Attendance

Overall attendance in this year group is good but clearly needs to be maintained. There is a strong

correlation between good attendance and ultimate success at GCSE level and we ask that no holiday is

booked or taken during term time. Year 8 is a key year for building the foundations upon which further

learning will be based. Good attendance is vital if students are to perform to their best in all their subjects.

Uniform

Uniform is much improved from last year across the school. We still have a number of students who break

the rules and we ask you to support us in ensuring that your son/daughter returns to school wearing the

correct uniform. This includes students not wearing make-up. The school website has details of the uniform

rules for all students. It also has a link to the Price and Buckland Website where school uniform can now be

purchased online.

Mobile phones, IPODs etc will continue to be confiscated if used within the school and grounds during the

school day.

School Site

We are currently undergoing widespread building and maintenance work which is intended to improve the

site and safety of our students. We would like to remind students that they are not allowed on the school

site out of hours, unless they are attending a club or formally organised activity. Unauthorised access is

treated as trespass.

Preferences

Students will complete the process of selecting their year 9 subject preferences in the spring term. This is

an important process and students as well as parents and carers will be provided with as much information

as possible to make it easier. As part of this, there are two dates that I would like to highlight at this early

stage:

The preferences evening for parents will be on Tuesday 26th February 2013. This is an opportunity to speak

with staff about the structure and content of courses to help assess their suitability for the student to

follow.

The year 8 Parents’ evening will be on Thursday 7th March. This will allow for discussion with your son

/daughter’s teachers about their progress and attainment. It will also be a useful chance to discuss the

suitability of potential preferences.

HPV Jabs

You will recently have been contacted about the HPV jabs that are offered to all girls in year 8. We are now

able to confirm the dates when these will be given. The first will be Monday September 10th 2012. The

second and third sessions will be on Monday 22nd October 2012 and Monday 28th January 2013

respectively. If you have not returned your permission slip and would like your daughter to have these

injections, please send the slip to school as soon as possible.

Communicating with School

If you are reading this as a hard copy, you can still register for Parent Mail, which keeps you immediately

updated with the news and events in school. Likewise, our newly updated website

www.hinchingbrookeschool.net is excellent and worth regularly logging in to.

All staff can be emailed using the generic email address prefixed with the relevant staff initials e.g.

amd@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk You are very welcome to contact us at any time and we appreciate updates

on student success and other more administrative matters. Please do inform us immediately of change of

contact details so we can maintain the accuracy of our records.

For changes in contact details and registration for ParentMail and +Pay (online payment and cashless

catering) please contact communications@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk

Staff initials can be found on the school website under Contact us> Staff Contact Details

Finally

We hope that you have a very pleasant summer break and look forward to welcoming our new Year 8

team on Thursday 6 September.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Yours faithfully,

Alistair Dewar

Key Stage 3 Manager

Tel 01480 375700 Ext 5260

amd@hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk