The Mountbatten School Parent Portal - Newsletter 8 September 2023

It has been a pleasure to welcome the students back to school this week and to see our new Year 7 cohort settling in to their new surroundings. I’d like to thank those parents who made sure that their children were in the correct uniform and meeting the high standards of dress that make our students the smart young people they are.

The staff have been settling the students back into the routines of school life which provide the structure and good learning habits that bring success. Your support in getting your children back into a routine at home is very much appreciated. Having a regular time to get up and to go to bed are so important as is a good night’s sleep. Research has shown that during adolescence, teenagers need between 9 and 9.5 hours of sleep yet, on average, they get about 7 hours. Sadly, for some youngsters, their sleep is interrupted by their friends messaging them during the night which then leads to fatigue, irritability and a lack of concentration during the day. One of the most powerful things you can do as a parent/carer is to help your child to get into good sleep habits and to make the bedroom a mobile phone free zone.

Parenting teenagers is certainly not an easy task and dealing with the trials and tribulations of a teenager can often bring back memories of the toddler temper tantrums. Many of our parents have found solace and strategies through the Parent and Carers Workshops led by child psychologist, Lorraine Lee. She is running a number of workshops to support parents in getting to grips with understanding their teenagers, how to help them in their transition to secondary school and how to help them to become resilient young people. Parents and carers who have attended her sessions in the past have always recommended them highly to fellow parents. Details of the upcoming sessions are attached to this newsletter.

There has been much coverage in the media about school closures due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in school. As you know from your visits to the school campus, the school has had considerable refurbishment programme over the last 10 years and, of course, comprehensive surveys were taken before the renovation work of the building. None of these surveys has revealed any RAAC. In order to reassure the school community fully that no one is at risk, we have commissioned a structural engineer to survey the estate to confirm the findings of the previous surveys. Over the summer, the work on making the school more energy efficient continued: installation of new boilers and radiators, replacement of lighting to LED and the commissioning of the new air source heat pump which will heat the Jubilee Building. Hopefully, this significant upgrade will finish early next year making the estate more sustainable and reduce heating and electricity costs.

The new school year is the perfect time for new beginnings: like the first page of a new exercise book, it is a fresh start and the opportunity to try new challenges. I hope that the new school year brings much happiness and success to our young people.