Welcome to the weekly Newsletter for parents and carers of students attending
John Hanson Community School
Inspire - Care - Succeed
‘HEAD’ Lines
Looking to the future
Dear Parents/Carers
The 1st March is always an important date in the secondary school calendar. It is the date when we and parents/carers get to find out who will be joining the John Hanson family in September as a year 7 student. This will be some of your children. If so, I hope the news you received from the admissions team this morning was positive and that we will see another member of your family in September.
I am proud of the fact that the positive reputation of John Hanson as a school where students have an opportunity around every corner to become the best versions of themselves possible continues to go from strength to strength.
This year we received over 500 applications for places in year 7 to start in September 2024. This is our highest number ever.
I am looking forward to working with my dedicated staff to start the process of transition such that by the time September comes, students joining us in year 7 will already feel part of the John Hanson Family and parents/carers will have all the information they need to be a vital and valued support over the next 5 years.
Whether you do or do not have a child joining us in September, enjoy the weekend with your children.
Regards
Russell Stevens
Headteacher
Silver level Rail Safety Friendly school
For the work we have done in assemblies and on PSHE days, we are a Silver level Rail Safety Friendly school.Parents can find out more about this on https://switchedonrailsafety.co.uk/.
The Rail Safe Friendly team have asked us to share the following age appropriate25 minute safety video for parents to watch with their child at home.. Over 20 million students, parents and teachers from across the UK have already watched these videos which has led to a significant decrease in the number of fatalities and injuries in their area through watching the safety videos.
NEW Secondary school version: Age 11-16
We are really excited to be celebrating World Book Day next week, starting on the Monday with the “Great Bookish Bake-Off.” All students and staff are invited to bake a book-themed sweet treat and put it forward for judging. All week students can take part in the “Masked Reader” and/or the “Book Emoji Competition.” (Please see posters below for full information.) On Thursday 7th March, students can come into school fully dressed up with this year following the theme of book character villains. If they prefer they can take part in “Hidden in Plain Sight,” by representing their favourite book through something more challenging to spot such as a small prop, a pin badge or other little clue. All activities are of course optional, but we hope we will get lots of enthusiastic entries.
Students can get their £1 Book Token from the LRC (whilst stocks last). These can be used to buy a World Book Day title of their choice. Alternatively, they can download the digital version (which can either be printed or scanned in participating stores.) The link to the online voucher can be found here:
I just wanted to reach out to see if you had given much thought to introducing the young people at John Hanson Community School to Kooth: a free, anonymous service that offers one-to-one text-based counselling for young people.
Safeguarding is always our absolute top priority. Which is why all of the content and every single comment on our platform is fully moderated by trained professionals before being published. In addition, no-one on Kooth can send private messages to anyone else on Kooth - and every conversation that happens through forums is moderated to ensure safety.
All of the therapeutic content we create and all articles submitted by children and young people is also age-gated so that only the most relevant and appropriate content is available to each individual.
Kooth has a team of professional practitioners available to offer 1:1 text-chat support. We’re open 7 days a week until 10pm and are accredited by the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy.
We also offer assemblies, in which we can come to your school and explore the topic of mental health with your students, discussing the importance of wellbeing, and signposting the support that is available to them.
I’m sure you’re very busy, so here’s a quick run-down of what teachers and young people think of Kooth:
96% of the young people who use Kooth would recommend us to a friend.
96% of young people told us it was “really important” they could access Kooth after school.
81% of the professionals (teachers, GPs, and mental health professionals) we consulted in recent research told us they’d be “very concerned” if Kooth was no longer available to young people.
Over one million young people have already found support on Kooth – and we’d like the students of John Hanson Community School to join them.
We’re here to help you support your students' mental wellbeing inside and outside of school:
At John Hanson Community School we are committed to providing equality of opportunity for all students and staff, and to providing a working environment free from discrimination, prejudice and harassment.
We encourage respect and consideration for others, and recognise and value the school as a safe place for learning. The staff at John Hanson recognise that inequalities exist in all levels of society and believe, that as educators, we have a crucial role to play in eliminating all forms of discrimination, in particular against anyone with any of the protected characteristic. We promote equality by dealing with bullying and incidents of discrimination immediately and by educating the young people in our care through assemblies, tutor time, PSHE day sessions and group work where appropriate.
This is part of our responsibility in preparing our students for life after school.
Important EDI events over the next week:
Women's History Month. 2nd World Book Day. 8th Int. Women's Day
Words you might not know:
Sexism: prejudicing, sterotyping or descrimination, typically against women, on the grounds of sex. Feminism: the advocacy of Women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes. Misogyny: dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. Misandry: is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men.
It is when the world comes together on the 8th of March to celebrate women's achievements and reinforce a commitment to women's equality The DEI team will be producing one of these every term for you and your parents to read through – if you have any ideas for content please see Mrs Curtis, Mrs Ferris or Mrs Grinstead.
Please encourage your son/daughter to use their SCHOOL EMAIL for work rather than their own private email. This is important for safeguarding and also some of our messages for students are being sent to school email addresses.
Think you know – Activity Packs relating to online safety Who’s watching yours? – 17% increase in children livestreaming since lockdown (Advice to help parents/carers minimise risk to children online) Mental health – How to look after your family’s mental health when stuck indoors Houseparty – Everything you need to know.
John Hanson Computing Department
Want to know more about what’s going on in school? Why not follow us on:
