It was our pleasure to welcome our Year 7 to 11 students back to school today after the Summer break and we are looking forward to building on their positive start over the course of this academic year.
We welcomed all students back to school this morning with Year group assemblies, where they were introduced to Mr Shannon, our new Headteacher, as well as other additions to the Senior Leadership Team; our new Deputy Headteacher, Mr Goodwin, and our new Assistant Headteacher, Miss Barry.

We shared the success of our fantastic Year 11 GCSE & Year 13 A Level results, alongside the success of our Year 7 Rugby League team who were crowned National Champions at Wembley in August, although Mr Shannon will provide further detail on these items in his upcoming newsletter. These success stories were shared to highlight the many and varied opportunities available to all students to best support them and maximise their school experience to ensure their own success.

Students were also reminded of our high standards and expectations, especially around their behaviour, attitude to learning and uniform, as well as our mobile phone & electronic device policy. We appreciate, and thank you in advance, for your support in ensuring your child upholds our standards.

School Developments:

Students experienced their first day of our new school structure outlined to you in the Summer Term, with a split lunch and Personal Development Review session with their Form Tutor. This development will allow students more meaningful contact time with their Form Tutor, as well as the opportunity to access clubs at lunch time and areas such as our fantastic 3G Astroturf and Sports Hall. We will be gathering feedback from staff and students over the course of the Autumn Term and we will update you on their feedback.

With this change, can you please support us in reminding your child that Period 1 lessons start at 8:25am prompt and that all students are expected to be on the school site for 8:20am. Punctuality is key to ensure students maximise their learning time in school and, as I’m sure you’ll agree, every minute counts!

With regards to other school developments, building work continues on the refurbishment of the schools new £500,000 bespoke catering block, which will be opened in phases during the course of this academic year. Once complete, Year 7 to 11 students will be accommodated in one large modern facility which will provide a more positive dining experience with greater choice and speed of service. We look forward to sharing images of the facility with you once complete.

Lunch provision and topping up your child’s account:

Please be aware, we have experienced some early technical difficulties, which were beyond our control, with our external provider. These issues were mainly concerning, but not exclusive to, our new Year 7 students, however, we have been assured that this has now been resolved. We appreciate your patience with this matter as we are aware a number of parents could not access the system online to top up their child’s account.

To ensure students did not go without food today, we have provided free breakfast snacks to students at break time and free lunch to our Year 7 students who were still affected at lunch time. Although the students enjoyed receiving their free food, we have been advised by our external provider that they have now resolved the issue and normal service will now resume. We will be monitoring this closely throughout the remainder of this week.

As mentioned in our August update, the school has moved to a fully cashless catering service and all lunch money must now be added to your child’s account using your Wisepay account login.

To provide for greater security in children not having to carry cash around school, there will be no revaluation machines operating on site or other means for taking cash to ‘top-up’ accounts. This development will also allow parents to control the top up their child’s account and view a full purchase history in order to keep track of where their money is being spent. Wisepay is accessible, via all devices by visiting our website at www.greatsankey.org and clicking on the Wisepay icon and logging in with the details previously provided. An update to Wisepay will also allow parents to download an app to all major devices and we will provide further details of this as it goes live.

If you have any concerns logging in to Wisepay, or you require a password reset, please email finance@greatsankey.org and include your child’s / children’s names, Form and confirm the email address you would like set up. These requests will be actioned as soon as possible via email.

We will regularly update you on school developments and look forward to working with you over the course of this academic year to ensure your child has the best possible school experience. If, however, you have any concerns you wish to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact us at school.

Kind regards,
Mr Paul Masher Deputy Headteacher