YEAR 8 TUTOR EVENING

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YEAR 8 TUTOR EVENING
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THE CAUSEWAY SCHOOL

• Welcome
• As your childs tutor, I am going to run through
  a few things that may affect you and your child
  throughout this Academic Year.
• As with all school Years, Year 8 is an important
  year and we hope that giving you more information
  will help you to support your child to achieve
  their targets and be happy in school.
• Please stop me if you are unclear or have any
  questions.

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Contacting the Year 8 Team

• Philip Wenham - Head of Year 8
• philipw_at_causeway.e-sussex.sch.uk
• Di Hill Pastoral Assistant
• 01323465707
• dianeh_at_causeway.e-sussex.sch.uk
• Sally Porter Form Tutor
• sallyp_at_causeway.e-sussex.sch.uk
• A number of other important email addresses can
  be found in your Childs planner.
• All contact should initially be through the tutor
  except for absence which should be reported to Di
  Hill.

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Attendance
Attendance is a major focus in the school
improvement plan. Pastoral Assistant (Mrs Di
Hill) manages attendance for all year
8s. Absence should ONLY be taken when your child
is unwell or has a medical appointment. Any
other reason will not be authorised by the school
in accordance with UK law. If your child is
taken out of school during term time, your child
is certainly going to miss out on vital work that
they will not be able to cover themselves. If
your child is sick, please contact the School
before 9.00 and leave a message with Di Hill who
will record your childs absence. This has to be
done for everyday of their absence, in the case
of a medical certificate this should be sent into
school as soon as possible. Please also send in
a note confirming your child's absence when they
return to school.
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Attendance matters

• 100 attendance is the aim and all students with
  100 attendance will be rewarded at the end of
  the year. Please try to encourage attendance,
  even if feeling a little under the weather.
  Last year some lucky students got new bicycles!!
• If your child needs to leave school for an
  appointment, please try to get them back into
  school for the rest of the day, or take them out
  only when their appointment is due.
• If a child is marked in for the afternoon that is
  at 2 o clock, this is seen as a present for the
  afternoon session.
• Attendance challenge we hold termly challenges
  where the aim is to have 100 attendance for
  these days, please keep an eye out for when they
  are and support us in helping your child meet the
  challenge and receive a prize.

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Uniform

• The planner has all the guidelines for wearing
  the correct school uniform and P.E kit.
• Your child will be given 24 hours notice to make
  the necessary changes. After that he/she may be
  placed in internal isolation.
• If there are exceptional circumstances like a
  broken toe and therefore the need to wear
  trainers please write a note in your childs
  planner so that the tutor can inform staff.

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Make-up

• The school rules are that no student in Year 7,8
  and 9 are to wear make-up and in Year 10 and 11
  they are allowed a modest amount.
• Besides the rules research has proven that
  wearing heavy make-up at a young age is damaging
  to the skin.
• Please support us in this by checking that your
  child is not wearing make-up.
• Time spent chasing up these issues seem a waste
  when it could be spent supporting students with
  their learning.

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Jewellery

• The planner makes the school rules on jewellery
  very clear.
• One stud in each ear lobe only
• A necklace or chain only if it is for medical
  reasons.
• Piercings apart from the ears (as above) are not
  allowed, so please dont allow your child to get
  them done. We will ask them to remove it and it
  will be a waste of money.

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HOMEWORK

• When we asked Parents about their concerns you
  told us that you wanted your child to have more
  relevant homework.
• Students are now given an immediate C3 (after
  school detention) for not doing their homework.
• We need your support in this!.
• It sometimes may seem unfair, but learning to
  take responsibility for their learning is also a
  major focus of this.
• If your child says they have no homework, they
  can always read, it can be the newspaper, a
  magazine or even the Friday Ad.

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How can you help?

• Check and sign your childs planner at least once
  a week.
• Insist they do Homework right away before they go
  out, as they may be tired/sleepy later.
• Provide a space for them to concentrate and work
  to the best of their ability
• Allow them internet access if their homework
  requires it.
• Ask to read it through with them.
• Remind them each morning as they leave for
  school.
• Constantly reinforce the importance of homework
  and learning.

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Bullying

• Bullying is a second focus of the school
  improvement plan. As a school we are trying to
  curb a problem that occurs in all environments
  and walks of life. However I think that we need
  to understand what bullying is as the term has
  been overused in some instances.
• What is Bullying?
• Persistent and calculated physical or verbal
  abuse.
• One-off name calling is not bulling
• A fight is not bullying
• Friendship fall-outs are not bullying
• These incidences are dealt with appropriately,
  however we urge parents to view these differently
  to bullying.
• The Causeway School takes bullying very seriously
  and will deal with bullying when it arises. We
  work closely with the Anti-bullying Association
  and they support us in terms of counselling as
  well as group sessions and staff training.

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What can you do as parents?

• Bullying
• Urge your child to tell their tutor. We cant do
  anything if we dont know!
• Contact the school yourself.
• Record all examples of the bullying (time and
  location)
• Dont take matters into your own hands as this
  more often than not makes matters worse.
• Give the school time to deal with it. To get to
  the bottom of things we need to get statements
  from those involved and witnesses, sometimes
  watch cctv footage and at times we involve P.C
  Wicking (The Schools Police Liaison Officer).

• Incidences
• Talk to your child. Is it a one off or is it
  continuous?
• Can they ignore it?
• Keep any information that may be helpful, like
  text messages, website pages etc.
• Is it part of growing up and changing?
• If they cant ignore it, report it to their tutor.
• Remember there are two sides to every story and
  as a school we will need to see the whole
  picture.

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What do we do about it

• It obviously depends on the severity and
  persistency of the incident but these are some of
  ways in which we try prevent bullying.
• Each year group has a bullying log and all
  reported incidents of bullying are logged here.
• A warning is given when a students name is
  entered for the first time in the bullying log.
  There after it may be a day in internal
  isolation, persistent bullying is an exclusion
  and referral to The Anti Bullying Agencies.
• We also have a number of Year assemblies about
  the effects and consequences of bullying.
• The school have older students who are bullying
  mentors to support our younger students.

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Academic Mentoring

• Your child will receive a report at the end of
  terms 2, 4 and 6.
• This will indicate whether they are on, below or
  above their individual target in each subject.
• Students who are below target in 4 or more
  subjects will be placed on an academic report.
• You will be involved in this process and can help
  your child reach their targets through a number
  of ways but most importantly being involved in
  the target setting days.
• This is a positive process that will help all of
  our students meet their targets and make the
  appropriate progress throughout their school
  career.

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Looking ahead

• During Year 8 we will be starting to prepare our
  students for next Year.
• We will be looking at their SATs exams and their
  option choices.
• You can help by having discussions with your
  child about the future What career, which
  subjects in KS4, how they will prepare for their
  exams, any revision guides that they may need.
• The students record in their planners what they
  have learnt in each lesson, please try to help
  your child to get into the habit of talking about
  their lessons and what their targets are.

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YEAR 8 TRIP 2008 PGL CAMPLITTLE INDIAISLE OF
WIGHT18 -21 JULY

• We are very fortunate to be able to offer our
  students this trip. It will be an exciting
  adventure and will be the first time the Causeway
  has offered this sort of trip to Year 8s.
• The trip will take place at the end of the Summer
  Term and will cost approximately 160 this
  will include transport, food, accommodation and
  activities throughout the camp.
• The possible activities available are Abseiling,
  Aero ball, Archery , Beach Games ,Body Boarding,
  Camp Craft, Canoeing , Circus Skills ,Climbing,
  Dragon Boating, Eco Trail, Fencing, First Aid,
  Giant Swing, High Ropes, Jacob's Ladder , Keel
  Boat Sailing, Kayaking , Orienteering, Problem
  Solving, Quad Biking, Raft Building, Swimming,
  The Matrix, Trampolining, Trapeze, Tunnel Trail
  and Zip Wire.

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We have 80 places available and our aim is that
we can fill all of these places and take a large
proportion of our Year Group on the trip. The
trip will allow your child to experience new
activities, work as a team, develop existing
friendships and hopefully build new ones. The
activities will also cover the Outdoor and
Adventurous activities component of your Childs
PE curriculum.If you are interested please take
a flyer on your way out and to secure a place on
the trip return the deposit as soon as possible.
We will be able to give concrete arrangements for
the trip once we have received all of the
deposits.
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Thank you

• Thank You for supporting us tonight and hopefully
  this has given you an opportunity to gain some
  further information about our school.
• We hope that we can work together as a team to
  bring success to all of our students and help
  them to achieve their goals for the future.
• We would now like to invite you to A2 to meet the
  rest of the Year 8 team and enjoy some light
  refreshments.