Headteacher's update 11 October 2024

Published on 11/10/24

Dear Parents and Carers

Week 6 has ended with a beautiful day of sunshine, one of those days that makes you feel glad to be in a school in the middle of the Peak District. We have come to the end of week's focus on attendance. Sending your young person to school is the most important thing you can do to help them in their future choices. If you feel your young person is finding this difficult, please contact school so that we can work together on this.

Next week we look forward to the Year 7 field trip to Castleton. It was also lovely to meet so many Year 7 parents on Wednesday night and say how well Year 7 have settled into school.

There are some key messages below, and in particular as we approach mid-October we are being to think about possible weather events in the locality. Hopefully though, for the next 2 days at least, the sunshine shall stay with us.

School-Home Communications

We would like to remind all parents and carers that we use and expect in return only acceptable language, tone and behaviour in all communications. Whilst we appreciate that you may have serious issues to address, some of the language and tone used occasionally can be upsetting for our staff. Thank you for your understanding. Our School-Home Communication Guide can be found on our website: Policies - Hope Valley College (chorustrust.org)

Adverse Weather Procedures

We aim to open as usual every school day, however in the event of adverse weather we will follow our school procedures. Please be aware that:

weather conditions are monitored on an ongoing basis and the site is checked regularly to take account of changing conditions.
we will use the school website, Derbyshire County Council website, emails and text message alerts to parents and relevant social media platforms to communicate any changes in our usual arrangements.

Please do not ring school to enquire regarding status – it is open unless the website, school social media channels and email alerts say it is not. In the event of school being closed, or an early closure, we will use email and text message to send notifications and to communicate with parents and our website and social medial channels will be updated. In the event of a school closure during the day, students will leave site using their normal means of transport and will be signed out. We politely ask parents not to contact their young person directly as this can cause confusion.

In making any decision regarding change to our usual arrangements, we are mindful of the health and safety of all concerned as well as understanding of the difficulties families may have in terms of planning in advance, finding childcare etc. We will do our very best to make sure that any decisions are the right ones given the information available to us at the time and that they are communicated to you as soon as practically possible. We are sure that you will also have contingency plans in place – let’s hope that we don’t have to use them! Parents need to make their own judgement regarding the safety of their young person’s journey to and from school. Thank you for your support and cooperation.

What’s going on in school:

Our Catering Team have been awarded 5 stars by the Food Standards Agency – a reflection of their hard work and dedication. Well done to them all.

Don’t forget to get your entries in for our art competition – create a piece of artwork to be displayed at Hope Station. The deadline for entries is December 2024.

Our Mountain Bike club got off to a great start last Friday with a full group heading over to the pump track at Hope Sports Field for a lunchtime session with Miss Wain-Hobson and some of our Outdoor Activity volunteers.

Y8 took part in our Interhouse sports this week, with football and netball matches taking place on Thursday morning. Mam Tor were the football champions, whilst Lose Hill took the netball trophy. Well done to all involved.

Miss Nicklin and Ms Astbury recently attended the fashion show or previous HVC student, Alex. From her GCSE Textiles course, she has gone on to achieve great things in the fashion world and aims to become the first northern high couture house! Well done Alex!!

13+ Photo Consent

This week all Year 9 parents/carers should have received an email regarding 13+ photo permissions. If your young person is in Year 9, they will be asked to sign a form during Tutor on Thursday 17^th October 2024 where they will either consent or decline to have their photo taken for purposes other than the use of images for identification and security or supporting the curriculum. A handful of Year 10 and 11 students have not yet signed this form and will be given another opportunity to do so on Thursday.

If you know of a legitimate safeguarding reason as to why your young person’s image should not be used for display & marketing purposes, either in school or externally, please contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead using the email safeguarding@hopevalley.chorustrust.org and we will work with you and your child as necessary to determine the appropriate course of action.

Presentations from Y11 and Y7 Information Evenings

For parents and carers who were unable to attend our recent Information Evenings for Y11 and Y7, we have added copies of the presentations to our website. They can be found here:

Y7: https://www.hopevalley.chorustrust.org/_site/data/files/2199DDF503E02365FAE9FC50DED9DADC.pdf

Y11: https://www.hopevalley.chorustrust.org/_site/data/files/FBA9437AEA1F5DAE3243DE73B3816BCA.pdf