St Bede's and Byron

Peterlee, Co Durham

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Y6-7 Transition

Headteacher’s Welcome

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that this letter finds you and your family safe and well.

St Bede’s really is a very special school, with absolutely fantastic students and a dedicated staff team. I have no doubt that your children will further enhance our school community when they join us in the next academic year. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them into our new Year 7.

I thought you would find it useful if I outlined our transition plans for the rest of this term. Of course, given the current circumstances, we have had to adapt these transition arrangements to take into account current national guidance for schools, as well as guidance regarding social distancing more generally. Therefore, we cannot have the usual Intake Evening for parents or the Intake Days in school for students, however we will ensure that your child receives the best possible transition support and, most importantly, we will make sure that all children have a wonderful start to life at St Bede’s when they join us. We are having Virtual Transition Sessions with Primary Schools in early July entitled ‘A day in the life of a Year 7 Student’. Attached [in the post] with this letter is information about the school uniform your child will need, in advance of September, as well as details about how to purchase this uniform. You will also receive in the post a number of student information forms, including medical details, and permission forms for IT access, the biometric system we use for school lunches, transport etc. If you could complete these forms and return them to us as soon as possible (using the pre-paid envelope), it would greatly help our planning.

As part of our transition arrangements, over the next few weeks, we will be meeting remotely with every primary school that is sending us children in September, to ensure that all relevant information is gathered on every child. This information will include academic and pastoral information. There will be additional remote meetings to support the transition of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). All of the information that would normally be shared with parents during the Intake Evening has been collated into a comprehensive information booklet for parents, this is your Welcome Booklet’. This includes information such as the organisation of the school day; the roles of Form Tutor, Head of Year and other key teachers; information regarding travel to and from school, the school timetable and lunchtimes; and our school expectations. We have recorded a virtual tour of the school, again for students to be able to get a feel for St Bede’s, even if they can’t visit us this term.

Finally, we thought it might be nice to produce some short, optional tasks that students may wish to complete at home and on their Virtual Transition Session, to help them prepare for the transition to St Bede’s. More information will follow but for the last couple of weeks of this term, these tasks have been uploaded onto our school website under this welcome area for Year 6 for students to use.

Throughout this period, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Mrs Jenkin, Assistant Headteacher Pastoral, (at the school email address) if you have any questions. We look forward to welcoming you and your children to St Bede’s as soon as possible and to working with you over the
next seven years.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Cessford

Acting Head of School

(14 June 2021)

A Virtual Tour of St Bede’s

Meet our Pastoral Team

 

Our Pastoral System

  • Safeguarding children is a priority at St Bede’s. We have a large pastoral team dedicated to the physical, emotional and mental-wellbeing of all of the children within our care.
  • St Bede’s operates a House system: Columba, Oswald & Hilda.
    • Heads of House 2021 – 2022:
      • Columba: Mr Martin
      • Hilda: Mrs Hall
      • Oswald: Dr Henderson
  • There is a mixture of students from each year group (7-11) in each House; however, students will be placed in a tutor group with students that are the same age as them.
  • All siblings remain in the same House so that strong links are made between families and Heads of House. We also take into friendship groups and other key factors into consideration when allocating Houses.
  • Each House has a strong sense of identity, reinforced via a powerful corporate House image and regular inter-House competitions including cross country, dance, football and quizzes. Points boards are displayed prominently in our Heartspace to encourage a healthy competitiveness.
  • Praise and rewards feature heavily as we motivate our students to strive for success.
  • The role of the tutor is key in our system: the group tutor will interact daily with your child, supporting and encouraging them.

A Typical Week at St Bede’s

Wellbeing: Hello and Welcome!

We are excited to introduce you to St Bede’s WELLBEING health initiative! Here we will aim to share information, hints, tips and activities all aimed to help you feel good by supporting your mental health and wellbeing. We all know to look after our physical health, but we should also be caring for our mental health.

As part of this initiative, we would like to invite you to tray activities linked to 5 WAYS TO WELLBEING each day. By following 5 simple actions it has been shown that we can improve our wellbeing. They are easy to remember and, as well as making you feel better in the moment, they can also help you build good mental health for the future.

We have posted fun ideas and activities for you to try as well as useful web sites, video clips and advice which may be helpful particularly during this time when we have been off school due to Covid-19 and social distancing / isolation. These are all available on our website’s Wellbeing page and are updated daily.

If the current news on Covid-10 is making you feel anxious, concerned or stressed, check out Young Minds – they have some great advice.

The Five Ways to Wellbeing are:

  • To Connect: spend time with family and friends. Enjoy doing things together and talking to each other.
  • To be Active: Keeps you physically healthy and makes you feel good too.
  • To Take Notice (be mindful): Take a break to see how you feel. Relax and look around you or listen to music, take a few deep breaths.
  • To Keep learning: Try something new. Try a new hobby, or learn about something just because it interests you.
  • To Give: Do something for a friend or relation/ adult, as well as making them feel good, it can make you feel good too.

Resources to engage your children with:

Tell Us About Your Child

Traditionally, we would have met with you and you would have had ample opportunity to tell us about your child – their skills, their needs, their interests, their friends. It is often a great comfort to parents/carers knowing that they have told the pastoral team about their child. You still can do this! We would be delighted if one parent/carer of each child could complete this confidential online questionnaire about their child. Tell us as much or as little as you need to.

Transition Documents