From January 2026, we will be introducing our “Ready to Learn on Time” initiative to support punctuality across the school. This means that all pupils and students must be at their lesson and ready to learn by 8.35am each morning. A movement bell will sound at 8.30am to help everyone get to their classrooms promptly.
To make expectations clear and consistent, any pupil/student arriving after 8.35am will be recorded as late and a detention will be issued as follows:
Please also note a change to site access in the morning. The gate on Cheapside West will be locked from 8.40am. Any pupils/students who arrive after this time, will need to enter via the entrance on Sir Walter Raleigh Drive and sign in at Pupil Services.
Thank you, in advance, for your support with this initiative. Punctuality ensures no learning time is missed, helps everyone start the day calmly, and improves focus for all pupils/students by reducing interruptions to lessons. Our aim is to keep the school community Ready, Respectful, and Safe every day.
On Friday 12th December, our Year 7 pupils will be going to Holy Trinity for their annual Christmas Carol Concert. To allow the pupils sufficient time to have their lunch before they leave, on this day only, there will be a change to the lunch pattern as follows:
Lunch 1 12.30pm—1.00pm Year 7 lunch
Lunch 2 1.00pm—1.30pm Year 8 lunch
Shopping Scams
Every year, thousands of people in the UK fall victim to fraud when buying something online. With Christmas and the January sales rapidly approaching, fraud and scams will be on the increase. Get Safe Online has a lot of information to help with this, which is linked below:
Gadget Gift Guide
At Christmas, many children will be receiving new gadgets as gifts. The Irish online safety charity CyberSafeKids has published a guide for parents and carers which covers the benefits and risks of popular gadgets, what you can do to make them safer, age recommendations and much more. You can find it here: Gadget Gift Guide – CyberSafeKids
Discord
Discord is an app that is very popular with teenagers, especially online gamers. It has a feature called the Discord Family Center that allows parents and carers to be more involved in what their child is doing on the app.
This is a page that Discord has created that explains how to set up the Family Center, and also gives information about its features, which include the ability to view the activity feed, and to get weekly email summaries: Family Center for Parents and Guardians – Discord
There is also a Parents’ Hub which has more basic information about Discord and how it works. You an find this here: Parent Hub | Discord Safety
Screentime as a reward
This is a really difficult question for parents – should we use screentime as a reward, or take it away as a punishment. As with almost all aspects of parenting, there is no one right answer, it depends on the individuals and the circumstances. Internet Matters have published a useful article that may help you if you are thinking about this: Should I use screen time as a reward? | Internet Matters
Choir rehearsals will take place every Monday and Tuesday during form time in MU2 with Mrs. Hutton. These sessions will continue until January.
Please make sure to attend promptly.
Our recent visit to the Frank Williams F1 facility was absolutely brilliant.
On arrival we were warmly welcomed by two members of the team Frank Williams staff.
Students took part in a team building workshop, designing their own nose cone design.
Each group was assigned roles, two product design team members, one finance lead and one marketing lead.
When gathering materials from their allocated budgets, students were assisted by our very own “shop staff”: Mr Stuart, Ms Reese and Ms Dare.
Groups created, tested and presented their designs on stage to main stage.
We also visited the museum seeing iconic F1 cars designed and produced at the Frank Williams factory we visited. The Frank Williams design team were ahead of their time, perfecting both traction control and ABS. Leading to a complete ban in the F1 whist revolutionizing the cars we drive today.
To finish the day, we headed to the eSports lounge for some friendly competition, racing head-to-head in state-of-the-art simulators. The rivalry was only slightly competitive, but highly enjoyable!
Overall, it was a fantastic trip filled with learning, teamwork and excitement.
Bertie D has been picked and playing regularly for Ipswich town academy after being scouted
He has been highly successful and has played regularly against teams such as Fulham, QPR and Peterborough.
He also plays for an EDP academy playing against Southend united and Colchester united – where he has also been selected to take part in the additional EPD Gifted and talented programme for his display to coaches.
If you have any stories and/or photos that you would like to share, please contact us at pupilservices@sweynepark.com
“Hopeworx provides Christmas hampers to vulnerable families. If you would like to make a donation you can take any of the good listed below to the Hopeworx Re-Use Centre, 33 Brook Rd, Rayleigh, SS6 7XJ or bring them in to school, marked “for the attention of Dawn Pearman”.
The deadline for donations is 4.00pm on Tuesday 16th December. Thank you in advance for anything that you can may be able to contribute “
Next week, the Caterlink menu will be ‘Week 2’.
Click here to see the menu.
