Chailey School has been selected to take part in the Tesco Stronger Starts community funding scheme. We are raising money to fund our careers trips and activities for KS3 and KS4 students during the 2026–2027 academic year.

These trips give students vital real‑world experiences, helping to raise aspirations and support informed choices about post‑16 and post‑18 pathways by meeting employers, visiting workplaces and exploring future options.

How to cast your vote

• Shop in: Tesco Burgess Hill Superstore & Express, Haywards Heath Express Stores at Northlands Wood and Hazelgrove Road

• Make a purchase of any value

• Receive one red or blue token per transaction at the checkout - if you aren't given one, there is usually a box that you can help yourself to tokens from 🙏

• On your way out, place your token in the Tesco Stronger Starts voting box and vote for Chailey School

Where you can vote

• Burgess Hill Superstore, RH15 9QT

• Haywards Heath Walnut Park Express, RH16 3TG

• Burgess Hill Gatehouse Express, RH15 9XB

• Haywards Heath Express, RH16 3PH

Voting closes on: 31^st July 2026

The project with the most votes in our region can receive up to £1,500, so every single vote really does count. Please support us by voting when you shop — and encouraging family and friends to do the same.

Thank you for your support with this, we have raised money this way for the last two years and have been able to increase the amount of trips that we can run, so every little really does help!

To support parents and carers in helping young people make informed career choices, we’d like to share a useful resource:
Career Decisions in Secondary Education – A Guide for Parents and Carers (2026), produced by Careers East Sussex.

The guide provides clear, practical information about:

• post‑14, post‑16 and post‑18 options

• qualifications, apprenticeships and vocational routes

• how to have positive career conversations at home

• local labour market information and support services

You can download a free digital copy from:
👉 https://www.careerseastsussex.co.uk/information/parents

If you would prefer a printed copy, these are available on request — please contact Gail Wickens, gwickens@chaileyschool.org who will be happy to provide one.

Our Careers, Post‑16 & Work Experience Padlet is the main place where we share up‑to‑date information for students in all year groups, not just Year 11. It includes guidance and opportunities to support career exploration and future planning from Year 7 onwards.

The Padlet brings together information about careers, college and sixth‑form options, apprenticeships, work experience opportunities, application guidance, open events, and useful Unifrog resources for both students and parents/carers.

Rather than sending regular newsletters, this Padlet is updated continuously, so we strongly encourage families to save the link and check it regularly to make sure they don’t miss important information, deadlines or opportunities.

👉 Access the Careers, Post‑16 & WEX Padlet here:
https://padlet.com/chaileyschoolcareers/chailey-school-careers-post-16-and-work-experience-padlet-dlwrt4c8u2afvyrh

·         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)

SENDCO@chaileyschool.org

01273 890407

TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR THE SLT SURGERY

(Friday after school)

srodd@chaileyschool.org

01273 890407

The three parent‑focused webinars will be running over the summer term, offering practical guidance and useful resources the first one will be:

How to Support Your Child During Exam Season
🗓 Wednesday 29 April

This session will cover:

• Recognising signs of stress and burnout

• Ways parents can support effective revision

• Creating a calm and supportive home environment

Followed by:

How to find work experience

May 13^th - 6pm

This session will cover:

• What really counts as work experience, including less obvious opportunities that can still strengthen applications.

  • Understand why work experience matters and how it helps young people explore interests and future career paths.

• Get practical advice on how to find placements, approach employers confidently and make the most of every opportunity.

Everything you need to know about applying for University

10^th June - 6pm

This session will cover:

• The full university application process, including key steps and deadlines for the UK and overseas destinations.

  • How to access support with choosing the right university, using practical tools to explore options, goals and next steps.

  • How to stand out to admissions teams and approach applications with confidence, including competitive pathways such as medical school and Oxbridge.

Book HERE

Parents can view the full schedule of upcoming webinars and find further details by visiting the provider’s website.

For all things Careers, Post-16, Work Experience and more, please check out our Careers Newsletter/Padlet HERE.

Gail Wickens

Careers & Work-Related Learning Coordinator

https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008179494-Signing-my-child-up-for-a-Club-on-the-Parent-Portal-or-Parent-App

A fantastic "Well Done" to everyone.

We had first places from Iris R, Toby, Django, Marni, and the boys relay team (Will D, Toby, Dylan and Django) and some close seconds from Annabelle and Django too.

Congratulations to all who took part!

The Household Support Fund, which helped many families across East Sussex, ended nationally on 31 March 2026. This UK Government funding was distributed by local councils and included the holiday supermarket voucher scheme (HUGGG vouchers) for children eligible for benefits-related free school meals.

From 1 April 2026, the government introduced a new Crisis and Resilience Fund. This fund is designed to provide support in a different way, focusing on families experiencing immediate financial difficulties, while also helping households build longer-term stability.

To help with the transition, East Sussex County Council continued funding HUGGG vouchers during the April and May school holidays.

As part of the new arrangements, holiday vouchers will no longer be automatically provided to all children eligible for free school meals. This means that eligibility for free school meals alone will not automatically qualify a household for a voucher or payment under the new fund.

However, support is still available and will now be based on a family’s individual circumstances and level of need.

Families can:

Find out more about the Crisis and Resilience Fund | East Sussex County Council

Access Cost of living support | East Sussex County Council if help is needed now

Explore Welcome to Holiday food and fun | East Sussex County Council, which offers free activities and meals for children eligible for free school meals during school holidays

In addition, the Cash for Kids Holiday Hunger Grants scheme helps children and young people (up to age 18) experiencing food insecurity during school holidays. Schools can apply for funding to support projects that encourage healthy eating and physical activity. More information is available through the Grant applications are currently closed - Cash for Kids.

Our Year 8 Street Cricket team kicked off the season at a local tournament held at Beacon. The boys put in a fantastic performance, securing wins against Uckfield and Heathfield, before narrowly losing to Beacon in a closely fought match.

There were some excellent individual performances throughout the day, with George C and Will C bowling particularly well. A special mention also goes to our Year 7 players, Stephen H and James A, who stepped up to play a year above and represented the team brilliantly.

Some tidy bowling, confident batting and plenty of big hitting played a huge part in a very positive start to the season — well done to all involved! 👏🏏

Today we celebrated our fantastic year 11s with their leavers assembly. It was a very moving occasion and celebrated the humour, joy, and personality of the year group! We are immensely proud of them, and it was wonderful to see the entire school community wish them all the very best.

We have had a great term here at Chailey with a huge array of extracurricular activities and our students exemplifying our Chailey values in abundance. 

It was also great to celebrate students today who have reached 15 or more squares on their bingo card. We want to publicly celebrate students who come to school and do their very best each day. We know many of these students 'don't like a fuss' but we have tried to find a way for them to be celebrated with our prize draw for the bingo cards.

In other news we had a visit from Dr. Tim Coulson from The Department of Education this week who commented on how "students spoke so highly of all the school provides for them, emotionally and mentally as well as academically and socially." Dr. Coulson was very generous with his time and listened to what we would like The Secretary of State to do to improve things in schools for our young people.

We wish all Chailey families a wonderful weekend in the warm weather,

Mr Holt