We hope you are all having a fantastic summer recharging ready for the year ahead at Alder. The return to school is staggered depending on the year group:
- Year 7 and Year 11 return on Wednesday 4th September at 8:20am
- Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 return on Thursday 5th September at 8:20am
On arrival students should go to their form room. Year 11 have been sent a Class Charts announcement to confirm their Key to Success form.
There will be plenty of staff to help students with this so do not worry if they are not sure where to go.
Year 7 will have their photograph taken by the School Photography Company on Thursday 5th September. These will be available for parents and carers to purchase if they wish.
Uniform expectations
Our winter uniform expectations will return in September 2024, when socks will not be permitted with skirts and instead black tights must be worn. As communicated before the summer, from September, we will have a no earring policy. Piercings of any other variety are also not permitted (nose, eyebrow etc). False eyelashes are also not permitted.
Students who continue to challenge our uniform expectations will receive sanctions in line with our behaviour policy. It is essential that students are upholding our high standards and arriving to school in correct uniform with all items of their basic kit and ready to learn.
Students who are missing items of their basic kit can 'purchase' these using their achievement points from the rewards shop on class charts. They then collect their items from Students Services at break and lunchtime. When a student 'spends' their points, they are not deducted from their overall points total but from their 'spendable points' so as not to impact those aiming for our bronze, silver and gold achievement badges.
As always, if any parent or carer is struggling to provide uniform for their child due to financial challenges, please speak to your child's Progress Leader and we will seek to support you in any way we can.
Full details of the school uniform and equipment required can be found on our website: Uniform and Equipment | Alder Community High School
Equipment expectations
Students must come to school with all the necessary equipment to take part in lessons. Students are expected to have the following for each lesson every day:
- A school bag (large enough to fit an A4 folder)
- A black pen (plus a spare)
- A red pen (plus a spare)
- A pencil (plus a spare)
- A ruler
- An eraser
- A scientific calculator (model Casio fx-83GTX)
- A water bottle
We recommend students are also equipped with highlighters, a glue stick and a pencil sharpener stored safely in a pencil case ensuring they are ‘ready to learn’.
Structure of the school day
From September, we will be making a change to the structure of the school day as we move to 2 breaks of equal length. Brunch and lunch will both be 30 minutes long and will allow students to choose when they eat their main meal of the day. There will be a full canteen service available at both brunch and lunch, and students who are eligible for a free school meal will be able to spend their entitlement at either time of the day. The cost of a meal deal will be £2.81 from September.
The school day will end 5 minutes later, at 2:50pm ensuring that we are meeting our statutory responsibility for the length of the school week.
