Dear Parents/Carers
This week Mrs McEnroe led many of the Year group assemblies to celebrate the contributions of our students to our Black History Month activities. Students were rewarded for the prize-winning essays they had submitted about historical figures who were celebrated as part of Black History Month. There were also awards for students who completed the fact-finding trail around the school site about famous role model that we remembered from Black History.
It was wonderful to see the high level of engagement that our students had with all the activities as it helps to continue to promote our school’s commitment to be a truly inclusive community that celebrates strong role models from many diverse backgrounds. Each assembly also highlighted our continued expectation that all students should display calm, respectful and polite behaviour in school as it provides an excellent culture for students to learn well and make great progress. I believe that all our students understand the transformative effect that an excellent education can have on their lives and in talking to our students it is wonderful to hear that many of them have very well-formed plans on their future careers that will allow them to lead happy and successful lives.
Our students aim to be Doctors, Barristers, Lawyers, Accountants, Nurses, Plumbers, Carpenters, Engineers, Computer Programmers, or want to be involved in wide range of different careers from a variety of successful industries or public services. We believe that through our culture, students understand that with hard work and effort, the excellent education that we provide at St Thomas More RC College provides an outstanding foundation for their future.
School Buses
Although a number of decisions taken recently by Transport for Greater Manchester have been made without involvement of the school, I would like to apologise on behalf of the school because currently the service that students and parents/carers are receiving from TfGM and Rosso is clearly falling short of the standards that we would normally expect.
I have written to TfGM, Rosso and Stagecoach to express my views on the merging of two bus services, the awarding of the contract to a firm based in Rossendale, the extended journey times, the number of buses that have broken down, the poor levels of punctuality and the arrangements for re-instating an afternoon 219 service.
Although these issues related to the buses are largely beyond the control of myself or the school, please rest assured that I am making regular representation on your behalf about the quality of the service currently being provided and the improvements that are urgently needed.
Year 10 Virtual Parent’s Evening
Year 10 Online Parents Evening took place last night on Thursday 25th November thank you to all the staff who took part in a very successful evening. Thank you also to all parents/carers who logged on to receive a 1 to 1 video call with your child’s teacher, the feedback from the event was extremely positive and online attendance hit a new record with well over 90% of parents/carers in virtual attendance.
Reminder: Job Vacancy: Site Team
A vacancy for a school cleaner has arisen in our friendly and professional site cleaning team.
More details are available on the school website and the role would be ideal for someone who is looking for a small number of additional working hours per week.
Vacancies | St Thomas More Roman Catholic College (stmcollege.org.uk)
Reminder: Coronavirus Pandemic Restrictions
Facemasks
Please remember that all students (unless exempt) need to bring a face mask into school each day so that it can be worn in communal areas such as corridors and the dining queue
Testing at home:
If you need additional test kits we have plenty in school and students can collect them from the office at any break or lunchtime.
Students must self-test 2 times per week.
Once at the start of the week (Sunday Evening/Monday Morning), and once in the middle of the week (Wednesday Evening/Thursday Morning)
Reporting the result
When they have tested you must register your results [negative or positive] in two online systems
The NHS online system www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result
and
The School Online System
Remember
Please remember that you can contact school each weekday Monday to Friday either by calling 0161 336 2743 or emailing admin@stmcollege.org.uk during normal school hours, if you do want to visit school to talk to a member of staff that can of course be arranged but do please contact school prior to your journey so that mutually convenient time and date can be arranged for an appointment. When contacting school, it may not always be possible for you to speak directly/immediately to the member of staff you require due to teaching commitments etc, however the school always aims to make an initial response to any queries within 48 hours.
God bless and stay well