Three weeks ago, I asked parents to complete a short survey to give us feedback on the school-to-home communication methods that we use.  Over three hundred of you replied across all year groups, giving us a nice cross section of opinion. 

It was clear that there are some elements of our current communication strategy that most of you are happy with, and some that you are not.  And there are others where opinions ‘divide the room’.  Some of you, for example, enjoy my weekly ramblings about Hull FC, my family activities and Bruce Springsteen - and some of you hate it and wish I’d stick to talking about the students in our school!  I know that I will never please everyone but the views are noted and I shall ensure that coverage of our students in school is never lost as my main focus. 

What also came through is that some of our communication could be packaged more effectively, sent in a different format and targeted better.  For that reason, after half term, we will be introducing The Eagle – a year-group newsletter. 

The Eagles is named for The Golden Eagle which was the name of the Hessle High School yearbook when it was published in the 1950s and 1960s.  The modern-day iteration will be digitally produced and sent by email with a text message link. 

Each edition will arrive half termly and will focus on the activity in each year group, therefore there will be five sent out each time.  This will allow you to find the curriculum information and extra-curricular news more easily for your child.  There will still be links available for all other year groups if you wish to peruse those too. 

The Eagle will also incorporate the Head of Year Blog meaning that this will be sent less often but will introduce, and seek to capture the theme of, each newsletter. 

We, as ever, are indebted to our staff for providing the content for this and to one of our ex-students, Amy Harrington, who is currently our Digital Media Officer, who will be designing and putting the newsletter together. 

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This week, we have asked all our tutors to communicate with parents/carers.  This may have been by telephone or email.  In the case of Year 7, we invited you into school to meet in person.  I have been delighted with the levels of engagement and the feedback from families.  I know that, in the busy school environment, we do not shine sufficient light on those students who do the right thing every day in school; they attend, work hard and model our school values.  This was an attempt to put that tight and to let families know that their child’s diligence is recognised.  As ever, your feedback on this event is greatly appreciated. 

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Attendance to school remains a real positive theme at the start of the new year.  On average, this is 2.5% higher this year than it was at the same time last year and almost now in line with our pre-Covid average.  We know that the best place for children to be each day, is in school and we are already seeing even better behaviour and progress due to the continuity of attendance.  Thank you, as always, for your support with this. 

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And so, this weekend, I will be spending most of my time with my son, as my daughter and wife are heading to Birmingham to see Becky Hill in concert.  Not really our cup of tea, so we shall we be watching sport and probably cooking up some good food.  And hopefully enjoying some more sunshine! 

Whatever you are doing, enjoy it and thanks again for your support.

Mr Groak

Headteacher