Sent to parents and carers on 2/10/26
Weekly Bulletin for Friday 2nd October 2026
This week we have been developing our rewards and awards offer, as well as planning our new House system. Further information from Mr Arrow is included below.
Thursday’s Year 6 Open Evening was a lovely event as always, with dozens of Westbourne students coming in to help guide Year 6s with their families around the site and to help their teachers run the event. Thank you to all students who volunteered to give up their time to help.
It was a real pleasure to host the Youth Hackathon on Monday, with nearly 70 Westbourne students contributing their views as to how we can improve the Whitehouse community for local people using the £20m Pride in Place funding.
Youth Hackathon
We would like to thank all the students who participated in the Hackathon on Monday morning. The students were amazing! Their ideas were thoughtful and creative and will be fed back to the main Pride in Place board. Each group made a presentation of their ideas – the facilitators told us that we are the only school that have had every group do so. We felt immensely proud of our students who stayed on task for 2 hours.
Suzanne Chung who ran the event in school sent the following feedback to us which we would like to share with you:
“Thank you again for organising us to host at Westbourne Academy. The hack went super well, and your students are brilliant! I am currently sifting through the work and opinions we collected and thought you would like to know that a number of students had put that a positive aspect of Whitehouse was school and their teachers.
It was very clear that staff have developed a great relationship with students and that was really lovely to see. It goes to show how highly the school and we, as staff, are held in the estimations of our young people.
Parent/Carer Forum
The first forum for this academy year, which will focus on the recent Ofsted monitoring inspection and our academy improvement plans for 2026-27, will take place in the main hall on Tuesday 13 October starting at 18:00. To give us an idea of the numbers expected, please fill out our MS Form here:
Registration for Parent/Carer Forum: Tue 13 October 2026 – Fill out form
Celebrating Success at Westbourne
We wanted to take a moment to celebrate the fantastic start our students have made to the new school year and share some of the ways we are recognising the positive behaviour, hard work and excellent attitudes we see around school every day.
Golden Tickets:
Our Golden Tickets are awarded to students who demonstrate the positive behaviours and attitudes we want to see across our school community.
We have already awarded over 2,000 Golden Tickets across Years 7 to 11 during the first few weeks of term, which is a fantastic achievement.
We have been particularly impressed by our new Year 7 students, who have made an excellent start to life at secondary school. They received 218 Golden Tickets in their first recorded week, increasing to 348 and then 389 in subsequent weeks.
There has also been some excellent progress across the other year groups, including Year 11 students receiving 112 Golden Tickets in the week commencing 28 September, helping to set a positive example at the top of the school.
A huge well done to all of our students who have received a Golden Ticket. We look forward to recognising many more over the coming weeks and awarding these positive behaviours with a variety of prizes and treats!
Positive Postcards Home:
Our staff are also continuing to recognise students through positive postcards home.
So far this term, 173 postcards have been sent home, celebrating students for their effort, achievement, attitude and positive contribution to school.
We know how powerful it can be when positive news from school reaches home. If a postcard arrives through your door, please take a moment to celebrate it with your child. We want our students to know that their hard work, positive choices and achievements are noticed and valued.
Have Your Say: Our New House Names:
As part of the exciting relaunch of our House System, we are asking our whole school community to help us choose the names of our new Houses.
Our refreshed House System will help to create a stronger sense of belonging, encourage friendly competition, and give students further opportunities to discover their strengths, develop new skills and contribute to school life. We will also be looking at how awarding House points for positive behaviour can contribute towards House success – watch this space!
We would really value the views of our parents and carers, so please take a moment to cast your vote using the link below:
Have Your Say: Our House System Relaunch – Fill out form
Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We are extremely proud of the positive start our students have made and look forward to celebrating many more of their successes throughout the year.
Heads of Year & Assistant Heads of Year for 2026-2027
We are pleased to confirm the Heads of Year and Assistant Heads of Year for September are as follows:
Year Group Head of Year Assistant Head of Year
New Year 7 Mr D Payne Ms L Robbie
Year 7 into 8 Mr J McLean Mrs G Rockell
Year 8 into 9 Mr C Compton Mr M Masters
Year 9 into 10 Mr M Agate New Appointment tbc
Year 10 into 11 Miss S Bird Miss K Thomas-Astley Mon-Tue-Wed AM
Mrs A Fulcher Wed PM-Thu-Fri
To communicate with your child’s year team, please email wes-office@attrust.org.uk in the first instance and staff will come back to you as soon as they are able to do so.
Change of Date for Y7 & Y10 Parent Evenings
Please note that we have swapped the dates of parent/carer evenings for Years 7 and 10 and the new dates are as follows:
Year 10 – Thursday 4 February
Year 7 – Thursday 1 July
Student Absence
Please ensure if your child is absent from the academy, that you have notified the attendance office at the earliest opportunity on each day they are not going to be in school, in order to prevent the automated text messages being sent or absence calls being made to parents/carers – these commence from 8.35am each day.
The ways in which you can contact the academy to inform us of student absence can be found on our website here.
You can contact the attendance team direct on 01473 466145 or by email wes-attendance@attrust.org.uk
Applying for Free School Meals
You can apply for free school meals online direct with Suffolk County Council. You will get an immediate response and confirmation email after you have completed your application. You will not be able to apply over the phone because you need to provide an email address, password and sign the declaration stating that you have parental responsibility. Follow the link below which will take you to the SCC website:
Contact: freeschoolmeals@suffolk.gov.uk
MyChildAtSchool (MCAS)
If you have not yet registered, please do so at your earliest convenience to ensure you have access to all the academy’s communications and services. We recommend that parents and carers use the website version of MCAS rather than the app as the website offers greater functionality than the app. A copy of the self-sign-up instructions can be found here:
Cashless System – Westbourne Academy
NOTE: If you have MCAS, then you won’t receive SMS messages from school so please remember to turn on notifications on your device because any messages will go through MCAS.
Food Hall Menus
The new menu on offer at break and lunch in our Food Hall can be found here on our website. The menus rotate every three weeks and new menus will be introduced after half term:
Catering & Food Hall – Westbourne Academy
Key Dates 2026-2027
Thu 8 October – Y11 Parent/Carer Evening 16:00-19:00
Mon 12 October – Flu Vaccines Y7-8-9
Mon 19 – Fri 23 Oct – Y11 PRE-Week P1-4 in Sports Hall
Thu 22 October – Y7-10 Meet the Tutor Evening 16:00-19:00
Mon 26 – Fri 30 Oct – Half Term Holiday
Mon 2 – Fri 6 Nov – Y11 PRE-Week P1-4 in Sports Hall
Friday 27 November – Staff PD Day (school closed)
Mon 30 November – Flu Vaccines Y10-11
Fri 4 December – Flu Vaccines (Mop-ups)
Thu 10 December – Y8 Parent/Carer Evening 16:00-19:00
Wed 16 December – Y8 HPV Vaccines
Fri 18 December – Last Day of Term / Early Close
Mon 4 January – Staff PD Day (school closed)
Tue 5 January – 1st day of Spring Term
Thu 14 January – Y11 Parent/Carer Evening No 2 16:00-19:00
Thu 4 February – Y10 Parent/Carer Evening 16:00-19:00
Mon 8 – Fri 12 Feb – Y11 PRE-Week p1-4 in Sports Hall
Mon 15 – Fri 19 Feb – Half Term Holiday
Thu 25 February – Y9 Parent/Carer Evening 16:00-19:00
Fri 5 March – Y9 MENACWY+DTP Vaccines
Thu 25 March – Y11 Year Group Photo P5
Fri 26 Mar – Fri 9 April – Easter Holiday
Thu 15 April – Y9 Pathway Evening 16:00-18:30
Wed 5 May – Y11 Summer Exam Series starts
Mon 31 May – Fri 4 June – Half Term Holiday
Fri 18 June – Y11 Leavers Assembly 14:15
Wed 23 June – Y6 Transition Day No 1
Thursday 24 June – Y6 Transition Day No 2
Friday 25 June – Staff PD Day (school closed)
Friday 25 June – Year 11 Prom
Thu 1st July – Y7 Parent/Carer Evening 16:00-19:00
Thu 8 – Sat 10 July – Y10 History Trip/Battlefields
Wed 21 July – Last Day of Term / Early Close
You can view our academy events calendar, together with term dates and PD days, on our website here:
Academy Calendar and Term Dates – Westbourne Academy
Kind regards
Mr M Higgon
Principal
Academy vision: Westbourne is an inclusive academy. We support all students, regardless of starting point, to achieve their potential and develop the skills necessary for employment and life.
Academy values: Be Safe, Be Thoughtful, Be Accountable and Be Respectful.
General queries to: wes-office@attrust.org.uk or 01473 742315