Dear Families of the Deepings School

Welcome back to school!

Welcome back to the new academic year of 2023-24.  It was wonderful to welcome all our students back to school this week.  It has been a challenging week for everybody as we experienced a second heatwave, and it is testament to all students and staff how they have admirably coped with the warm conditions.  Whilst it is welcomed over the weekend, we will all be relieved to have the cooler weather next week.

It has been a joy to meet our new Year 7 students.  On Wednesday morning there was a mix of excitement and nervousness as they were greeted at the gate.  48 hours later, they have quickly become accustomed to the routines and are starting to navigate themselves around our large campus.  As I stood on the gate as students departed yesterday, one of our Year 7s exclaimed

‘this is the best school ever!’ 

High praise indeed.

Along with Year 7 it has been wonderful to welcome back the sea of familiar faces comprising the rest of the school.  They have been fantastic role models this week, supporting our new students, showing kindness and respect; two of our school values.

This week Mr White, our deputy headteacher and I have seen all year groups in their assemblies to outline the new behaviour strategy at the school.  Feedback during the summer term, from students, teachers and parents has been carefully considered and applied to a refreshed behaviour strategy.  Furthermore, it is underpinned by educational research.  Please click here for the link to our student expectations.   It is a very fair and acceptable strategy which has expectations of our students clearly stated, none of which are unreasonable.  It is really important that all students, staff and families support this new strategy.  It aligns firmly with the Anthem Trust values, along with our own to support our school improvement journey.

We also welcome many new staff this week to our school.  They are an exceptional group of people, all with extensive experience.  I am delighted in the difficult climate of educational recruitment, that we have started the term with a full complement of teaching staff. 

I wish you all a very pleasant weekend.

Yours sincerely

Ms Kirstie Johnson

Head of School

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Calendar dates:

Calendar - The Deepings School (anthemtrust.uk)