Townley Weekly Parent & Carer Communication 10.11.23

Dear Parents, Carers & Students,

Parents, carers and students will be aware of how conflict can often have an impact on inter-faith relations, hate crime incidents and exploitation by extremists here in the UK. As a school, we would like to stress that we never tolerate any expression of Islamophobia, Antisemitism, or any other discriminatory views.

Please rest assured that our shared priority is always the wellbeing of our students so please do not hesitate to reach out to established pastoral, tutor and student hub teams if you have any concerns regarding your child’s wellbeing and mental health being negatively impacted by the current conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Supporting our students

Please know that guidance has been sent to all staff in line with DfE advice; as a school, we must remain politically impartial and are not able to offer a direct commentary on events. However, we are aware that some members of our student community would like opportunities to engage in discourse surrounding humanitarian issues and, as such, we are inviting an external organisation to join us in providing a space for students who wish to participate in these discussions. The non-partisan programme that they offer has been formulated with the input of both Israelis and Palestinians and is designed to prepare students to make a positive, solutions-focused contribution to debates on Israel-Palestine. We are aware that students will have many questions, and will have seen difficult and deeply sad content, and this may be an additional way to our usual pastoral support to help students process this.

Fundraising

We understand that many students have expressed a desire to lead social action events and projects to raise money and awareness of children impacted by the conflict, both in Gaza and Israel. As part of our duty to remain politically impartial, and to maximise our fundraising efforts as a school, these events will raise money for UNICEF and British Red Cross. These charities both have emergency appeals and projects focused on supporting all children affected by the conflict, as UNICEF explain “In all wars, it is children who suffer first and suffer most.”

We have had a request from Year 8 and 9 students to run Bake Sales to raise awareness and money for children impacted and know that many students will want to be involved. We would ask that students would support the fundraisers that happen, as we may not be able to calendar all events. Therefore, any ideas for events and projects that wish to support the above charities may complete the Google Form Expression of Interest: Express your interest.

Townley will host Christmas Jumper Day, along with the rest of the UK, on Thursday 7th December. Save the Children is the national charity that runs Christmas Jumper Day, and they have an emergency appeal for children in Gaza. To ensure that we are contributing effectively to UNICEF and British Red Cross, on the final day of term – 20th December, Townley will have its own clothes day, with the donations going to these two chosen charities for their emergency appeals.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Kind regards,

N Pandya

Headteacher