Dear Parents and Carers,

As we approach the end of our first half term this year, I am writing to you with a timely reminder of our non-uniform day this Thursday, 23 October. We encourage all students and staff to dress in their House colours (Evenlode – orange, Glyme – green, Stour –blue, Windrush – red). Please remember to donate whatever amount you can via MCAS and all proceeds will go towards this year’s school charity, Thrive OX7.

We will remember them

Remembrance Day won’t be far away when we return after half-term. I therefore want to draw your attention to a plaque you might have spotted in town which we are proudly sponsoring.  The plaque commemorates one of our former students, Sergeant Nick Stockford, who, between 1933 and 1938, walked the very same corridors past the English classrooms as our students do today. Sergeant Nick Stockford joined the RAF as an engineering assistant at the age of 16. He was shot down over France in 1944 and escaped to Portugal via Spain with the help of the French resistance before making it back to England. He tragically died from pleurisy aged 22 in September 1944.

If you know of any friends or family members who attended Chipping Norton School and gave their life in service and you would like to share their story, please contact us via [email protected] so that we can remember them as a school community.

Updated Behaviour Framework

We regularly review our Behaviour Framework to ensure it effectively supports our core mission of ‘Everyone Belonging – Everyone Achieving’. Our starting point is that behaviour is learned, which means that it can be taught. Over time, our actions become habits and these habits shape our character. Therefore, we need to have appropriate consequences for both positive and negative behaviour in place, ranging from recognition and praise to warnings and detentions. As a result of our review, we are making a number of adjustments to our Framework on our return after half-term. I have outlined the rationale and key updates in more detail overleaf and will gather feedback from students, staff and parents in December.

Spotlight on: Our volunteers

We are extremely grateful to the wide range of volunteers who generously give up their time to support our students. They are great role models of our values of compassion and courage. This week, I would like to highlight Dr Colin Fyfe. With over 35 years of teaching and leadership experience, he brings a wealth of expertise and calm encouragement to our students. He works closely with individual learners to help consolidate their understanding of Maths and provides invaluable support with homework and revision strategies. His patient guidance and dedication have helped many students gain confidence and achieve their full potential. We are incredibly fortunate to have his experience and commitment enriching our community.

PTA

I very much enjoyed my first meeting with our PTA last week and would like to encourage you to share the link to our PTA Donation Portal. It takes less than 5 minutes to donate and we’ll be able to make a significant difference to our students, all for the price of a coffee a month per family.

KS4/5 Solo Evening

It was a privilege to have been in the audience of our KS4/5 Solo Evening last week with an impressive range of performances full of emotional depth, artistic brilliance and expressive individuality on display. Thank you to all performers and also to those who made it happen behind the scenes. I look forward to our Christmas Concert on 10 December and, as always, to meeting you so please come and say hello if you attend.

 I will be in touch again after half-term – enjoy the autumn week ahead!

Yours faithfully,
Bertram Richter
Headteacher

Key dates ahead:

Thu 23 October             Non-uniform Day

Fri 24 October               Disaggregated INSET Day – School closed

Mon 3 November          River Learning Trust INSET Day – School closed to students

Tue 4 November           Chipping Norton School INSET Day – School closed to students

Thu 13 November         Sixth Form Open Evening (5-8pm)

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Why are we making changes and what are they?

Every member of our community deserves to belong and achieve at Chipping Norton School.

Words and actions that strengthen our sense of belonging and achievement need to be recognised, rewarded and shared as examples.

Words and actions that undermine our sense of belonging or achievement need to have a consequence so that these incidents remain rare and an exception and those students learn from them.

In the first instance, consequences will most often be verbal, e.g. a warning or a conversation with an adult. For repeat or more serious misbehaviour, students will lose some of their social time via detentions and we will collaborate closely with parents.

Detentions are an opportunity to spend time reflecting on the reasons for misbehaviour and a chance to achieve more learning.

We understand that all behaviour research shows that the certainty of a consequence is more important and effective than the severity of it.

With all of the above in mind, we are making the following changes to our behaviour framework to strengthen our community:

• Staff will log Behaviours on SatchelOne and no longer log Detentions.
• Parents and students can see the logged behaviours on their SatchelOne app.
• All detentions will be 45 mins (30 minutes if students engage positively) – except for Friday’s Headteacher’s Detention which remains at 60mins.
• Detentions for uniform, equipment, lateness and minor infringements (e.g. chewing gum, littering) are triggered which means only issued if logged repeatedly and no longer issued on the first occasion. This will give students the opportunity to self-correct.
• For a minority of students with complex needs and following referrals from the pastoral and the SEND team, we are introducing an alternative of Community Support which will allow these students to ‘pay back’ into our school community outside the traditional detention system (e.g. by improving the school environment regarding display boards or litter).

We will gather the views of staff, students and parents in December to review these changes to our framework.