Autumn Term Newsletter 7th September 2026

Bowbrook Newsletter 2026

Back to School!

Welcome or welcome back … after two full on days of InSeT training the staff are ready and excited to welcome the pupils back to school on Monday.

Please do not worry about getting it right all the time straight away…it will take time to settle. We will need a full week to get through the timetable and ensure that that works.

New pupils will be helped by staff and by ‘buddies’ to make sure you are in the right place at the right time…after working through the first full week things will become much clearer!

First morning

EYFS/Infants: Please go to the Infant play area

Juniors: 3, 4 & 5: on the first playground. Year 6 on the big playground

Year 7 & 8: may place their bags in the bag rack and go out onto the playground

Year 9: may place their bags in the cobbled yard (all will be explained!) and then you may go through to the main playground.

Seniors: please go in to the senior bag racks and the Schofield block.

New pupils:

You do not need to sign in. Staff will be around the front door and the cobbled year to escort you to the relevant area defined above. Please do not go into the main school’s Reception.

‘Rolling Starters’:

Please report to the main school’s reception, through the front door. As you are not yet officially ‘on roll’ you will need to sign in and out each day.

Staff will be around to supervise. I am sure many of you will be excited to be back and perhaps excited to be in a new classroom/form room or phase of the school. Please behave sensibly and look after any new pupils you may encounter!

First bell is at 8.45 when staff will show you to your form rooms.

Registration starts at 8.50 a.m.

You will be with your class teacher/Form teacher for most of lesson 1 and more. Middles and Seniors will then have an assembly and we will be ready to start ‘prperly’ with lesson 3. It is slightly different in the Prep School but your class teachers will look after you!

Uniform and equipment, will, like the timetable, take a week or so to settle in. Please do not panic. There is a period of ‘grace’ whereby we iron out any initial teething issues.

All pupils should be returning to school in summer uniform. This remains the case until the October ½ term or until the weather becomes inclement, in which case a notice will go out.

After School Prep: All pupils not collected by 4.20 will go into Prep.

N – 4 will initially go into Year 1 / 2 classroom. ‘Little Prep’

5 – 11 will go into the Schofield classroom. ‘Big Prep’ (please note this change of venue. Big Prep is not in the dining room anymore.)

Any pupil in N – 4 not collected by 4.50 will be moved to the Schofield building to join ‘big prep’.

ICT/Laptops: Years 3 – 11. New passwords and log-ons will be needed. Again we hope that this will all be in place quickly, when Mr Bell and Mr Draper will have had time to see all the pupils. Do not panic!

Engage:

This is the school’s management system or pupil information system and is the ‘normal’ way of sending out communications to ALL parents. You should have received an email asking you to log into your child’s Engage account. Please do this as soon as you are able otherwise you may miss important communications.

If you did not receive an invite or if you are having trouble logging on please contact Mr Mills as he is the expert!

You will all be receiving a ‘welcome letter’ from your child’s form teacher/Class teacher which will include some useful information and their email contacts. The Form teacher/class teacher is your first port of call. Staff emails are also available on the school’s website.

I am hoping that you have received the relevant Handbook to your child’s phase of the school! If not, my apologies, but it is also available on the school’s website…

There will be more I am sure over the next few days… Coming out through Engage, so please log on!

I look forward to welcoming you all back to school tomorrow…

Try your hardest to do your best! You will not go too far wrong!

Parents’ Information Evenings

We will once again be holding our Parents’ Information Evenings in the main school hall. You will also have the chance to meet the tutors.

Year 7 ( 8 & 9 ) and New Starters into Middle School:

Monday 7^th September, 4.00 pm in the School Hall

This will be predominantly for year 7 parents and children who will be transitioning into the middle school, or indeed starting at Bowbrook for the first time. The information may well be useful for new parents and children who are joining the middle school into years 8 or 9. Of course, any other parents from the Middle school who would appreciate attending are more than welcome to do so.

Seniors:
Tuesday 8^th September, 4.00 pm in the School Hall:

This will include pertinent information for the GCSE years so we would encourage Parents and Pupils of year 10 and 11 to attend if possible. Current S11 may have attended last year. The information is very similar, but the messages may be very useful again going into this last and important year.

Slides from both events will be sent out to all parents in the Middle and Senior School for information following the events.

Year 9 will have an evening in the Spring Term to explain the GCSE Options selection process to help with consultations and decisions. We will provide information in due course with regards to dates and times.

In the meantime, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to make contact and we will be happy to help. We look forward to seeing some of you next week.

Music News

Welcome back Everyone!

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer break. A particularly warm welcome to all of our new pupils and families joining us this term. We are excited to begin another busy and enjoyable year of music-making.

Please find attached important information about the new term, including instrumental lessons and extra-curricular activities and an exciting addition to the Music Department.

Peri Music Lessons:

Instrumental lessons will begin on Monday 7th September from 8:30am.

Music Extra-curricular Activities

Music extracurricular clubs will begin on Monday 14th September.

The one exception is String Group, which will begin earlier on Tuesday 8th September in the Courtyard Classroom.

LAMDA lessons begin on Friday 18th September. Please contact Mr Swain if you wish to take up the LAMDA opportunities.

(London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art exams are separate performance and communication qualifications regulated by Ofqual.)

Welcome back to the Prep School!

We hope you have had a lovely summer. We are really looking forward to welcoming you all back.

We have some new and exciting topics this Autumn term and lots to look forward to: Curriculum Alive Days, trips, assemblies, Harvest festival, Christingle and dare I mention anything Christmas related but also the Nativity!

We welcome new members of staff into our team too, who are excited to begin the new academic year with us.

The class teachers are sending out the Welcome letters for each class, alongside the timetables so you should find all the information you need.

Have a lovely weekend and see you all Monday morning!

Mrs Mao & the Prep Team

Have a good weekend everyone and I look forward to welcoming you back to school on Monday…