Sent to parents and carers on 28/11/25
Weekly Bulletin for Friday 28 November 2025
On Wednesday 26 November, 22 of our Roma students from Years 8 to 10 joined Mrs Woodhouse, Miss McEvoy, Mrs Lazar and Mr Carr at The Hold in Ipswich. This opportunity came about as a result of an EAL Aspirations Conference organised by Union Romani Voice.
The theme of the conference was ‘Aspiration’ and its core purpose was to celebrate the potential, identity and voice of Roma and Romanian young people in Ipswich. It brought together community members and representatives from local authorities to promote youth confidence, aspirations and empowerment.
At the conference, we were joined by a number of speakers including: Simona Lazar (CEO of Union Romani Voice), Pat Bruce-Brown (Deputy Mayor of Ipswich) and Tim Passmore (Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner), all of whom reiterated the core message of ‘Be Proud of Who You Are’ and talked to students about aspiring to be the best you can be, being proud of your identity and the importance of belonging.
Two of our students were interviewed by BBC journalist, Jon Wright, who has very generously offered his time to come in to run a session about journalism with our Roma students and will be working with them to make their own podcast. You can find the BBC News item here online:
Roma students in Ipswich urged to be proud of their identity – BBC News
Attendance Flash Reward – Christmas 2025
The end of term and the Christmas break are now in sight, with only 15 more get-ups before the end of our first term of the school year. Attendance to school is vitally important – if students are not here with us, they are not able to learn – therefore Santa and his elves have had a word with the Principal, and agreed that every student who can complete the ‘12 days of Christmas Attendance Challenge‘ will be rewarded with hot chocolate and a cookie before we break up for the holidays.
The challenge starts on Monday 1st December and runs until Tuesday 16 December. Every student who has 100% attendance to school for that period will receive the flash reward.
Not only that, everyone who completes it will also be entered into a prize draw to win a gift voucher, so you can treat yourself to an early present!
Christmas Fayre 2025
All are invited to our Christmas Fayre in the main hall on Saturday 6 December. Doors open 11:00 – 15:00 with craft stalls, refreshments, tombola, cake stall and a raffle. Queries may be sent to Charlene.Alcock@attrust.org.uk
Christmas Lunch
Parents and carers were sent information on 14/11/25 about the two-course Christmas Lunch on offer on Thursday 18 December in the food hall. Any students who wish to have the Christmas Lunch will need to have been signed up by the deadline of 16:00 on 1st December. This includes any students who are eligible for Free School Meals. There will be no other hot food on offer at lunch time. You can find a copy of the information here on our website news page:
Christmas Lunch: Thursday 18 December 2025 – Westbourne Academy
Wicked for Good Poster Competition
Mrs Ellis has secured a maximum of 140 entries for the nationwide ‘Welcome to Oz’ poster competition. Any students who wish to enter should see Mrs Ellis in S4a to obtain an entry form. There are three prizes up for grabs including a Wicked merchandise bundle and Lego Emerald City set. The closing date is 9 January 2026. The challenge is to design a poster for the land of Oz, using visuals and a slogan, to encourage people to visit Oz.
Ipswich Fit Christmas Programme
Schools have been asked to share details of the programme on offer by Ipswich Borough Council over the Christmas holidays.
https://www.ipswichfit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CHRISTMAS-2025-SCHOOLS-EMAIL-2.pdf
Job Vacancies
We have the following support staff vacancies at the moment which we are seeking to fill as soon as possible. You can find details on our website here: Vacancies – Westbourne Academy
- Teaching Assistant x1
- Design & Technology Technician x1
- Cleaning Operative x1
- Lettings Assistant x1
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.
Household Support Fund
Suffolk County Council (SCC) is pleased to confirm that the Government announced a further extension to the Household Support Fund from April 2025 to March 2026.
Whilst there has been a £1.2 million reduction in the funding allocation to SCC from the Government, SCC can confirm that they are committed to extending the support provided to low-income families in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) and therefore will be providing vouchers for the upcoming Christmas Holidays 2025.
SCC want to ensure that families are aware that there may be further reductions in Government funding in the future. This could impact SCC’s ability to provide discretionary vouchers after March 2026.
The grant will be issued as a £30 supermarket voucher for each eligible child from their provider Pluxee and is designed to help families with their essential living costs during the Christmas holiday period.
The grant is provided from the Household Support funding the council has received from the government and the Free School Meals (FSM) team will continue to issue the vouchers to eligible families on behalf of schools. Vouchers will be issued direct from SCC to families on 18 December 2025.
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:
Catering & Food Hall – Westbourne Academy
Nasal Flu Vaccination Mop-ups
Monday 15 December is the date when students in all years have an opportunity to get the nasal flu vaccine if they missed it in October. Students with parental consent will be collected from class by a member of staff. Please ensure your child knows beforehand if you have given consent for them to have the vaccination. A copy of the email sent to parents and carers with instructions on how to give consent online can be found here on our website:
Flu Vaccination for Years 7 to 11 – Westbourne Academy
Any queries about the vaccine or giving/declining consent should be made direct to Vaccination UK on 01449 701430 or by email to suffolk@v-uk.co.uk. Their online form does not always work properly for some devices.
Key Dates 2025-26
Monday 1st December – deadline for sign-up for Christmas Lunch by 4pm
Saturday 6 December – Christmas Fayre 11:00-15:00 in the main hall
Monday 15 December – Flu vaccination mop-ups
Wednesday 17 December – Parent/Carer Forum 16:15-17:00 (registration form to follow)
Thursday 18 December – Christmas Lunch (see above for sign-up)
Friday 19 December – Last day of the autumn term with early close at 13:15
Monday 5 January – Staff PD Day (school is closed)
Tuesday 6 January – First day back for all students
Monday 12 January – Y9 MENACWY+DTP vaccinations (info to follow)
Thursday 15 January – Y11 Parent/Carer Evening No 2 16:00-19:00
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
Attendance or Absence queries to: wes-attendance@attrust.org.uk
Exam queries to: anna.fulcher@attrust.org.uk
Lettings queries to wes-lettings@attrust.org.uk
MCAS, online payments and data information queries to: wes-data@attrust.org.uk
Safeguarding queries to wes-safe@attrust.org.uk
SEND queries to: willow.piper@attrust.org.uk