Dear Parents and Carers
Incredibly we are mid way through this short half-term with only 14 more school days to go until the February break. The pupils are doing us proud - so thank you for your support.
Attendance: Our pupils are on track to achieve exceptional things. We know that a purposeful environment, rigorous curriculum and exceptional teaching means that pupils at Soane can make more progress and have more opportunities than pupils elsewhere.
I was delighted that the Department for Education recognised the success that we have made in supporting all pupils to attend: our absence rate of 4% is around half that of similar schools - meaning that pupils are able to build a strong sense of belonging and are able to make exceptional academic progress.
Please continue to support your child's wellbeing and progress by making sure they are on time every day, avoiding appointments during the school day and only missing the smallest possible amount of school where an appointment is unavoidable.
Clothing: We are expecting a wet week ahead. Pupils will be outside at break and lunch time unless there is exceptionally heavy rain. Please ensure that they have an unbranded navy or black coat with a hood or an umbrella. Please ensure that all clothing is labelled and that pupils visit lost property at the start or end of the school day to reclaim missing items.
Year 11 exams: Year 11s will shortly be sitting their final mocks before their GCSEs. They are doing us incredibly proud. Please see details of the upcoming exams below.
GCSE results day: Year 11s should attend school to collect their results in person on 20th August 2026. It is strongly advised that pupils are in the country on this date so they can enrol in their chosen Sixth Form.
Future dates for your diaries:
Thursday 5th Feb - Y11 mocks start
Thursday 12th Feb - Shakespeare in Schools performance
Friday 13th Feb - INSET
16-20th Feb - half term
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend,
Mr Neuberger
This Week's Highlights
More news from the world of sports: Our Year 7 Girls' netball team competed against Twyford this week and despite a loss they played great matches and there were smiles all around! Well done to the girls and especially Riya, who was player of the match for both games.
A highlight in lessons this week was Year 7 having fun and learning lots about microscopes, and it looks like we have some budding future scientists in the building!
Notices
Vaccinations (3-in-1 teenage booster and Meningitis vaccine)
At Ark Soane, we will be offering two vaccinations to all Year 9s on Thursday 5th February 2026.
The 3-in-1 teenage booster (Td/IPV vaccine) is given to boost protection against 3 separate diseases: tetanus, diphtheria and polio. The 3-in-1 teenage booster is free on the NHS for all teenagers as part of the national immunisation programme.
It is routinely given at the same time as the MenACWY vaccine. In total, you need 5 doses of the Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio vaccines through your childhood. This will build up and maintain your body's own immunity against these infections and protect you against the diseases.
Please see the NHS letter to parents sent home with your child next week and either consent or decline the vaccine for your child using this link:
https://nwl.schoolvaccination.uk/dtp/2025/ealing
The deadline for consent is 3rd February 2026
Thank you for your support.
School reports
We are currently in the process of updating our reporting model to ensure that our school reports give the most useful possible information to parents. As part of this we are going to move to termly reporting, reporting three times a year, rather than 6. This will enable us to provide more detailed information about student progress at Soane. As a result, there will be no school reports this half-term - the next reports will come out just before the Easter holidays.
Year 11 February mocks
Year 11 will begin their final set of mock exams on Thursday 5th February. These will run until the end of the half-term. You can find attached their exam timetable, as well as the content list that sets out what they will be tested on.
As always, you can support your child's work at home by making sure that they have a calm, distraction-free place to complete this work, and by helping them to establish routines around what times they study on each day. You can also support their revision by regularly asking them what they are revising each day, as well as what topics they have not yet revised.