Parental Update 10

Dear Parent/Carer,

Parental Update 10

I am writing this whilst travelling to Dublin (apologies if shorter than usual and for any typos!) for the Lasallian Headteacher conference after an extremely busy week in school. As well as the ongoing Year 10 assessments and Year 11 mocks, we had students presenting at a mock COP 30 Conference, a very successful SEND Drop-in, our monthly visit from Jonathan Jones our CEO, GCSE Bitesize Careers Tour for Years 7-10, Kooth safeguarding assemblies for all years, a governors’ Catholic Life and Mission Committee meeting and a wonderful Prizegiving event for our Class of 25.

Congratulations to Year 7 who yet again had the best attendance of the last week – their reward is that they will be early access to the canteen at breaktime next week.

Looking ahead to next week, the mocks continue for Year 11, we have assemblies being delivered by the Youth Justice Team, Pilgrims of Hope educational visit and a St Helens College educational visit for those students interested in the uniformed services.

Whole School Focus – Presentation Evening

On Wednesday we had our Presentation Evening to celebrate the achievements of our previous Year 11s (class of 25). This was a very well attended evening with more students and staff than in previous years. It was, as it always is, wonderful to see our students return and notice how much they have changed in such a short period of time.

The evening opened with a prayer, then two (or 4 due to slight technical issues) performances from our choir and a few words from me before I introduced our guest speaker - Dani McGifford. Dani is a wonderful ambassador who, as a past student, has an inspiring life journey – competing as a heptathlete at every level including for her country, then switching sports to play rugby league. Despite having no rugby experience she has excelled at this and is now one of the leading lights in the women’s Super League. She spoke passionately about her journey and emphasised the importance of failure not being seen as a negative but as an opportunity.

Then we moved on to the awarding of the GCSE certificates, Subject Awards and then Special Awards (see below). It was a very special evening with each form tutor being able to speak so movingly about their form groups.

School Lockdown Practice

Having to lock a school down is the worst nightmare of any parent or teacher. Fortunately, such occurrences are incredibly rare. Nevertheless, for the safety of staff and students, this is something that we always need to plan and prepare for. This preparation has been ongoing for some time and we are in the middle of this year’s training and preparation.

So far, we have run an SLT only practice and next week will run a staff practice. This will be followed the week after by a practice involving the whole school. Obviously, this can be a triggering experience for some staff and students and we will work hard to support everyone through the practice. Mr Fletcher will be talking the students through what to expect in upcoming assemblies. It would also be helpful if you could reassure your child that such procedures are for their safety and very unlikely to ever be needed.

The dates of this term’s practices are below:

• SLT practice-Tuesday 18/11 - done
• Staff practice-Monday 24/11-3pm-4.00pm
• Children-Tuesday 2/12 (during form time/ assemblies w/c 24/11)

Term dates for 2026/27

Autumn Term 2026

• INSET Day: Tuesday 1^st
• Wednesday 2^nd: School Opens for students
• INSET Day: Fri 23^rd October
• Half term: School closes for pupils - Thursday 22^nd October
• Re-opens - Monday 2^nd November
• INSET Day: Friday 4^th Dec
• School closes - Friday 18th December

Spring Term 2027

• INSET Day: Monday 4^th January
• Students return – Tuesday 5^th January
• Half term: School closes for pupils - Friday 12th February
• Re-opens - Monday 22^nd February
• School closes – Thursday 25^th March

Summer Term 2027

• Re-opens - Monday 12th April
• Bank Holiday - Monday 3^rd May
• School closes - Friday 28^th May
• Re-opens - Monday 7^th June
• INSET Day: Fri 25^th June
• School closes for pupils - Friday 16th July

SEND Drop-in Evening

A big thank you to Mrs Thomas and the SEND department who ran this week’s SEND Parental Drop-in. It was great to see Enrichment so busy with lots of parents taking up the opportunity to pop in for an informal chat with our SEND team. We are very aware how isolating and frustrating it can be to be a parent of a child with SEND, and want to ensure that all of our parents feel they have someone to talk to about any aspect of their child’s education. Look out for the next one in the Spring term.

Sporting Updates

A reduction in competitive fixtures with the earlier nights, but all our training remains running at full pelt! Nevertheless, we did still manage some fixtures this week:

Congratulations to our Year 8 football boys who beat Woodchurch 1-0 and enter the last 16 of the County Cup after a narrow victory. Goal from Goddard and POM shared between Lucas, Wes and Theo. Well done lads!

Meanwhile, well done to our under 15 football girls who beat Rainford 5-0 in the Town Cup. Goals from Hague, Webster, Irvine and Barter. POM: Barter and Roberts. Well done girls!

All of our PE and sport related updates can be found on the wonderful PE Twitter (I just won’t ever call it X!) site @DLSPEDept

Carmel College – Special visits

Carmel College have organised 3 bespoke open evenings for parents who either missed the last two or for students who get a bit overwhelmed with large crowds. The places are limited, all details are on the attached flyer.

St Helens College

St Helens College have asked that we remind parents/carers of the Open Event on Wednesday 26th November. This is a fantastic opportunity for prospective students and their families to explore courses, meet tutors, and learn more about the support and opportunities available at the College.

 Event Details:
📍 St Helens College – Town Centre Campus (WA10 1PP), Centre Campus (WA9 1TT), and Green Energy Skills Centre (WA9 1AR)
📅 Wednesday 26th November
🕒 5:00pm-7:00pm

 For more information or to register, please visit: Year 10 and 11 Open Event - St Helens College

Winter Holiday and Food Programme

The Winter Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) will be running from Monday 22nd December 2025 to Friday 2nd January 2026 for all eligible children, young people and families.

All of the information is already available on the HAF webpage prior to the activity bookings links going live on Monday 8th December at 2.00pm for families to book their Winter activities.  Please note that activity places are subject to availability. 

We would like to ensure that as many eligible families take this offer up over the Winter to remove some of the financial burden to families who are already on the brink.

Please see below the link to the HAF webpage with all of the information about the Winter programme. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/article/4060/Holiday-activities-and-food-programme

Reporting Absences (repeated)

Whilst we fine tune our communication systems, will you please report any student absences by using the email: dlsabsence@delasalleschool.org.uk

The absence will then be triaged by our attendance team and may be followed up with a phone call or home visit. Any medical evidence can also be attached to the email.

Attached Information

Alongside this week’s update there is also:

• - The weekly Careers Newsletter
• - The weekly Chaplaincy Update
• - Carmel College Flyer

Forthcoming Events (dates in bold indicate a change to normal finish times)

• o Mon 24^th – Fri 28^th: Youth Justice Service Assemblies (Years 8-11)
• o Tue 25^th: Pilgrims of Hope Educational Visit
• o Thu 27^th: St Helens College Uniformed Services Educational Visit
• o Mon 1^st – Fri 12^th: KS£ Advent Chapel visits
• o Tue 2^nd and Wed 3^rd: School Performance of Matilda
• o Wed 3^rd: Geography Field Trip (Year 11)
• o Thu 4^th: Year 8 Parents’ Evening
• o Fri 5^th: INSET Day (school closed to students)

And finally…

To be fair not a lot has happened this week before me going away. However, my son was recently talking about his work. He is an engineer in a very ‘old fashioned’ male-dominated, macho-culture style of workplace – think 1970s. A place that political correctness has not yet visited.

It is the sort of place where everyone has a nickname. Many of which are far too inappropriate to share, however, a few of them were quite amusing. These included a very chunky guy called Pete who is always the first to volunteer to go to the butty-shop to get food for the office – his nickname is Just Pete.

However, my favourite is a very short bloke called Tony who works in the office. His nickname is Shetland Tony. This one really did make me laugh out loud!

Have a good weekend,

Andrew Rannard (Headteacher)