Welcome to our first monthly newsletter of the 2026-2027 academic year. This edition is shorter than usual due to the IT challenges we are facing. I hope you find the information in our Newsletter helpful.

Internet Connectivity

As you are aware we have not had our usual internet provision in school since Thursday 24 September.  This is due to a security incident that has affected many schools across the city.  As you can imagine, in our technological age much of the day-to-day operations of a school rely on internet access. We have implemented many contingency measures to mitigate the impact of this event but are nowhere near at the point of having our 'normal' level of internet provision.

I would like to put on record my thanks to our staff for their resilience, fortitude, and can-do attitude. Well-done to our students who have adapted to a range of new approaches and thank you to our parents and carers for their patience and understanding. I am pleased to say that despite the challenges this incident has given us, we have continued to deliver strong academic and pastoral provision for our students.

Meet the Tutor

Thank you to all the parents/carers who were able to attend the Main School in-person meet the tutor afternoon or the on-line Sixth Form meet the tutor event. Good Relationships is one of our ‘three circles’ (alongside Safe Boundaries and Empowered Learning) and this event is a valuable opportunity to strengthen the home-school relationship. Thank you to all the parents/carers who have taken the time to share such positive feedback.

Main School Open Evening/Mornings and Admissions

Our open evening (Wednesday 23 September) for entry into Year 7 in September 2027 was, as usual, extremely well attended. Our open mornings on 28, 29, and 30 October were also very well attended.  Our students did an excellent job of talking about their experiences of life at SMRT. We are very proud of them all and are proud of our School.  Thank you to parents and carers who have taken the time to share positive feedback about our students and staff.  We really appreciate this.

If any of your friends who may be considering applying to SMRT have any queries about the Governors’ Admissions Policy, please suggest that they contact Mrs Botting, our Admissions Coordinator (admissions@smrt.bristol.sch.uk) who will be more than happy to support them.

For those of you applying for siblings of current students, it is very important that you complete the Local Authority application form (https://www.bristol.gov.uk/schools-learning-early-years/secondary-apply). In addition, you will need to complete the school supplementary form, which is available online via our website (link) – scroll to the bottom of the admissions page and use the ‘click here to apply’ button. Our closing date is matched with the Local Authority, i.e., Saturday 31 October 2026.  It is best to contact Mrs Botting with any queries before Friday 23 October as the school will be closed then for the holiday for a week.

Sixth Form Open Evenings

We have the first of our Sixth Form Open Evenings for entry into Year 12 in September 2027 on 13 October 2026.  Our second Sixth Form Open Evening will be on 4 November 2026. You can find information in the sixth form admissions area of our website.

BS1 Alive Cradle to Career Hub

During the last academic year, I wrote to you about our Cradle to Career Hub. This has been developing rapidly.

You can find out more out BS1 Alive via our webpage here. The Webpage is constantly evolving, and you will be hearing lots more about the work of the Hub as well as the benefits it provides for our school community. We are aiming to have a BS1 Alive Cradle to Career Hub standalone website and social media platforms ready to launch in November. You can contact us via the Hub email address (bs1alive@smrt.bristol.sch.uk) if you have any queries.

Attendance

Whenever a child is absent from School our attendance administration team will contact parents/carers on that day if we have not been provided with a reason for the absence. This contact will be repeated throughout the day so that we can account for the absence. This is an important aspect of our safeguarding procedures. Please do ensure that you respond to the request for information and, better still, notify the attendance team (attendance@smrt.bristol.sch.uk) in the morning if your child is going to be absent due to an unplanned situation e.g., illness. Please follow this link for an explanation of our procedures for notifying the School of absence for unplanned reasons.  Mr Pike (Assistant Headteacher) is the strategic lead for attendance.

Clubs

We have several clubs on offer for our students.  Many of these are run at lunchtime as well as after school. Through our BS1 Alive Cradle to Career Hub we will be able to offer additional opportunities, such as Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and Basketball with Bristol Flyers, but won't be limited to only sport. The 2026-2027 Extra-Curricular and PE Clubs will be available on our website here in the next week or so. There will be a message to parents/carers when it goes live.

Alive Points

Our students have already been awarded large numbers of positive Alive points this Term.  These totals include those awarded during morning registration.  You can find a table of these points at the bottom of the home page on the school website.  Points awarded to students in Year 7 are allocated to the House to which the student is assigned, rather than shown as Müller House, as they were previously.  Here is the points total as of 23 September

Year 11 Revision Information Evening

Thank you to Mr Taylor, Miss Ainsworth, Mrs Meredith, Mr Eve, Mr Sims, and all staff involved in organising and delivering the Year 11 Revision Information Evening on Tuesday 29 September. It was great to have such a large turnout for this important event. Please do contact Miss Ainsworth (Head of Year 11) if you require further information.

Year 11 Mock Exams

Year 11 students will be having assessments between Monday 9 November and Friday 20 November.  We are planning for these assessments to take place in the sports hall, and some smaller rooms.  As in previous years, it is important that students revise for these assessments as they will help us to make decisions about predicted grades and, in some subjects, tiers of entry for exams.  A revision topic list will be sent out in early October. There will be a further round of Year 11 assessment in early 2027 (23 February to 5 March).  Students will receive more detailed information about the arrangements for the November assessments in due course.  Please contact your Child’s tutor or a member of the Year 11 team if you have any queries. Please follow this link for the names of key staff in the Year 11 team.

Free School Meals (FSM)

We know that the circumstances of many parents and carers change, and if you are not already registered for free school meals and think you may be entitled, please do register. This also helps the school as some of our funding is allocated on the percentage of students on free school meals. You can apply for free school meals if you get any of these benefits:

• Universal Credit
• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Support as a family with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), i.e.

• less than £22,700 a year if you have 1 child
• less than £26,300 a year if you have 2 or more children

The Local Authority website, has all the information you need and you can apply ‘on line’.  Please contact our FSM Administrator, Mrs Cooper, if you need more information or support with your application (coopere@smrt.bristol.sch.uk).

Community News

Congratulations to Praise in Year 9 who has been called up to the England Under 15 Football squad. Praise will join his teammates in October, and we wish him all the very best for this new exciting chapter.

Miss Foster (Head of Year 12) will be starting her maternity leave very soon and we wish her well.  Her pastoral role is being covered by Ms Rigby.  All our new staff members are settling in well.  It is lovely to have them as part of our community.

We have said goodbye to Ms Morrison (Cover Supervisor), who has returned to Canada, and will be saying goodbye to Mr Nichols (LSA), Mr Shrimpton (LSA), and Miss Stephens (Main School Learning Mentor) in early October.  We wish them well.

We advertise all of our teacher and support staff posts on the Eteach website (and they are listed on our own website too) so do please check there regularly if you are looking for work in an educational setting!

Prayer Point 1: Giving Thanks for a New School Year
We thank God for a positive start to the new school year and for welcoming our new Year 7 and Year 12 students into the SMRT community. We pray that they would quickly feel a sense of belonging, grow in confidence, build strong friendships, and flourish in all aspects of school life.

Prayer Point 2: Harvest Appeal

We thank God for the generosity shown through our Harvest Foodbank Appeal, which provided much-needed donations for our local foodbank. We give thanks for the leadership of our Student Chaplains and the whole school community who got involved.

Prayer Point 3: New Student Faith Initiatives

For all the new student groups launching this year, especially the Student Alpha course. May the Year 11 students leading it be encouraged and equipped as they create a welcoming space for young people to explore the Christian faith and ask big questions about life.

Prayer Point 4: The Season Ahead
As we move into autumn and leave behind the summer months, we pray for God's continued guidance, strength and peace for our whole school community. In this new season, may students and staff find fresh energy for the term ahead, remain resilient through challenges, and grow in wisdom, kindness and hope.

Contents

It has been great to see our students in their new House ties as they have returned to school this term.  Thank you for making sure that the new ties were sourced ready for September despite the difficulties with our supplier.   

Here is a link to the uniform page of our website to check the clothes that should be worn.  Our most common issues are white socks being worn instead of black ones, skirts that are not part of our uniform code, or jumpers being forgotten.

Hoodies are not part of school uniform and should never be worn. Coats should be worn as an outer layer when the weather cools or is wet.   

Thank you for attending the recent ‘Meet the Tutor’ evening. We appreciate the time given to have a face-to-face conversation at the start of the academic year.

Your child’s Tutor is your main point of contact, so please do reach out at any time if you have any concerns during the year. 

We started this year with a wonderful church service for all year groups.  The theme of the service was how we weather the storms of life and how we are not alone.  We heard about how Jesus calmed the storm and considered who we have in our boat to help us this year.

On Friday 25 September, some of our students were invited to speak at a national Church of England Conference presenting to lots of senior leaders.  Our students did a brilliant job answering some really tricky questions about spirituality and worship.  They spoke confidently and were able to explain all the different ways in which we worship and gather as a school.  Well done and thank you to : Joseph, Adeire, Hannah, Astrid, James and Annabell.

Every week we run a worship session in our tutor groups, and make these available on our website for parents and carers to view.

Each newsletter will feature a Weekly Worship we would like to highlight from the previous month.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please see below the links and contact information for support for families of students with SEND:

Click here to book on 19 October at 12pm Upcoming free sessions!

In this session we will cover:  Picking apart clashing and complementary needs and understanding these interactions  Masking and ways we can reduce the need for masking in daily life Sensory and executive functioning differences and how to manage these Click here to book your space on 6 October at 6.30pm In this session we will cover:  Understanding what dyslexia is and how to recognise the signs. Learning about related neurodevelopmental differences, including Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD/dyspraxia), Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Discovering practical ways to support reading, spelling, writing and maths at home.    Click here to book your space on 12 October at 7pm In our welcoming and relaxed session, we'd love to hear from you about: How your child is settling into school this year How you feel about support they receive in school   How well you feel school staff communicate with you Click here to book your space on 15 October at 7pm

Bristol Parent Carers support parents and carers of children with SEND and work with Bristol City Council to ensure they are meeting children's needs. Inside their newsletter you will find a new guide to Resource Bases and Specialist Schools in Bristol, updates on proposed changes to SEND support, information about wellbeing support for families, and free SEND information and support sessions.

Please click the link here for the Newsletter: https://midd.me/L5yV

Juggling the busy demands of parenting can be tough, but we're in it together.

Best wishes,

Each fortnight we send a 'Wake Up Wednesday' (WuW) safeguarding update to parents and carers. These cover a range of topics and themes that empower and equip parents and carers with the confidence and practical skills to engage in conversations with young people. We also make WuWs available on our website.

Here's the WuW update we are highlighting this month.

Link

Thank you for your understanding regarding the postponement of the last meeting.  The internet outage would have made the meeting quite tricky to do as a hybrid.  The next meeting will now take place on Thursday 22 October in the Learning Resource Centre (Library) at 7pm.  A link to join online will be emailed out nearer the time.  

Storytale Festival is a children and YA book festival happening on the 24 and 25 of October in We the Curious in Bristol. Over the course of the weekend, there is a packed programme of storytelling workshops and activities for children, teens and the family! We have a diverse and exciting line up of authors, illustrators and creatives from the local area and beyond.

Bring along your book-loving kids and aspiring authors, or give more hesitant readers a reason to start their storytelling journey. Tickets are available at:

https://www.storytalefestival.com/whats-on/#fullevents