This week the senior team had the pleasure of welcoming another 100 parents to the school as part of our open morning tours. It has been lovely to see the school so popular among incoming Year 7 parents and we welcome any families that haven’t had a chance to view the school to contact the school office to organise a tour.

On Saturday 1st and Saturday 8th October, we will be jointly hosting our Primary Open Days alongside Krishna Avanti Primary School. On Saturday 1st, parents can visit KAPS between 9:30am – 11:00am and then come over to visit Avanti Fields from 11:30am – 1:00pm. On Saturday 8th, we will be hosting in reverse, where parents can visit Avanti Fields between 9:30am – 11:00am and then head over to KAPS. Limited tickets for our Primary Open Days are still available for families interested in joining our Nursery or Reception.  

It is unfortunate that I have to remind secondary parents of our drop off/collection routines after receiving a number of complaints from the local community this week. Parents are asked to use the park and stride option from Tesco when driving students to school. It is only a short 6 minute walk to school, but is a safer option than dropping your child on Colin Grundy Drive or Furrow View. We have had traffic enforcement officers come out to monitor and fine parents dropping off on the yellow line at the start and end of the day and are working closely with Gateway College to ensure that all students are safe when travelling to and from school.

Miss V Bardsley

On Sunday 25^th September, our wonderful PTFA planned and organised a fantastic Navratri event at our school ahead of official nine nights of celebration in honour of the divine feminine. Parents, students, staff and our community of families came together to enjoy the evening of dancing. It was such a vibrant event, with students dressed in beautiful traditional outfits, dancing to the Garba and Raas songs provided by the live band.

Many thanks to all those who supported the PTFA in making it such a memorable night, especially the student volunteers, Kaushal and Saaransh.  We look forward to the next PTFA event and would like to thank the PTFA for their continued support and dedication to the school.

This Tuesday, a group of 12 students from the student council attended The Big Green Week conference at Leicester City Hall alongside students from other schools around the city.  Students took part in a wide variety of activities from guest lecturers and speakers from Climate Strike Leicester (a youth organisation focusing on grass root politics about climate change), Common Seas (who are focusing on reducing the amount of single use plastics so that they don’t end up polluting the seas) and Sustainable Schools Leicester (who support schools to become more eco-friendly) as well as Deputy Mayor Councillor to taking part in a mock UN Debate modelled on KOP26. As a group they represented Ethiopia and were able to work together to highlight, understand and demonstrate the positive and negative points about the countries pledge and progress towards reducing carbon emissions.

The conference ended with students being able to grill councillor members about their intentions to support the city in reducing its carbon footprint, with our very own Harroop in year 8 asking the local council if they meant to keep their promises laid out in the recent plan. Throughout the day they demonstrated the values and ethos of Avanti Fields to the general public.

On Wednesday 16th November Avanti Fields will be hosting a Year 11 Careers Fair. Parents and students in Year 11 will be able to come into school between 5pm – 6pm to view a stalls which will help students make informed decisions about their next steps for education and training. We will have stalls presenting from local colleges, Leicester University, RAF, the Army, Leicester Tigers and more!

Click here to register your place.

The city council is again working with Samworth Brothers to support families with food over the October half term.  There will be six pop up venues across the city that will give parents of free school meal children and those needing additional support, the opportunity to collect food for the half term. 

If you believe that you are entitled to access the October half term food support please read the following information sheet and visit the website October half term food offer – Leicester City Council. To be eligible for the food support you must meet the criteria below: 

• receive benefits-related free school meals 
• who are in full time school (4 to 16 years) 
• live in Leicester City or attend a city school if they live outside of Leicester 
• those families needing additional support i.e. vulnerable children 

 Parents must register for a venue by Tuesday 4 October, using the online form found within the information sheet.   The registration window closes early to allow Samworth Brothers enough time to arrange supplies for the events.  

Places at the food pop up shops are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.  

Food vouchers will not be issued for free school meal children this half term. 

The Pupil Premium is additional funding the government gives to schools to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. The amount of funding a school receives depends on the number of pupils eligible for free school meals. Parents are encouraged to register their children even if they do not want to eat school meals or they already receive universal infant free school meals. This is in order to raise extra money for the school which can be used towards extra tuition, learning assistants, after school clubs or uniform/enrichment activity contributions.  

Families that have no recourse to public funds are also eligible to apply but will need to complete a separate application and meet different criteria.  

Please use the following links to access the free school meals application form or the free school meals for families with no recourse to public funds application form.  

A reminder that the school runs a continuous uniform drive to collect and redistribute uniform items to some of our more vulnerable families. If you have any ties, blazers or pieces of PE kit that no longer fit your child, please donate them to the school. Our admin office staff would be happy to collect items bought into the school by students.  

If any parents are interested in signing your child up for 1-1 tuition please complete the initial interest form on the link below.

https://avanti.wufoo.com/forms/afs-secondary-music-tuition-202223/

Once we have an idea of the number of students interested, we will be back in touch with next steps. 

Unfortunately, we have seen a rise in the following item brought into school (see pic below) please could you remind your child that these items are not permitted in school and will be confiscated due to the fact that they could  potentially cause harm to others.

Communications – Wherever possible please use the contact form on our website to get in touch. This is detailed on the website at https://avanti.org.uk/avantifields/contact-us/. The appropriate member of staff will pick up the message and get back to you as soon as possible.

Absence

To report an absence to the school, parents should contact us by 8:00am (primary) and 8.30am (secondary) 

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0116 326 6813 (Option 1 to leave a voicemail) 

Please remember to state your child’s full name, tutor group and reason for absence. If your child is unwell, please could you give a brief description of the symptoms. 

All education research highlights how crucial it is to a child’s academic progress and wellbeing they attend school , on time, all of the time. Therefore, a reminder that it is important that families organise events or holidays outside of school time to ensure that their child is at school as often as possible.   

The school works closely with the Education Welfare Officer at LCC, and we do seek to ensure that any requests for authorised absence are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, in a sensitive manner. However, the school can never authorise a family holiday or a trip abroad to visit family members during term time.   

This academic year, families will have two weeks at the October half-term, three weeks at Christmas and two weeks at Easter for extended family holidays. Please do ensure that if booking holidays, they fall within the holiday periods.