School Newsletter

09.01.26

Good afternoon,

Welcome back and Happy New Year. We hope everyone had a relaxing Christmas break and is ready for a busy term ahead. This half term is especially important for our Year 11 students, and planning is already underway for our forthcoming Year 9 and Year 11 open evenings. We look forward to working closely with students and families over the coming weeks.

On our return to school on Monday 5^th January, we found that the building was cooler than usual due a fault on the heating boiler, some classrooms were up to the usual temperature and others were not. The site team called out engineers and closed the swimming pool to fix the problem. The fault was repaired by the end of Tuesday, and the building is now heated. We have allowed children to keep their coats on and closed windows etc. to retain the heat this week. We continue to monitor the situation and will update you if there are any further problems, a lack of heating in school that we cannot solve quickly or be able to move people around the building could lead to a school closure but we would notify you in advance if this occurred.

There is significant snow forecast overnight tonight and into tomorrow, so we have taken the decision to close school on Friday 9^th January 2026. School should be open as usual on Monday as long the weather forecast remains the same, please check the website for further updates as this is our main means of communication.

Information for Parents/Carers of all years

Year 11 Parents’ Evening

The booking system for the Year 11 Parents Evening on Thursday 15^th January is now open for bookings (https://westfieldsch.schoolcloud.co.uk/. This link can also be accessed through the remote login page on the school website. For your information, all subjects will be based in the main hall and activity hall apart from Maths, History, Geography and RE which will be based in classrooms. You might want to consider this when planning your appointments, to reduce travel time.

Website Translation Update

As part of our ongoing work to improve the accessibility of our school website, we will soon be removing the Translate option from the top menu.

This change is being made to help us meet current accessibility standards and ensure our websites are safe, reliable, and easy for everyone to use. Modern web browsers now include built-in translation tools that are more accurate and accessible than older website-based options. The existing Translate feature is no longer supported by its provider and can also cause accessibility and security issues, so it will be phased out.

The update will be rolled out gradually over the next month as our website provider completes accessibility improvements.

Parents and carers who need translated content can continue to use their browser’s translation tools (such as those built into Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, or Firefox), which work automatically across the whole website.

School Payment System – Move from ParentPay to Arbor Pay

We advised you last term that we planned to move the school’s payment system across to Arbor Pay during the Christmas Holidays. Preparations have been happening in school to get ready, however as we would like the switch over to run as smoothly as possible, the decision was made to delay this until February half term.

In the meantime, please continue to make payments for school meals, trips and items through the ParentPay website as normal. We will update with further details and information closer to the transfer date.

Sheffield Parent Carer Forum

Please see the flyer below regarding upcoming courses available to parents and carers

Careers Corner

Year 11 Sheffield Progress: The deadline for both sixth form and college applications is the 31^st of January. To ensure that the careers team can support students with their applications, students should aim to complete their personal statement and choices as soon as possible. The Careers team check all applications before they are sent off and will pick up students to help them during this process. There are currently a large proportion of students who have not yet completed their personal statement. There are help sheets available in the careers office for students to collect and form tutors are also available to assist. Any questions please do get in touch with the careers team at careers@westfield.chorustrust.org

Year 11 Sixth Form Applications – If any students are wishing to apply for Sixth Form, please visit the careers office asap. The school deadline for applications is 16 January to give the careers team time to ensure your application can be submitted and processed. Each student can apply for up to 3 Sheffield sixth forms on Sheffield Progress.

Year 11 College Applications - The deadline for college applications is the 31 January 2026. There is no limit to the number of college applications a student can submit.

Still undecided where to go? See the open events below.

Year 11 January 2026 Post-16 Open Events

UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park - Wednesday 14 January, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm, open to Year 10 and Year 11 students and their parents/carers. The event will include a talk from the Principal at 6.00pm

Sheffield College - Thursday 22nd January General Open Day 4pm – 7pm

City Campus (A levels, Beauty/Media Make up, Business, Catering & Bakery, Childcare/Early Years, Construction, Dental Technology, Hair, Health & Social Care, Hospitality, IT, Science, Travel & Tourism)
Hillsborough Campus (Animal Care, Art, Business, Games Design, Health & Social care, Media, Music, Performing Arts, Science, Sports and Uniformed Public Services)
Advanced Technology Centre (Automotive/Motor Vehicle, Plumbing, Engineering and Electrical)

Rotherham College – Saturday 24^th January 9:30am – 12:00pm

North Notts College – Saturday 31^st January 9:30am – 12:00pm

Thomas Rotherham College – 19^th March 4pm – 7pm

ALL YEARS Unifrog: We have invested in an online career’s platform called UNIFROG, there is a short presentation attached to the newsletter. Year 9, 10 and 11 have started their induction to the programme and next week we will introduce it to Year 7 and 8. Students are free to explore the platform at home on computers and all devices using their Microsoft login for school. We will continue to familiarise students with the platform over this half term and expand the programme over the coming term to include this in our wider curriculum. Any questions please contact Mrs Halliday Assistant Headteacher for Personal Development jhalliday@chorustrust.org