Message from the Headteacher, Mr C Richards:
As part of Black History Month’s theme ‘Reclaiming Narratives’, over the next few weeks, I wanted to share a few ‘hidden histories’, available on the excellent Black History Month website:
Did you know that there was a black Roman presence in England? “The presence of Africans in England dates back to at least the Roman period when African soldiers who served as part of the Roman army were stationed at Hadrian’s Wall during the 2nd century AD. Septimus Severus, the emperor who was born in Libya, spent his last three years in Britain before he died in York in 211 AD.”
We are really pleased that the standard of uniform has started and remained high since the beginning of term and are grateful to families for making sure their children arrive at school on time and dressed smartly. For a small number of children who are not getting this right, their tutors and pastoral team will have intervened and offered support. We have given out a number of vouchers for uniform since the beginning of term to support families in hardship so please do let your child’s Head of Year know if you need support. Don’t forget to come along to our family forum on Monday evening at 5pm.
Our year 11 and 13 in-class assessments begin next week, so please make sure that your child is working hard this weekend. These assessments will support the teachers in diagnosing areas for development and to adapt their teaching for your child to get the best outcomes in the Summer. As I’ve mentioned previously, whilst it is important to focus on getting the best outcomes, if your child is feeling at all stressed or upset about the pressure or would like a word with someone in confidence, please either contact their Head of Year or safeguarding@villiers.ealing.sch.uk if it is a more serious concern. If you or your child need help out of hours, please do call 999 for the most serious emergencies or contact childline.
Dates for your diary
14th October: Year 13 and 11 in-class assessments → 25th October
Year 12 Business Studies SEGRO workshop
5pm Family Forum
15th October: Year 11 GCSE Photography trip to the Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum
17th October: Full Governing Body Meeting
23rd October: Year 7 Science Trip
25th October: Year 8 Heathrow STEM Engineering workshop
26th October – 3rd November: Half-term
4th November: Islamophobia Awareness month
Year 8 in-class assessments → 15th November
5th November: Year 7 Art Trip to Tate Modern
GCSE Resit examinations → 11th November
11th November: Armistice Day
Anti-bullying week → 15th November
13th November: Year 11 Music Solo Recordings → 15th November
Year 12 Seminar and lecture day
27th November: Flu vaccinations session 2
Year 8 Science Trip to the Natural History Museum
Other key dates for the year can be found on our website. Next year’s provisional dates are also available now.
European Day of Languages Celebration
Last Thursday, we celebrated the European Day of Languages with a vibrant poster competition for our Year 7 and Year 8 students. The event was a fantastic opportunity for students to showcase their creativity while embracing the diversity of languages across Europe and the world. We are thrilled to announce that the winners of the competition are Franzie and Suha from 7E! Congratulations on your poster and for capturing the spirit of this special day. Special mention to the students who took part in the competition:
Manraj 7L Amrit 7I Kashmit 7L Haris 8V Maryam 7E Thanshika 7I Ria 7E Rayan 7I Sruthi 7I Elmond 8A
And to Sharvina Year 9R for winning the European Day of Languages Passport quiz competition.
Thank you to all students who participated and made this event such a success!
Turing Scheme – the UK’s global programme to study and work abroad
We are thrilled to announce that our school has been successful in securing two bids under the Turing Scheme to fund a trip and work experience opportunity abroad for our students! This exciting opportunity will provide our students with invaluable cultural experiences, the chance to broaden their horizons and an enriching educational experience.
Thanks to the Turing Scheme we will be able to offer beneficial work experience trips at a reduced cost to our students. Our Y12 and Y13 students are in the process of applying for a work experience placement in Spain, Portugal or France. We wish them luck with their applications. More news about these trips to follow shortly.
Southall Community Awards 2024
We are delighted to announce that the Southall Community Awards 2024 evening is taking place on Saturday 23rd November 2024 at Featherstone High School.
The Southall Community Awards 2024 is all about nominating individuals, teams or groups from Southall who have been great volunteers, community activists or those unsung heroes who give their time and efforts to help others. In the past we have had nominations of young people, schools, businesses, community organisations and sports teams so if you know anyone who fits this description please send us their nomination. The deadline for submitting nominations is Monday 4th November.
Attached below is an event flyer, a nomination form and guidance for anyone wishing to submit a nomination. This is a fantastic opportunity to recognise and applaud all those people and organisations who have been doing wonderful things in Southall. Hopefully you will be able to attend to help share our appreciation for their work and achievements.
Year 8 Christmas Market trip to Paris
Year 8 have been offered the opportunity to visit Paris, France in December to see some of the different attractions in the build up to the festive period. Please see the attached poster of what is included in the trip and the permission slip if you would like your child to go.
Parenting workshops
Please find the attached flyers for the following parenting workshops available this month:
Wellbeing Questionnaire for Yr 9 and Yr 10 parents
Your child is invited to take part in a new project being run by University College London. For more information on what exactly this project entails, please read the attachment below.
Years 11 and 13 interventions timetable
Please find attached the schedule for our whole-school intervention sessions, which began this week and will continue until Thursday, December 19th.
You can check your child’s Google Classroom to see which sessions they have been invited to attend. We strongly encourage your child to participate in these sessions, as our teachers will be focusing on targeted topics and exam practice.
Thank you for your continued support.
Eco Warriors Club
Lots of students have signed up for our new Eco Warriors Club, but we’re still on the look out for new members. The focus of the club is to make Villiers High School even more sustainable, but there are also lots of other benefits too:
- Get involved in organising climate action events
- Feel like you are making a difference in the world
- Develop important sustainability skills
- Shape school policy and bring about behaviour change
- Enhance your CV
Any students that are interested should come along to O5 on Wednesdays after school from 3.10 – 4.00pm.
The Sustainability Managers for Schools programme
We are delighted to announce that Villiers has qualified as one of three schools in Ealing to be part of the Sustainability Managers for Schools (“SMS”) programme for the 2024/25 academic year. The school will benefit from a dedicated Sustainability Manager at no cost to the school. Leon Palmer is our new Sustainability Manager and will work alongside Beth Reynolds to help the school save money, develop green skills and apply for eco-project funding.
The SMS programme first learns more about the school by calculating our carbon footprint, forming a weekly pupil eco-group and running surveys with staff, pupils and families. With this information the school will agree a Climate Action Plan to give us a clear eco-strategy.
The pupil eco-group will help to shape the school’s Climate Action Plan and secure the brilliant Eco-Schools award. We’ve invited pupils to be part of the Eco-Group at last week’s Enrichment Fair. Please can Eco-Group pupil families return the media permission forms by 27 September.
Eco-Group pupils will learn about sustainability and how to create and manage schoolwide eco-projects. We look forward to seeing how these young people develop their ideas and build a more sustainable future for themselves and their community.
The learning from the programme will be shared with the Department for Education, local and national government to progress UK schools’ contribution to net zero targets.
Want to know more? We look forward to updating you with the school’s progress. Please email LeonPalmer@sustainabilitymanagersforschools.org if you have any thoughts or questions about the programme.
- For more information about the Programme please visit: www.sustainabilitymanagersforschools.org
- Follow SMS on Instagram to discover what the pupils are achieving: @smsmakingadifference
- To learn more about Eco-Schools award please visit: www.eco-schools.org.uk
- https://www.facebook.com/EalingLondon/posts/pfbid0TYK7rRBPbE7RBwEM2u9mrUFgiqbdZnVtd9Lqfa3t1NhByYcJY4Zz1rXmuwCtTEpwl
- Three schools across Acton, Greenford and Southall have been introduced to their dedicated Sustainability Managers. These Sustainability Managers will be supporting school communities (pupils and adults alike) to become more sustainable. Take a look at this link https://actforealing.org/2024/09/09/green-growth/ for more information.
Sustainability survey for all Parents and Guardians
Parents/guardians, please spend 2 minutes completing this very short 6 question survey to help us understand what sustainability means to the school community. https://forms.office.com/e/A4FA236CFb
(We’ll be asking you again at the end of the Summer Term to see whether there have been any changes.)
Sewing Course
A fun family weekend activity that also promotes sustainable fashion. Join us for a brand new session where we upcycle and remodel clothes. We’ll turn charity shop finds, or items from the back of your cupboard into a new and useful item of clothing. Experienced sewer, Laura Holland, a professional costume maker and used to creating something from nothing, shows us what to do.
Open Southall, Parkside Yards UB1 1GH Saturdays 11am- 1pm October : 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th £10 per person per session
Upcycle and remodel clothes to create a new and useful item – OPEN Southall
Bring Our Futures
This is a community event that is being held in October to provide an opportunity for you to take your children to engage in various activities to do with policing that will help to break down barriers in a positive way. Take a look at the attached poster for further information.
Family First Magazine
Take a look at the magazine below that offers practical advice on parenting, mental health, family fun and lots more.
| Here’s your free copy of the UK’s largest parenting title – Enjoy! CLICK HERE  |
Home-Start Ealing
Home-Start Ealing has been supporting families in the borough for more than 25 years. Being a parent, whatever your situation, can be incredibly challenging, especially when children are young. Home-Start volunteers work alongside families to give compassionate and confidential support. To find out more information please see the link below.
https://www.egfl.org.uk/news/2024/09/home-start-ealing
Mental Health support team Autumn term workshop
Over the Autumn term, there will be a variety of workshops on offer for parents and carers of children who attend a school in Ealing. If you would like to know more about this and how to sign up, please see the attached poster below.
Villiers Diner – Week 1 menu ( Monday 14th Oct – Friday 18th Oct )
Cash payments
We are a cashless school and families can pay for school meals, stationery, trips and clubs via ParentPay. You can top up your ParentPay account from a bank account or by using a debit/credit card. If you do not have a valid bank account or debit/credit card, please email info@villiers.ealing.sch.uk. We will set up a PayPoint account, so you can make payments using cash.
Detention information
In order to support your child’s learning and keep standards high, we have introduced a new centralised teacher detention. This means that if a student’s behaviour has not improved after several reminders, they will have to sit a 40-minute detention after school.
We want to ensure that communication is made, so an automatic email will be sent to you, and students will sit the detention the next day, giving you 24 hours’ notice.
Please do remind your child about this and if you do have any queries about how we can best support your child, please do contact their Head of Year.
Contacting Staff
A reminder that if you need to contact staff at school, please use the contact page on our school website to make sure you get through to the right person: https://www.villiers.ealing.sch.uk/contact
If you are reporting lateness or absence, please check the details on this page: https://www.villiers.ealing.sch.uk/key-information/my-child-is-going-to-be-absentlate
Get in touch
If you have any suggestions on how to improve the school further or any concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch via email: info@villiers.ealing.sch.uk
Don’t forget to follow Villiers High School on social media.