Remembrance

It was encouraging to see the respect that our students showed in this moment for ancestors and other people they will never have met. We have continued to instil in our students the importance of recognising the importance of community and respect for each other and it was good to see them mark the moment in this way.

Sixth form taster day

Also on Thursday we held our sixth form taster day which gave our year eleven students the opportunity to experience what learning post sixteen will look like. The majority of students took part in A level lessons with a smaller cohort of students in workshops with further education providers. It meant that there was something on offer for all students and as I said to them first thing this morning, I hope it will re-energise students in considering their options for the future and what they would like to study next year and beyond. It was a successful day, with and food served by the senior team and the common room busy at lunchtime.

TikTok abuse

It may have come to your attention that there has been a national issue with the abuse of schools and school staff on the social media platform TikTok. The national association for school and college leaders has issued the following message.

“Over the past couple of weeks, school staff have suffered disgraceful abuse through messages and imagery posted on the social media platform TikTok. We do not know how widespread this is but we have received over 50 reports, and we suspect there are many more.

“These posts are often defamatory and offensive, and some are homophobic. Schools tell us that they have asked TikTok to remove them but TikTok has often failed to act despite these posts clearly breaching the platform’s community guidelines.

“This material is extremely distressing for the staff who are targeted, and the young people who are posting it are involved in behaviour which could lead to them being excluded from school and, in extreme cases, being the subject of a police investigation.

“We have written to TikTok to ask it to proactively prevent this material being posted, to respond immediately to requests to remove such posts.

“TikTok has replied to us to say it is investigating the issue and that it is using a combination of technologies and moderation teams to identify and remove content or accounts that violate its community guidelines."

Unfortunately, Chilwell School has not escaped this latest activity and I would urge parents to ensure that they continue to have conversations with children about the appropriate way to use social media to ensure they are not part of this minority across the country who are behaving in a cruel and nasty manner. I will not hesitate to take significant action if any of our students are identified as being responsible.

Parent appointments

We always welcome the opportunity to meet with parents, as we did with parents of year ten students last night. If it is an urgent safeguarding concern we will see you immediately - if it is to discuss another concern or to meet with a member of staff for information during the working day, please make an appointment. Our staff are teaching most of the time and will not be able to see parents without appointments.

Children in Need - 19th November

Next week we have our opportunity to show what our community is really about and make our contribution to help those that need us. Not only will it be a non-uniform day with a one pound donation, but where possible, we would encourage students to be in costume or fancy dress and bring a smile to each others' faces.