Please find this week's key messages below.
Parental Phone Controls
As discussed in this week’s update, there are ways that families can control the amount of time that their children spend on their phones accessing certain apps. These are being used by an increasing number of families.
You can find out about family sharing on Apple phones here: Family Sharing
For Android phones, the equivalent is Family Link which you can find out about here: Family Link
6th Form Open Evening
A reminder that the 6th Form Open Evening is this Monday 13th October between 5.00-7.00pm. We would encourage all Year 11 students to attend to help them make an informed choice about their future.
Key Year 11 Information
Progress Meetings
You will be receiving a progress meeting appointment time next week. This meeting is an opportunity for you and your child to meet with a senior member of staff to discuss current progress in Yr11 and how they have been preparing for the upcoming mock series, commencing on Monday 17th November.
Please note - due to the volume of appointments being conducted, we are unable to change appointments or reschedule. Your child will attend their appointment on their own should you be unable to attend. There will be an additional opportunity to attend an in-person parents’ evening in the new year.
Raising Achievement Sessions (RAS)
RAS will be starting on Monday 13th October and will run through to the November mock series. These are targeted sessions designed to intervene where students struggle with key concepts and/or have knowledge gaps. If students have been selected by their teachers to attend a session, it will appear on their Class Charts timetable, and you will be able to see if they have attended or not. Students may be selected to attend up to 3/4 sessions a week, and the majority of the sessions take place at lunchtime, after your child has had a break and time to eat. Some sessions occur after school. Your support in getting your child to these sessions is crucial and much appreciated; last year there was a correlation between attendance at RAS and GCSE success.
There are two more blocks of RAS, one in January in the build-up to the February mock series and one in April in the run-up to the GCSE exam period. If your child doesn't have a session appear on their timetable for this block, they will likely be selected for one of the subsequent RAS blocks.
Students have had an assembly today (Friday 10th October) informing them of this information and the process.
Miss Lutynski
Hardship Fund
Many thanks to all those parents and carers who made donations to this via ParentPay following last week’s update. The money will be well spent and is much appreciated.
Parking near the school
A reminder that the streets around the main student pedestrian entrance on Newton Drive are both shared with other local residents and can become acutely congested during school drop-off times. There was a near accident last week, and we would urge you as much as possible not to attempt to drive as close as possible to the school gates, but if you are dropping off or collecting your child, to consider whether there is an alternative place you could do this slightly further from the school itself. I do appreciate that the roads around the school were not designed for modern car usage, which makes this difficult.
What is my child learning?
A reminder that you can find curriculum details about what your child is studying here on our website: Curriculum Overview | Framwellgate School Durham
How to help support your child at home?
Students can use the link below to access resources that will help them study independently at home, such as:
- Knowledge organisers
- Revision checklists
- Past exam papers
- ‘How to Revise’ instructional videos.
Students have been shown how to access this SharePoint site and a 'how to' sheet has been sent to you via ClassCharts. As parents and carers, you won’t be able to access this, but the link will work for all students. Students learning how to use this excellent resource early in their time here will be very beneficial to them later as they approach their GCSE studies. All GCSE students should be making regular use of it as a matter of course.