It is a relief to get out of January; a month that always seems ridiculously long.
Y10 pupils have been preparing for their English speaking and listening assessments this week. The topics they have chosen are insightful. Many have chosen current issues, such as environmental concerns and increasing poverty and some have gone for something completely different such as ‘Why Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer of all time’. Not sure Cristiano Ronaldo would agree. I read an article this week on ‘manifestation’, which would make for a very interesting discussion piece. Considered a controversial concept, it is a way of willing our goals into existence. Apparently on TikTok, the hashtag #manifestation has 13.9bn views!
It was somewhat of a contrast to an article about the work by the American psychologist Tessa West. In 2014, she conducted a study researching anxiety and stress. She created stressful situations for parents, had them sit with their children, all were between the age of 6-12 months, and she found that if the parent’s heartrate was elevated, then the babies caught the stress. The name given to this is termed as ‘stress contagion’. If we, as parents, get stressed and don’t do anything about it our children pick up on our anxiety through our face, our sighs and other non-verbal gestures; they become attuned to how we are feeling and in turn feel the same.
Someone who won’t be feeling any stress this week is Cuthbert, as the caterpillar war finally came to an end. It is also heart-warming to see that there are still some Alsager citizens digging in and keeping their Christmas lights up. Either that or they have gone early for Christmas 2022.
Thank you to all parents for your feedback on Y11 parents’ evening yesterday. The new format is proving to be a success, and it has been lovely to receive the emails acknowledging the hard work of the staff.
Year 8 had their ‘Be Inspired’ day this week, as we launch the options process. It gave them the opportunity to think about potential careers. A virtual presentation is available on the website about options and any specific subject questions/queries can be answered at the parents’ evening on February 17th. We changed our options process a couple of years ago to enable all children to have access to a broad curriculum at Key Stage 3. It has been really well received.
We have had in person assemblies this week where we have been able to give a refresher on our standards and expectations at Alsager School and praise the behaviour and culture which makes Alsager School so special. We set high expectations and rely on the support of everyone involved in the lives of our students to help uphold our values. We are working with a vast number of students; when things aren’t right, let us know and we can work together to rectify it.
We are still awaiting final details of any changes to GCSE and A level exams for 2022 only. As soon as we have them, they will be shared. We have been assured that they will be out by February 7th.
The AFCON final should prove to be as exciting as last week’s Australian Open as Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah go head-to-head on Sunday; a must see for all football fans. Whatever your plans, I hope you have a lovely weekend.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” (Charles Glassman)
