulties that lead to varying levels of attendance. We also know that there are more infectious diseases around and this adds another layer of challenge. Every child’s attendance record has its own context and tells its own story. We also know that children do just become ill and that super attendance can be as much the result of good fortune as personal determination.

We also understand the pressure that parents and carers can experience when their child feels ill or is reluctant to attend school. And we can also see the impact of occasional and more regular absence on a child’s academic progress and their sense of belonging at school. This is such a difficult challenge for us all and for society more generally. We can only solve this together with everyone doing all they can in their ‘sphere of influence’.

I hope you will agree that we try to avoid the negative messages around attendance that can end up being devoid of hope. Instead, we try to focus on the value of belonging and that our work is intended to enhance your child’s life tomorrow. We try hard to create sound routines and great lessons where every child is helped to be successful.

Meanwhile, we reward high levels of attendance and renewed streaks of attendance through, for example, our weekly fast passes or the current ‘12 Days of Christmas’ attendance campaign – which has partly contributed to almost 20% higher attendance in these final weeks of term compared to last year.

The poster, opposite, tries to capture the spirit of our attendance strategy. We want to make school a place where all children know they will be successful, they can all feel safe, and where they will make great friends and have lots of fun.

Watch This Space…

I would like to shine a light on our truly superb year 8 football team. They are now in the final of the Under 13 County Cup Final and will play either St. Birinus or The Warriner at Oxford City FC. The victors in that game will then be entered into the national competition… On the way to the final they have beaten Carterton (10:0), followed by Cherwell (4:2), Cheney (4:3) and Burford (4:0).

And finally…

My thanks to the English team for taking over sixty students to see A Christmas Carol at Alexandra Palace. A member of the public approached a colleague to say, “What beautifully behaved teenagers. They’re a credit to your school.”

Don’t forget that the final day of term is a non-uniform day to raise money for local charities. Our annual ‘Christmas Jumper & Jeans Day’ is a nice way to end the term and remember that for many families this is a really difficult time of the year; both financially and emotionally. Personally, I am dreaming of Aston Villa being top of the league on Christmas Day, but will settle for a lie-in or two if Santa cannot sprinkle his magic.

I hope your own pre-Christmas preparations are going well and that you have some lovely things to look forward to this Christmas.

Yours faithfully
Barry Doherty
Headteacher