Dear all,

We have reached the end of an extremely successful half term at Holmleigh Park High School. There are far too many to list them all, but some particular successes include:

• Students have looked absolutely brilliant in the new uniform
• Behaviour continues to improve, with fewer students than ever being withdrawn from lessons
• A record attendance at Open Evening, with the proportion of Year 6 parents picking us as first choice doubling since last year
• The launch of our new teaching and learning strategy, with Knowledge Organisers put in place for all students in every subject, and an ambitious homework regime – our students are second in the UK for progress made on Hegarty Maths (out of nearly 2000 schools)
• Year 11 and 13 have thrown themselves into their exam years with huge enthusiasm, and are working incredibly hard. I am completely confident that they’ll be extremely successful.
• Fantastic results for Greenshaw schools in the league tables, with Henley Bank and Five Acres breaking into the top ten schools in Gloucestershire (last year, all ten were grammar schools)
• We have had two very positive articles in Gloucestershire Live
• We have welcomed a number of visitors, including Richard Graham MP (twice!), and a number of Headteachers and School Leaders who are seeking to learn from us. The comments on tours have, without fail, been hugely positive.

You will have noticed that I am sending this letter by post.

This is because I’m aware that not all parents are receiving my weekly letters online. We send most communication electronically now, so it’s incredibly important that we have an up to date email address for you. If you haven’t already done so, I would be incredibly grateful if you could visit tinyurl.com/HPHSdetails to make sure we have an up to date email address and phone number.

I also wanted to remind you of a few key bits of information you may have missed through my online weekly messages

• We have a new, far simpler system for checking whether students are eligible for Free School Meals or Pupil Premium funding. It takes 2 minutes and you receive an instant response; we have now had a number of families receive support they were not receiving before. You can complete this here: hphigh.co.uk/fsm  
• Our contract with ABM catering ends over half term, and catering will now be provided by Greenshaw Learning Trust. I’d like to thank you for your patience this term while we’ve experienced problems with our service. As part of this, the cash machines for topping up student accounts will be removed during half term. Student accounts must be topped up online through ParentPay. If you haven’t received login details, please contact our IT team: support@hphigh.co.uk
• Please note that ClassCharts and ShowMyHomework will both be shut down on 1^st November, and you will no longer be able to log on to either sercvice
• Student email addresses will change from @beaufort.coop to @hphigh.co.uk on 1^st November. This means students will need to login with their new email address (e.g. parkay.17@hphigh.co.uk). Passwords will not be affected.

Finally, I’d like to thank you for welcoming me into your community. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first term here, and am really looking forward to seeing Holmleigh Park continue to improve over the coming years.

I hope you have a very restful half term,

Patrick Farmbrough

Headteacher