A Warm Welcome 

St Edmund's is a thriving, positive and happy environment where individuals achieve excellent levels of personal development.   The students and staff recognize the importance of the school's Catholic and Christian education and are committed to it in every way.    Working with students we aim to foster a growth and commitment to the love and service of Christ through the teachings of the Catholic Church.

As we near the end of the first half of the Spring Term, students have been working extremely hard with their learning and despite a lot of unavoidable illness over the past couple of weeks, attendance and punctuality remains consistent for this time of year.  Your support in ensuring students attend school is essential if they are to be successful learners.

During this term we have had time to reflect on our journey so far in the light of ‘encouraging one another on our journey to Holiness’.  Last week we completed our Eucharistic Prayer and Adoration allowing us all to take time to stop, pray and reflect; for when we do our journey becomes easier when we know God is with us and we are supported by one another.

Running alongside this we have our ‘Catenian Badge of Kindness’ which is awarded to students who have:

• Consistently shown kindness, respect and care within the Tutor Group.
• Have extended that kindness and care into the school community and lived out the Beatitudes throughout the year.

This special badge is awarded at the end of the year during celebration assemblies.

Our current Whole School Focus is ‘Manners’ and trying to re-inforce our expectations around behaviour and standards whilst in school. One area of increasing concern which we have seen amongst students is the amount of unkindness being communicated through social media outside of school time e.g. through group chats, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat etc.

 Unfortunately these issues have been brought into school and can cause considerable upset for our children.  Whilst we will always seek to resolve these issues (and apply school sanctions where relevant), it can become a major distraction to learning and have an emotional impact on the children.   The school policy and child/parental agreement I believe provides clear guidance for families and highlights the importance of using this valuable tool wisely.  

 “I will ensure that my online activity, both in school and outside school, will not cause my school, the staff, pupils or others distress or bring the school into disrepute” is an extract from the Governor’s E-Safety Policy which all students sign up to when they join St Edmund’s Catholic School.   Any student not conforming to this or found to be bullying another student will receive a sanction in accordance to our Behaviour for Learning Policy. 

There has recently been much coverage of the impact on social media use on our young people and their emotional/mental well-being, as well as focus on excessive time spent gaming/using tablets.

As I am sure you are aware, there are clear legal guidelines as set out in the Malicious Communications Act 1988, Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Communications Act 2003 for the use of apps/social media platforms e.g. Facebook, Messenger, YouTube, WhatsApp, Tumblr, WeChat, Edmodo, Twitter, Snapchat etc.  There are also age restrictions linked to the use of some Apps.  For example, Snapchat/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram is 13 and WhatsApp is 16.

Although students are keen to use such platforms,I would strongly recommend that these safety guidelines are applied.   More importantly, I would urge you to ensure that these are monitored and checked on a regular basis. Teaching our children the importance of appropriate use of social media is a key part of educating young people.  We will focus on this in assemblies over the remainder of this half-term and across the school.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for the hard work, time and effort, in ensuring that our students look so smart and come prepared ready for learning.

I wish you an enjoyable half-term.

God Bless.

Mr Simon Graham - Headteacher