10th January 2020A Message from the Head...With January now well underway I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a warm welcome back and a Happy New Year for 2020. I would also like to introduce two new members of staff who joined us at the start of term. The first of these is Miss Rebecca Pease who joins the Mathematics department having previously taught at Roundhay School. Miss Pease replaces Mrs Tracy Richmond who stepped down from her post at the end of the Autumn term. Captain Colin Davies also joined us on Monday as the Contingent Commander for our newly formed Combined Cadet Force. There was an official handover parade on Tuesday afternoon followed by lots of fun team-building games to break the ice. Weapons training starts in a few weeks’ time and all the cadets are eager to get going on that! Another new initiative begins this term both in Prep and in High School – Russian Club! Mr Woodfine is leading the Prep Club and Mrs Ball the High School Club. These will be great additions to our Mandarin offerings in ensuring a wide breadth of opportunities for all our pupils. Does anyone know what the Russian text above says? Email here if you do! I will close today with a plea I made in my start of term assembly and which your children might mention to you over the course of the weekend. The theme of my assembly was how we might make New Year Resolutions that would benefit the wider world rather than to focus on ourselves and self improvement. One of the ideas I shared was to find a way to help the environment beyond what we already do in school. I asked all those pupils who get dropped off and picked up by car to do as the sign on the fence on the way in says - switch off your car engines when not moving. It may seem like a small thing but leaving the engine running twice a day, for around 180 school days a year and over 100 cars each time soon adds up in terms of polluting emissions and wasted petrol / diesel being consumed. Switching off our engines not only helps the environment but it also helps those children and adults who may suffer from Asthma or some other respiratory ailment when they are making their way through the car park. So, please consider switching off your engines when in the Gateways car park, or anywhere else for that matter, and we can all play our part in helping to improve our environment during 2020. Have a lovely weekend. - Dr Tracy Johnson - Almost Never 'Katie' episode availableLower 6 pupil Katie Proctor travelled to Belfast last term to star in an episode of the popular CBBC show Almost Never. The episode she features in (episode 10, series 2) was broadcast this week and is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer (CBBC). Well done Katie for landing a part in this popular TV show and we hope to see your fabulous acting skills in more shows in the future! New Menus!Our new menus for this term, developed in partnership between Holroyd Howe and our School Food Council, start on Monday January 13th on week 1 of the cycle. A sandwich bar option has been introduced together with some new theme days. The hugely popular Carvery Day makes its return as does the jacket Potato Bar day. To see a preview of the menus click here. Firefly developments : school calendar dates now availableWe are pleased to be able to offer you access to the school's Parent Portal via Firefly where you will be able to see up-to-date information about your child. If you haven't already logged in we would encourage you to do this as Firefly contains lots of useful information and will soon be the main way we share pupil progress reports with parents and guardians. This term we have launched an up-to-date calendar feed which can be accessed from the landing page. It shows the week ahead and if you click on 'See More' you can view the calendar for the rest of this academic year. The calendar allows you to filter different events and will contain information on all sporting events as well as day to day school events. The address you will need to use to log onto the Parent Portal is https://gways.fireflycloud.net Simply follow the instructions for logging in for the first time. You will need to use the e-mail address you have registered with school. Once you have registered with Firefly, you can download the ‘Firefly for Parents App’ which is free from whichever App provider you use. The code you will need to enter to activate this app is “gways”. If you have any problems then, as always, please do not hesitate to be in touch with me at karen.titman@gatewaysschool.co.uk - Mrs Karen Titman - Exam preparation The last public January examination takes place next week. Please take a look at the following page on our website which contains lots of information for candidates - http://www.gatewaysschool.co.uk/public-examinations-information/ - Mrs Nicky Kelly - Quick Links To Popular ContentArticles from ... |