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Exploring the relationship between Year 11 absence and GCSE results - FFT Education Datalab

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We explore how much of a relationship exists between absence in Year 11 and Key Stage 4 attainment once absence in Year 10 has been accounted for.

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Ofsted have changed their framework which comes into force as of now. A summary video can be found here about the changes

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Ofsted's renewed education inspection framework: main changes

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Fitzjohns Community Food project is self-referral so people can turn up when they are open and register to become a member.

Although they do prefer it if people can email or call first so they can give them some information. Their opening times are Mondays (we will be closed on the 29th of December) from 12.30-2.30pm. They offer 6 weeks free support, then after that they ask for a £3.50 contribution per week. The contribution includes a food shop (worth between £25-£30), hot food and drinks from the community cafe and access to their Community Navigator who can work with people 1-2-1 to check they are receiving all the support they are entitled to.They are at Christ Church, Prince Edwards Road, Lewes BN7 1BL

If you contact Chailey School we may be able to refer for you and you may be allocated some extra support

Open Mondays 12.30-2.30pm Christ Church, Prince Edward’s Road, Lewes, BN7 1BL, East Sussex

fitzjohnsfoodbank@gmail.com | 07395 156873

Landport Foodbank - families from this area of Lewes can be referred by Chailey School.

A referral is not necessary to access Lewes Community Fridge. The Fridge is open to anyone and everyone- all are welcome.

They can be found in Lewes Town hall kitchen (access via Fisher St) on Saturday mornings between 10.30am and 12. There is usually a que. They will be open as usual over the Christmas period.

Find them on facebook- just search for Lewes Community Fridge .

Lewes Community Fridge Team. Lewes Town Hall Kitchen, Market Lane . lewescommunityfridge@gmail.com

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All East Sussex County Council provided transport will leave school at 12.30pm on Friday 19th December 2025.

For those students travelling on the Lewes 121, Chailey staff will accompany them to the bus stop on Mill Lane for the 12.50pm service.

Students travelling to Uckfield will need to make their own arrangements.

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Me & Mind - East Sussex Mental Health Support Team

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Me & Mind - East Sussex Mental Health Support Team

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Introducing Lily Stevanovic_Chailey Secondary School (1)

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Keep Children Safe Online: Information, advice, support

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Working with online experts, we’re here to provide parent, carers and professionals with advice and support to keep children safe online

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This week we have really struggled with poor attendance. I know people do their very best to send their children into school, but I am concerned with the levels of attendance this week and want families to reach out if there is anything else we can do to help their child into school.

Later on in this newsletter, Mr Austin has shared some critical research into absence rates and how it affects student attainment. We also know that student wellbeing can be affected the longer that students are away from school and they can struggle to feel like they belong.

This week in school we have had plenty to celebrate. Our Year 11s did their 2-day Art trial exam and produced some truly mind-blowing work! Some of our Drama students had their LAMDA performances in which they showed of their skillset and moved our staff to tears with their passionate delivery.

We have some great reasons to not miss out on school in the next two weeks. We have The Battle of the Voices on Tuesday which pits staff against students in terms of singing. In addition to this we have Year 7 Christmas Dinner on Wednesday, and our school concert on Thursday night and Christmas home clothes day on Friday!

We look forward to seeing an improvement in attendance next week and wish you all a lovely weekend.
Mr Holt

(Head Teacher School Tours – Fill out form)

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Thank you to all the families who have donated so far. We will be taking donations up to the 11th December. Thank you

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We are looking for a Teaching Assistant to join our team at Chailey. Full information on the website.

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Chailey is a thriving, successful school set in rural Sussex, just north of Lewes, and within easy reach of Brighton and Haywards Heath. We are proud of our traditional values and innovative approaches to Teaching and Learning.

Staff are friendly, dedicated and supportive; our students are happy and proud to be part of the school. We have a very low level of staff turnover because we are kind and supportive to each other. Chailey is a school where teachers and students can thrive. Of course, working in a school is demanding and all of our staff are hard-working and go above and beyond to support our young people.

Visitors to Chailey School often comment on the calm teaching environment and fantastic relationships between students and teachers.

We had our last Ofsted visit in January 2022 which we were very pleased with.

The Ofsted report contained comments such as:

'This is a kind school. The school's values of kindness, resilience, independence and creativity permeate everything.'

'Welfare and wellbeing are high priorities in this small rural community school.'

'Pupils are knowledgeable about diversity including Black history and gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity. Pupils respect different ethnicities and cultures. They value the different contributions that everyone makes.'

'The curriculum is designed well to meet the needs and aspirations of all pupils including the most able.'

'Leaders and governors are ambitious for what pupils can achieve. Parents and guardians speak enthusiastically about the school.'

We believe that this is a very strong foundation from which to aspire to excellence in everything we do.

Current Vacancies
Student Support Manager
We are looking to recruit an additional Student Support Manager to increase capacity in this area of the school. This is an important role in the school and you will be able to make a real difference to the welfare and wellbeing of our students. Our Student Support Managers work under the direction of a Head of Year, to offer support and care for one year group of our students. At Chailey School we value our staff. We know that we are can only look after the youngsters in our care if we look after ourselves and each other too. By joining our staff, you will be part of a supportive network of colleagues that value each other. We have four other Student Support Manager in school and all of them will support and help you.

Full details on this role can be found in the application pack.

We would be very happy to offer an informal chat and tour to any prospective applicants. Just contact us by emailing Serena Rodd, PA to the Head Teacher srodd@chaileyschool.org

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Chailey School is a mixed, non-selective, community secondary school located in the village of South Chailey, Chailey, just outside Lewes in East Sussex, UK. Chailey School offers a wide range of aca..

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Copies of communications sent to our families can be found on the website.

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Chailey School is a mixed, non-selective, community secondary school located in the village of South Chailey, Chailey, just outside Lewes in East Sussex, UK. Chailey School offers a wide range of aca…

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School Calendar (What’s On) - Chailey School

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Chailey School is a mixed, non-selective, community secondary school located in the village of South Chailey, Chailey, just outside Lewes in East Sussex, UK. Chailey School offers a wide range of aca…

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TO REPORT YOUR CHILD ABSENT DUE TO ILLNESS OR A MEDICAL APPOINTMENT

·         Log into Arbor

·         Navigate to 'Quick Actions' and click - this is usually in the top left of the screen

·         Click 'Attendance'

·         Click 'Log Absence'

·         Enter the reason for absence

·         Click 'Log Absence'

FOR GENERAL ENQUIRIES

office@chaileyschool.org

01273 890407

TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR THE SEND SURGERY

(Friday Mornings)

srodd@chaileyschool.org

01273 890407

TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR THE SLT SURGERY

(Friday after school)

srodd@chaileyschool.org

01273 890407

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Add new guardians and contacts for your child on the Parent Portal and Parent App

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This article explains how primary guardians can add new guardians and contacts for their child using the Parent Portal or Parent App. It details the steps to view the child’s profile, add new conta…

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Battle of the Voices Tuesday 9th December 6pm

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Battle of the Voices Tuesday 9th December 6pm

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You are warmly invited to our exciting singing competition celebrating the amazing talent of our students and staff!

Join us as performers go head-to-head in a fun, friendly “battle” for bragging rights and the title of Battle of the Voices champion. You can look forward to:

Incredible performances from students and staff

A lively, supportive atmosphere

Plenty of singing, cheering and smiles

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School Concert Thursday 11th December 6pm

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School Concert Thursday 11th December 6pm

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We would like to extend a warm invitation to this year’s Christmas Concert at Chailey on December 11th at 6:00pm. As always, our musicians have been working hard to produce a magical evening of music and song, including some festive favourites! We’ll have performers for whom this will be their first foray into live performance alongside some familiar faces (between you and me I’m hoping there might even be some mince pies!).

Seating is limited and tickets are available from today on ParentPay.

We look forward to seeing you on the 11th.

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We’re looking for enthusiastic external coaches and facilitators to run after-school clubs for our young people.

Whether your passion is sport, art, music, drama, STEM, games, or something completely unique, we’d love to hear from you!

If you can offer an engaging and inspiring club experience, please get in touch to discuss opportunities.

Serena Rodd - srodd@chaileyschool.org

Let’s work together to give our young people even more opportunities to learn, play, and grow!

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Christmas Home Clothes Day - Friday 12th December

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Christmas Home Clothes Day - Friday 12th December

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Donations can be made on parentpay. Your donations will be shared between Save the Children and the Connor Saunders Foundation. Thank you

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Christmas Carols at Newick Church - 6pm Tuesday 16th December

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Christmas Carols at Newick Church - 6pm Tuesday 16th December

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Friends of Chailey School End of Term Tuck Shop - Friday 19th December

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Friends of Chailey School End of Term Tuck Shop - Friday 19th December

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Friday 19th December @ break time. Students can bring in money to purchase treats

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Our Year 7 boys’ football team capped off a term of dedication and rapid improvement with a fantastic 1–0 win against Uckfield this week. The result was a true reflection of the hard work the squad has put in since September, growing in confidence and developing their teamwork with every game.

From the first whistle, the boys showed real determination, pressing high, winning tackles, and linking up well across the pitch. Their focus and organisation—something they’ve been steadily building in training—were clear to see, as they limited Uckfield’s chances and created several of their own.

This victory is more than just a scoreline—it’s a reward for the effort, teamwork, and positive attitude the boys have shown all term. We are incredibly proud of how far they’ve come, and this performance is an exciting sign of what’s still to come.

Well done to all the players involved. A fantastic achievement—bring on the next match!

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On the first day of our trip, it was an early start. We had to be at school by 4am in the morning to get all our bags on the coach and say goodbye to our parents then leave by 4:15. On the way to Germany, we got the Eurotunnel to Calais and stopped in France and Calais to get some food and stretch our legs. When we arrived at our youth hostel, we quickly unpacked the coach and went straight on the S-Bahn to get to the Christmas Markets. The first market we saw was right beneath the cathedral, which was beautifully lit up in the night.

After a quick chat about meeting times, our teachers (Frau Morrow, Mr Burgess and Miss Burke) let us go off for around five hours by ourselves to look around all the markets (there were seven near us). On the first night, we looked around three markets and got hot chocolate, pretzels, currywurst and mugs (each market had a different mug design). Finally, after a long day, we were on our way back to the youth hostel, where we were promptly sent to bed.

The next morning, we woke up for an 8:30 breakfast, which had an incredible variety of food and lots of chocolate in varying states (mostly chocolate spread and chocolate cereal). After we’d all eaten too much food, we all packed our stuff into the coach then left for the Christmas markets once again. We got another three hours to rapidly run around any of the markets we hadn’t seen yet and buy gifts for family and friends. At one of the markets there was ice skating on offer, which was really exciting, but most of us spent our time falling over and struggling to get off the floor. After a quick trip into the shopping centre for coach snacks, we had to sprint to meet our teachers, who had just had Donerkebabs and all looked very pleased with themselves.

To end our amazing trip, we got onto the coach to drive through the Netherlands, Belgium and get the ferry from Calais back to England. And after some serious Uno games and Mr Burgess reading The Gruffalo to get us to go to sleep we arrived at Chailey to be picked up at around 23:30.

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We are very lucky to have an excellent Lamda teacher here at Chailey and this week saw the students perform their monologues in preparation for their exam on Monday. The evening was a huge success with the students performing a wide range of modern and classic speeches. We were truly impressed by the work on display and very proud of the students. We would like to thank Sue our Lamda teacher for being such an inspiration for our students."

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Sign up on Parentpay

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We are looking at the opportunity to host a weekly dance club at Chailey School. If you have any interest please complete the attached form.

Contemporary/Jazz Dance Club – Fill out form

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Please take a moment to look at the information below, detailing the clear link between strong attendance at school and GCSE outcomes.

Evidence suggests that attendance of 95%+ doubles the chances of achieving grade 5+ in English and Maths compared to those with attendance of 90% - 95%, as detailed in the link below.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/95-attendance-almost-doubles-chances-of-gcse-pass/

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Last week, some Year 7s took part in crazy challenges after school for the Masters of Mayhem competitions. Firle were the eventual winners, pictured here making Mr Atherall's face out of food.