Rowhill School would like to introduce and welcome four new members of staff who started with us in September:

Sam Brown has started as the Maths Lead. He will be teaching Maths to pupils in the vocational hub.

Scott Gillam has also joined us in September and will deliver the nurture provision to Secondary
pupils.

Linda Jackson has also joined us in September as a teaching assistant and nurture support in
Primary.

Trevor Westcarr has joined the Secondary department as a form tutor and English & Maths teacher.

All staff come with a wealth of experience and knowledge that will enhance the skill sets within the school. I wish all four new members of staff a pleasant and successful time at Rowhill School. Two members of staff left us at the end of this academic year, Susan Welch and Marnie O’Rourke. Both have contributed to the development of our pupils at Rowhill School. Susan has taught in both the Primary and Transition hubs and has been instrumental in developing Maths across the whole school. Marnie first joined us as an apprentice and has developed and matured into an excellent teaching assistant. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Susan and Marnie for all their hard work at Rowhill school and wish them well in their new careers. On behalf of all at Rowhill School I would like to thank parents and carers for your continued support.

Yours sincerely
Mr G Bartrum
Head Teacher
Rowhill School

Aimed at parents of children in primary school and year 7

Summer holiday workshops

Understanding Anxiety 25th July 10.30am-12.30pm
Starting Secondary School 26th July 5.30-7.30pm
Starting Primary School 1st August 12-2pm
Introduction to Understanding Autism 2nd August 5.30-7.30pm
Understanding Resilience 8th August 5.30-7.30pm
Understanding Your Child’s Behaviour 9th August 10am-12pm
Starting Secondary School 16th August 10am-12pm
Starting Primary School 22nd August 11am-1pm
Understanding ADHD in Children 30th August 10.30am-12.30pm

Our online workshops offer information around key topics to help understand what is going on for your child and strategies to support them, based on the latest evidence and practice.
If you would like to join, please raise your interest with your child’s school so that they can send you the link. If you have any questions please speak to your child’s school.
Our workshops are held on Microsoft Teams. You do not need an account to join. You will need access to the internet. Currently, this workshop is only avail-able to parents/carers of children attending a EWT/EST school. Please speak to your child’s school or check our website for our list of schools.

We would like to remind you of our vision to provide every student the opportunity to become a successful learner, in a supportive and safe environment, that positively contributes to wider school life. Unfortunately, the inappropriate use of mobile phones in class is having a detrimental effect on pupil’s learning and caused some safeguarding issues. It has been brought to my attention that a number of pupils are currently not following school procedures regarding the use of mobile phones in school. A number of pupils are getting their phones out in class which leads to a lack of learning and at times confrontations with staff. Some pupils are even leaving the classroom to use their phones. Pupils have also refused therapeutic interventions due to playing games on their phones.

The school allows pupils from the Vocational Hub (V1, V2 & V3) to bring their phones in but not get them out in class. If pupils in the transition hub (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 & T6) bring their phones into school they need to be handed in on arrival or to their form teacher at the start of the day.

It has also been brought to my attention that on occasions pupils are using their phones to take pictures or videos of other pupils. This is a huge safeguarding concern for the school and pupils. Safeguarding students is a top priority for us so can I remind you that taking pictures or videos of pupils in school is not permitted.

If a student requires a phone for the journey to and from school, we provide a safe for the phones to be stored in, as the students enter the building.

If pupils are using their phones inappropriately in school I will follow this up with individual pupils and their parents and if I feel that the policy is not being followed this could result in pupils being unable to bring their phones into school and/or in extreme cases could lead to exclusions or for the SLT/Governing Body to review the policy of having phones in school.

If you need any further advice or support on the use of mobile phones in school, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to working with you in the near future

As you may be aware, the national UK Emergency Alert test is due to take place on Sunday 23rd April 2023. This is a test of the system which will be deployed in case of future national emergencies. It involves an automatic notification to all mobile phones, on all networks, in the form of an alert sound.

Please be aware that victims and survivors of abuse, particularly domestic abuse, may have a secret mobile phone which their abuser is not aware of. From a safeguarding perspective, the sounding of the national alert may place such individuals in danger should their abusers become aware of their secret phone.

We strongly advise that any person known or thought to be vulnerable, or who are or you suspect they may be living with an abusive partner are discretely made aware:

• that the alert will sound even if a mobile phone is switched to silent
• and how to turn off receiving the emergency alert.

If this cannot be achieved discretely you may wish to make the information generally available without raising this as a safeguarding issue.

To turn off the alert on an android phone:

• Go to settings
• Type emergency in the search bar and emergency alert should appear as an option
• Select emergency alerts
• This should take you to a page titled either emergency alerts or broadcast settings
• Click or tap on the blue toggle beside emergency alerts to switch the option off. It will turn grey, and the alert will be switched off.

To turn off the alert on an Iphone:

• Open the settings app
• Select notifications, a red square with a white bell
• Scroll down the notifications screen to the bottom to find emergency alerts
• Tap the toggles to turn the emergency alerts off. They will turn grey, and the alerts will be switched off.