Newsletter for April 21st 2023

Newsletter for April 21st 2023

Dear parents, carers, families and friends,

What a pleasure it's been to see everyone coming back after the Easter break! Everyone seemed to be as delighted to be back at school as we were to see them on Monday

OUR FAMILY SUPPORT WORKER

I have a few pieces of news to share with you in this newsletter. Sadly, the first is that Sheereen - our super Family Support Worker - is leaving us at the end of this week to start a full-time role with a completely different organisation. We are all very sorry that she has to leave King Richards because of this, and everyone wishes her the very best for the future. Meanwhile, we have been advertising the Family Support Worker role to find someone to take Sheereen’s place. We have had lots of strong applications and hope to have further news to share about this soon.

POLICE INFORMATION

PC Matt Eld has asked us to share some information too. You will be aware from coverage in the news that there was an incident a few roads away from the school last week. PC Matt said “Understandably people may be alarmed by this and talk about it. This matter is being investigated and arrests have been made. To reassure you, there are no immediate concerns regarding wider safety within the vicinity”.

KRIII CALENDAR

Next, a reminder to keep a close eye on the school calendar -https://www.kingrichards.leicester.sch.uk/diary/grid/2023/04/ - to be sure about term dates, Bank Holidays etc. The 1^st and 8^th of May are both national holidays – both Mondays, and the school won’t be open on those days. The half terms and full school breaks are clearly marked in the calendar to help you to make family plans.

ATTENDANCE

Linked to that is a reminder of how important good attendance is for your children.

You might feel sometimes that when we talk about attendance, it’s solely from the perspective of the school. That is partly true – improving attendance has been an action in each of our various Ofsted reports over the last few years.

However, the reason why it’s important to us, to Ofsted and to your children is that lots of missed days mean lots of missed learning. If your child is a ‘persistent absentee’, it means that they’ve been missing at least 10% of their school days so far this year.

If your child continues to follow that pattern every year, by the time they take their GCSEs they’ll have missed a whole school year of their education. So, it’s important to us because this is going to have a horrible impact on the rest of their lives. We want to make a difference to the lives your children live as adults, and the foundations of learning in these early years are crucial. We work to improve their attendance so that they have a better job, better earnings and a better life when they’re a grown up. Please keep working with us to help them in the future.

As ever, please get in touch if you’d like to discuss any questions or concerns.

Many thanks,

Ms Harrison (Headteacher) and the rest of the KRIII team