Headteacher’s Update
Dear Families
As we approached the latter part of this week it was great to have World Book Day upon us. Many of our classroom doors have been decorated to celebrate particular books and it was great to see the effort made by staff and students alike with this. Reading is so important for many different reasons.
Academic Success– Children who are strong readers tend to do better academically across all subjects. Reading provides them with the foundation for understanding new concepts and acquiring knowledge.
Focus and Concentration– Reading requires focus, which helps children develop their ability to pay attention for extended periods. This skill is beneficial not only in school but in other areas of life as well.
Emotional and Social Development– Many books teach important lessons about emotions, relationships, and how to handle various social situations. This can help children develop empathy and better understand the world around them.
The quote ”reading is to the mind what exercise is the body” presses home exactly how important a contribution reading makes in developing young minds.
I wanted to thank you for your support this week; whilst it has been a challenge, it is always incredible to see the power of community. It would make sense for me to remind people at this point about our safeguarding procedures at Manor High.
We regularly audit our processes and procedures, and the last external and independent audit that took place earlier this academic year stated-
“Pupils were observed during both break and lunchtime. There was a calm atmosphere in all areas. All pupils felt safe in all areas of school and said that is was a good place to be.”
However, we never rest upon our laurels and we know that in an ever changing world we need to be agile and responsive to the needs of our learners. We focus our assemblies upon current issues that are impacting the age group of our learners right now. For example in recent weeks we have covered issues related to internet safety, knife crime and vaping. These are all current issues impacting young people nationally. We have rewritten our PHSE curriculum this year to make it more relevant to the cohort- we cover many issues such as county lines and honour based violence- again all difficult issues relevant to our cohort. There are various workshops across each term that address current needs. We engage with the Violence Reduction Network and every year schedule workshops that are delivered by the Police- these are due to take place this term and were planned many months ago as part of our PHSE curriculum.
You may or may not be aware that we also carry out random searches in school, often using handheld security metal detectors. Anyone who is found with a prohibited item is sanctioned accordingly. We, like most other schools, will take firm action in relation to any student found with prohibited items, both on and off the school premises and the police will be informed. Those sanctions can include the loss of a child’s school place, by way of a permanent exclusion or an offsite direction. This has been discussed with our students in assemblies recently.
However, the best way to engage students is not to threaten with sanctions, it is to educate and support. We remind students regularly to speak with their trusted adult in school should they have anything worrying them, or concerning them. We encourage all students to report any incidents they know about to our in-house email address of safe@manorhigh.leics.sch.uk should they not wish to speak face to face about something worrying them. This email address is monitored by our Designated Safeguarding Leads. They can also speak to any of our trained staff. Whilst the school must have a Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mrs Newbery) we also have Mrs Ghani, who is our full time Operational Safeguarding whose full time role is to support students. Our House Managers and every member of the school leadership team are also trained as Safeguarding Leads. Students can speak to any of us to express a concern.
We will continue to review our practices in order to keep your child safe in school.
Do please read on to see what else is happening in school.
With best wishes
Mr S Greiff
Year 11 Easter 2025 Intervention Sessions
Firstly, we would like to thank all students who have been attending after-school intervention sessions, demonstrating great dedication. We also appreciate the support of family members in encouraging and reinforcing the importance of seizing these opportunities to enhance student progress. Your positive feedback and appreciation for our staff are truly valued.
With just six academic weeks remaining before final exams, our staff remain fully committed to supporting Year 11 students. Targeted intervention sessions will be held during the first week of the Easter break, and we will be inviting students who we believe would benefit from additional revision in preparation for their final exams.
Please find below the programme for the week commencing Monday, 14th April 2025:
| Session | Time | Monday 14.04.25 | Tuesday 15.04.25 | Wednesday 16.04.25 | Thursday 17.04.25 | Friday 18.04.25 |
| 1 | 09:00 – 10:40 | English X
Maths W |
Geography
History |
Science
|
Food
Creative iMedia Enterprise and Marketing
|
Bank Holiday |
| Break | 10:40 – 11:00 | |||||
| 2 | 11:00 – 12:40 | Maths X
English W |
Computer Science
Business Studies Drama
|
Science
|
Creative iMedia
Enterprise and Marketing
|
|
| Lunch | 12:40 – 13:00 | |||||
| 3
|
13:00 – 15:00 | Media | Business Studies
Music |
|||
After the latest round of Pre-Public Examinations (mocks) has been marked, your child will receive an invitation if they are required to attend. This information will also be shared with you during Parents’ Evening on Thursday, 20th March. Please make sure you have booked an appointment to discuss your child’s progress with their teachers.
Please note:
- Uniform: Students will not need to be required to wear school uniform; however, they must wear clothing and shoes that are appropriate for a school environment.
- Ready to Learn: Students will be expected to bring in their school bag, with their knowledge organiser, equipment, and any additional resources specific to the subjects they study.
- Refreshments: Students are welcome to bring a snack and a drink should they wish to as the school dining facilities will not be in operation.
- Behaviour: Students will be expected to respect our school standards and routines, follow instructions, and stay focussed on task during all intervention sessions. Same behaviour expectations apply as any other school day, and this includes bringing and using a mobile phone.
- Safeguarding: Students who are invited must attend and staff will need to contact home should they not attend. Please ensure students have a safe means of getting to school and returning home once finished.
Students are at a pivotal stage in their studies, and these intervention sessions will help them reach their full potential. As our staff are dedicating their time to provide this additional support, it is only fair that invited students attend and fully commit to making the most of these sessions.
Once staff have finalised the list of students required to attend, I will provide further details regarding specific arrangements. Additionally, we are planning to open our study centre for independent study and revision.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your support. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Mr Karavadra
National Careers Week
Just a reminder that we are actually running our school Careers Week events this year in the week commencing 24th March. We will be focussing our activities around Labour Market Information (LMI) and looking at the World of Work here in Leicester and Leicestershire. In preparation for this could parents/carers have a look at the World of Work Booklet 2024/25 which has been provided by the Leicester & Leicestershire Business and Skills Partnership. This booklet looks at the range of different career opportunities we have available and helps young people and their parents/carers to really look into potential; careers including pathways into those careers and so much more information. The 2024/25 booklet can be found here via this link: LLEP WORLD OF WORK LEICESTERSHIRE
During our Careers Week (24th March) we will work with students to look at this resource and to understand the opportunities available to them as well as to encourage them to start thinking about potential career routes (or even consider alternative career routes if they already have some ideas in mind). We will also be asking our students to interact with parents/carers to have discussions about this. So please do start looking at this as soon as you have the opportunity as it will be useful for students in preparation for our careers week.
Please note that this extra link also takes you to a World of Work web page that then has different sub links for various sectors if needed: World of Work Leicester and Leicestershire – LLBSP
Careers coffee morning – exciting opportunity
We would like to invite parents/carers into school on Tuesday 11th March to come and meet with Mr Croucher and also Anna Scull (from the Leicester & Leicestershire Business and Skills Partnership). Tea and coffee will be available too! In this session we will be able to provide information about careers and Labour Market Information which can help parents/carers have positive and meaningful discussions with young people around the World of Work and possible job opportunities. If you are interested in attending this morning please can you email Admin@manorhigh.leics.sch.uk to let Mr Croucher know that you are attending by Friday 7th March. This links in hugely to our careers week focus as mentioned above.
Labour market information describes the world of work and how the employment trends are changing. It tells us about the jobs and skills employers are looking for, which industries are set to grow and where the opportunities for promotion and salaries are going to be. Most importantly for young people, LMI covers the future demand – what kind of jobs/sectors will be in demand after leaving school and what sorts of skills will be needed.
The coffee morning will take place at Manor High School on Tuesday 11th March from 9am – 10:15am.
GCSE Art & Design Workshop
Some of our dedicated GCSE Art & Design students spent Saturday at an Art and Design workshop at the school. They were able to develop and refine their work as they near the end of their projects. Mrs Watson attempted to offset the morning of her suggestions and tweaks with donuts to soften the fact they were working at school on a sunny Saturday morning.
College Applications & PS16
Some students will be receiving invites to attend offers holding events / offers events at schools/colleges they have applied to. We can not let students offsite during the school day unless we have had consent from a parent / carer in the same way a students would need consent to attend a medical appointment etc. If you know that your child has been invited to an event during the school day you must contact the school in the same way you would for a medical appointment and also advise whether your child will be making their way to the school/college themselves or whether a parent / carer will be collecting them.
School and college offers meetings – important dates
Tuesday 18th March – WQE have invited any of our Year 11 students who have accepted offers with them to attend an offers holding event at their school. The event starts at 1:20pm so our students will need to leave at the start of lunchtime. We will not allow a student to leave site unless we have prior parental/carer consent. Please do this in the same way you would let us know about a medical appointment etc i.e. via the admin email / phoning in to the school line. This will allow school staff to keep a log of consent and we can then dismiss students safely.
Tuesday 25th March – Beauchamp College will be in school and will be meeting with all of our Year 11 students who have accepted offers at Beauchamp College. Once we have the times for students we will share this with them. No consent from parents is needed here as the meetings will take place on our school site and during our school day.
TBC – Beauchamp City Sixth Form will come into school to meet with any students who are holding offers with their school (same as Beauchamp College but the date is to be confirmed).
Year 11 – Positive Steps 16 site (PS16)
Please can all year 11 be aware of these key next steps regarding Post 16 applications. Thank you.
Next steps:
- Regularly log into PS16 to see if you have had any offers or messages from schools or colleges. Be patient as different schools/colleges work with different time frames. You should hear back by the end of March latest.
- Regularly check your emails (the email address you gave on your PS16 profile e.g. school or personal email) as schools / colleges may email you here
- Do not worry if your friends have already heard from a school / college and you have not. This is totally normal.
- Accept all offers that are made to you. You can hold multiple offers. Do not ignore an offer whilst waiting for your favourite school/college. Accept any offers you are given. On results day you will choose where you go to (after you have seen the grades you get).
- If you wanted to make changes to any of your applications you need to call the school/college and speak to them. If you have any issues come and find Mr Croucher / Mrs Mahomed.
Leicester College applications
If you have applied to Leicester College through Post16 they have emailed students (on ps16) to say they will be dealing with your application through their College Learner Hub. Please do not worry! They have said that they will email you information about how to log into the College Learner Hub and how to then manage your application etc. Please check your emails regularly (the emails you sent to them via your profile on PS16) to keep an eye out for their messages. If you have any concerns you must contact Leicester College and then also come and speak to Mr Croucher / Mrs Mahomed.
Simply put this means that Leicester College will manage your application through their College Leaner Hub. Any other schools/colleges you applied to will still be managing your application through Post 16.
International Women’s Day Saturday 8th March
The theme for International Women’s Day this year is Accelerate Action. Accelerate Action is a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activity that positively impact women’s advancement, and to support and elevate their implementation.
Tutor groups will be discussing the issue of gender equality and celebrating the achievements of women in the community and the workplace this week and we would love for you to have some discussions at home about the positive progress that has been made and what we can do moving forward in our every day lives and our community. Here are some activities that we will be encouraging students to do and reward points are available for any completed tasks from Miss Chudasama.
International Women’s Day Event
On Friday we took 15 of our Year 10 students to an event at Leicester High School for Girls that celebrated International Women’s Day. Our students were able to hear from a range of inspiring and successful women as well as engage in a range of really positive workshops. Thank you to Leicester High School for Girls for hosting and inviting us to this event.
World Book Day
We celebrated World Book Day at Manor High School this year by encouraging students to ‘Read Your Way’. The day was a great success and there was a great buzz around school.
Please read the attached newsletter for more information
Alumni
We are really keen for former Manor High School students to share their experiences of the world of work with our students.
If you, a family member or even friend who was a Manor High School student and could possibly help us with this please email us via the Admin email (FAO Mr Croucher).
Many thanks.
After School Study Centre and Interventions
Please can you reinforce to students that if they are staying behind at school to use the study centre (either to work or to wait for a parent to collect them) they must not leave site first and then come back. We have had a number of students leave site at the end of the school day, head to the shop and then arrive back at school 15 minutes later saying they need to wait in the study centre. We cannot allow students to just come and go like this as it is not safe and also not fair to staff who are supporting in the study centre.
The same is the case for interventions. If a student has an intervention session after school they must leave session 3, stay on site and then head to their intervention. Some students have been leaving site at the end of the day, heading to the shops and then wanting to be let back onto site 15 minutes later. This is also not acceptable.
Thanks for your support with this.
Safeguarding Update
Please read the attached Online Safety Newsletter