The following parent update went out on Friday 20 December 2024:
We just wanted to drop you an email to update you on a few topics as we head into the Xmas Break. This email covers:
* DfE School Performance Tables
* PTFA Fund-Raising
* Staffing
* School Trips
* Looking Ahead
DfE School Performance Tables
We are delighted to share with you that our school once again topped the DfE Performance Tables for Staffordshire. This has been the case since 2019 – although COVID did knock out two years.
More widely, our school was ranked 158 nationally at secondary level where there are over 6,000 schools. Indeed, if we only compare against similar schools – so not selective Church schools, not single sex schools, and only state schools – then we are just outside the top 50 (51) and up alongside top-ranked grammar schools and the like.
As a school in Staffordshire, where our children are given far less funding than in most parts of the country, and where around 1 in 5 children coming from a Disadvantaged background, we are certainly continuing to punch well above our weight.
A big part of this is you as parents – whether that be backing us even when you’re not 100% sure you agree, getting your children to and from school for Saturday Schools, boosters, school shows, trips, etc, or just setting the tone with your child that happiness and academic success matter at school and for life. A round of applause to you all for this achievement.
This end, we cannot promise we can keep this level forever. The dice is not loaded in our favour. Even so, each time it happens, we simply look to go again, and try to do better still. In many ways these league tables have to be taken with a pinch of salt, dare I say like OFSTED Reports too, but it is still nice to see our students do so well and know that we as staff, and you as parents, have helped them to that level of success.
PTFA Fund-Raising
After that last bit of news, is this the right time to ask you to contribute to our PTFA fund-raising ?
We won’t repeat all our PTFA do – we have told you before and you can see it here – though we do need to thank those who walked the streets of Fradley this week with our Headteacher in torrential rain to raise money for the school via the Round Table Santa Run.
There is a really easy way to help. It takes only 5 minutes and you can then bask in the glow of doing something to help your child and their school. You might even win a heap of cash as a bonus.
Our School Lottery sees you sign up for £1 per week, and as well as a weekly school prize draw – which if you win wipes out your year’s costs plus more besides – there is also a weekly national prize draw for £25,000. The details and way to enter are here.
At the moment we are looking to secure funding to hugely upgrade our Sixth Form centre, trying to pull together a £1million fund to upgrade our failing boiler / heating system, and we have a million other projects from minibuses to books, mental health support to bereavement help, and food provision to community support projects.
If you think we are doing an okay job, can you get involved here to do something to help us get better still ?
Staffing
Recruiting in schools is not a lot of fun at present. Nationally, teacher training figures have missed their targets for years, there are simply not enough people wanting to work with children, and amongst those that do there are bigger salaries for many overseas.
The staff we have at this school are excellent – you might not always think that with everyone – and I can think of one or two parents who likely want to see me disappear in a puff of smoke – but we have as good as we can get.
Even so, there will always be times when we have a long-term absence, a maternity, or a teacher who moves on, and we cannot instantly replace. We have this happening after Xmas in one area with a great teacher departing and we need to get a supply teacher in to begin with.
So amidst this national problem, what can you do to help ?
* Talk to your children about cracking on with work when they get a new teacher (or ‘old’ one) in front of them – do not complain if is not the old one – but make the best of the fact it is someone.
* Speak to our staff with respect and patience – don’t lose you rag and resort to shouting – as the alternative might well be no staff member which helps neither of us.
* Talk up our school wherever you can – we’ve recruited some awesome Maths and Science teachers recently and the school’s reputation played a big part of that – and if you think we’re hopeless, and you tell everyone that, then teachers will not come, and we’ll only get more hopeless.
We’ll always be out there trying to recruit the best staff we can – like the ones we have now that will go the extra mile on Saturdays, after-school, on weekend trips and with clubs. However, if our Headteacher could recruit top staff instantly he’d not be emailing you, rather he’d have a top-notch recruitment company and be operating from the Bahamas as a millionaire.
Generally in life we get what we deserve, and if you can help us, then we will be in a much better position to help your children. We are after all in this together.
School Trips
We have so many trips firing off all over the place – whether they be day visits or weeks overseas – and we are very conscious that these costs stack up.
What we are looking to do over the Xmas holiday is to put a rough guide to Friary trips and visits on this webpage so that you can think ahead about what money you might want to pull together. You can then potentially tie the trips into birthday or Xmas money and teach your children that they have to contribute to what they want out of life.
With opportunities like tracking lions, plotting space travel, helping baby turtles, speeding down mountains, and climbing volcanoes, we’d like every family to have a fair crack at giving their child a wonderful experience.
All the details should be there in the New Year.
Looking Ahead
So we return to school on Monday 6 January – minus the new nose stud, the new Nikes, and the flashy new phone. 😊
Many of our Year 11s have formal exams at that time so after the presents they need to hit the revision. All families involved know about this already.
Also, remember that our INSET Day got switched from late May to Monday 2 June.
And Finally
Well that is that – thank you for your support this year, have a brilliant Xmas, and see you in 2025.
