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The Lakes School News February 2022 Teaching children to climb their own mountains

A very warm welcome to our first newsletter of 2022. Amazing to think that we are half way through this academic year with Year 9 and Year 11 students already thinking about their options choices for September; soon our Year 8 students will be making their Technology and Creative & Performing Arts choices.
Hope you enjoy our latest newsletter…

National Online Safety: Keep your child safe

Children flourish when they feel safe and secure in the world around them. Through a brand new partnership with National Online Safety, The Lakes School is delighted to be handing parents a fantastic tool to ensure that you can take control of educating yourself about a rapidly changing world.

Educate yourself to keep your child safe!

It’s quick and easy to set up your own private account linked to your personal email address and by following the link below, you will receive all of the alerts and information shared by The Lakes School. There’s a simple form to complete which looks like this…

Click on the link below to set up your parent NOS account!

Safeguarding Alert!

We have recently heard about an online craze called 'Embarrassing Barrow', 'Embarrassing Ulverston' and 'Embarrassing Kendal'. Children are engaging in silly or risky behaviour, sometimes exposing parts of their body and posting online. The police are aware. There are also sites called Monkey, Connect Random and Silhouette which are causing issues amongst young people.

We wanted to let you know so that you can make decisions about how best to manage this at home. We are not currently aware of this filtering in to life at The Lakes School.

Year 9 GCSE Options Film

Our Year 9 students are in the process of choosing their GCSE options and we recently released this film to provide parents and students with all of the information you need. Get ahead with your Year 7 or 8 child and take a peek - Year 9 soon comes around!

Apologies for the delay with our eagerly awaited Sixth Form film - we're nearly there!

First Aid Update

Thanks to the work of Miss Nicholson, our on-site first aider, The Lakes School enjoys 5 star first aid provision and our students are extremely well cared for. We always take time to listen to students who visit first aid to understand the root cause of why they might be feeling unwell and, as you will be aware as a parent, a stomach ache, a headache or tiredness can often be a symptom of not eating or drinking regularly, missing breakfast or being anxious about something - amongst much more.

On a morning when a student has woken up feeling unwell, it really is great for us to hear that a parent has encouraged them to get up and go to school and to see how it goes. As parents and school staff, we all know that the way a child feels when they wake up can improve quickly with a drink of water, a bite to eat and some fresh air - and that’s even before the uplifting effect of seeing friends in school. Where a child really is unwell, we will continue to contact parents and discuss the possibility of your child going home and we thank parents for trusting us to make that judgement in line with the best care and first aid training.

Unfortunately, we have recently spoken to a small number of students who have decided to contact a parent to tell them that they are not well but they have not yet visited first aid. This makes our job very difficult and it also places unnecessary stress on parents. Thank you in advance for always encouraging your child to visit first aid as their first port of call should they feel unwell whilst in school.

Whilst we would want to avoid this step, students who persistently contact parents instead of going to first aid will not be allowed to keep their phones during the school day.

Our sports hall comes to life with Year 3 & 4 children from local Primary Schools who enjoyed a fantastic cricket festival thanks to Ms Nicholson, School Games Organiser.

Food and Drink: Fuelling for Learning!

Following on from our first aid message above, we do see a small number of students visiting first aid at around 12pm with a stomach ache or a headache. We sometimes find that a student may not have eaten since their evening meal the night before having left the house without breakfast, or a drink or a snack for break time. Students in this situation do tell us that they have access to toast and cereals and fruit and snacks for break but their morning routine clearly leaves them without the necessary energy and hydration to flourish in lessons.

Whilst we we do offer a small selection of items at breakfast time in the canteen between 8.00am and 8.35am, this is no substitute for children leaving home with a full breakfast, a freshly topped up water bottle and a healthy snack for break time. We will always keep parents up to date with our conversations with students and thank you for ensuring that your child thinks breakfast, water and snacks before they head off to school in the morning.

Breakfast, water, snacks! Stick a helpful reminder sign on the back of your front door.
Every child needs to be fully fuelled for learning.
Sixth Form reading buddies taking time to listen to young readers in our library thanks to a scheme set up by Ms Parry, English Teacher.

We've made contacting key staff at the Lakes School much easier during the last six months - here's a quick reminder of some useful email addresses.

admin@lakes.cumbria.sch.uk

attendance@lakes.cumbria.sch.uk

firstaid@lakes.cumbria.sch.uk

pastoral@lakes.cumbria.sch.uk

Coronavirus Update

Since our peak of 67 cases in October, the school continues to experience low case numbers thanks to the diligence of staff, students and yourselves at home with regular testing and support for our expectations and arrangements at school. Thank you so much! There is such a strong and supportive community around The Lakes School and we thank you for this - the warmth shared in so many of your emails always filters through to staff and makes a huge difference to us all. It was 18th March 2019 when we had to close due to coronavirus and you have been supportive and understanding of the challenges ever since.

Twice weekly LFD testing is still required and it would once again be very helpful if you could ensure that your child takes a LFD test just before returning to school on Monday 21st February 2022. We are potentially entering a phase of the pandemic where personal choice about mask wearing will be the way forward and the recent announcement by the Government indicates that final restrictions will be removed on 24th February 2022. For your interest, here is a graph showing our case rates by day since September 2021 - you can see how cases have steadied since the October peek.

Mobile Phones

We have a very clear and simple set of expectations around mobile phones which we believe is a healthy approach at The Lakes School. Students are allowed to bring their mobile phones in to school and to use them before registration, at break and at lunchtime - although, it has to be said that so many of our students prefer to sit and chat or to walk outside or play on the field which is really lovely to see.

Students are not allowed to use their mobile devices in lessons unless their teacher has given permission. Mobile devices are so powerful that access to Pinterest in art or recording software in music can make tasks simple, particularly when the school invests in Office 365 subscriptions for all students and this can be integrated in to their mobile device.

Whilst some students may wear their headphones on the way to and from school, it is not safe for students to be wearing headphones in school as this isolates people from communicating with others - not only is this inconsiderate in a social environment like a school, it is also unsafe in an emergency.

The vast majority of our students use their phones and headphones in line with our expectations and respond politely to reminders. Where students fail to meet our expectations regarding mobile phones or headphones, we maintain the right to confiscate such items for collection at the end of the day. We will continue to ask parents to come and collect such items where a student persistently presents with challenging behaviour regarding mobile phones and headphones.

Students are also asked not to broadcast sound from their phones or to make phone calls whilst at school.

As always, thank you for your support!

Broadfield Thanks

As a school community that sits amongst beautiful Troutbeck Bridge, we take a great deal of care over our relationship with local residents. You will have seen requests in previous newsletters asking parents to avoid using the private lane which runs up to the Spar garage. We have also asked students to use the main pedestrian access to the school rather than using the private lane which is not for use by the general public. We know that school drop off and pick up times can be busy and we thank you for your patience whilst pedestrians and vehicles move safely.

On behalf of Broadfield residents, we would like to thank you for your support which has brought about a significant improvement for our local residents.

Looking Ahead...

The recent release of examinations information has helped teachers provide focussed support for Year 11 and Year 13 students ahead of half term as we move towards the summer examinations series. We're working hard to support students with their exam technique and building confidence with knowledge, skills and understanding so that they can achieve well this summer.

Spare a thought for our skiers who should have been heading to the white stuff over half term but it won't be long now before the Easter break and their rescheduled visit to Austria.

Year 10 Parents Evening takes place on Thursday 17th March 2022 from 4.00pm to 7.00pm.

Where will your adventures take you this summer? Ex students Seth Barnett (pictured) and Joe Ligema found theirs at Borders College, studying BASE Mountain Biking.
Thanks for reading and we will be in touch again soon. Click the appreciate button below if you liked our latest newsletter! Bye for now...