Year 10’s returning to school has been such a success that we will continue running the sessions next week. Students will again have Maths, English and Science on their allocated days. It has been lovely seeing them all. In many cases it has helped them to return to school before September relieving any fears or anxieties they may have held and has helped us to pilot how we operate the school under these circumstances.
LIVE Lessons review – The feedback from students and parents about LIVE lessons has been fantastic. In addition, it has been wonderful to hear from staff that engagement and submission levels have improved as a result of Live Lessons. We will continue to run these next week.
Tutor announcements – For students eagerly waiting to hear which tutor they will have next year, we plan to announce these on Monday. Normally students would find out as they arrive in September, but we felt it important to tell them early to help with anxiety and so that tutors could reach out before the Summer holidays.
Government guidelines on re-opening – Only Thursday 2nd July the Government released guidelines explaining that schools will reopen to all students from September. The guidelines are very long and open to local interpretation, we are working on these and will send further details about the school day and if there will be any staggered starts or finishes. The First day back for all students will be Monday 7th September.
Uniform – Due to the current situation we have decided that students will not be required to wear school uniform for the first half of the Autumn term. We made this decision some time ago due to the guidelines from Government and we felt parents needed more time to source school uniform and the Summer holidays was not an ideal time. On their return students will be expected to wear suitable smart clothing (no offensive comments or pictures, no extremely short skirts or tops) and closed toe shoes, usual rules will apply regarding hair, make up and jewellery, regardless of the lack of uniform. Full school uniform including smart shoes (NOT TRAINERS) will be required from half-term onwards.
Year 11 – Some of you may have noticed that other local secondary schools are cancelling their leavers’ prom and only distributing results by post. As a senior team we have discussed this at length and we feel strongly that our Year 11’s have had a really rough deal this year and so we are committing to holding a leavers gathering. Exactly what form and when, we don’t know, but we are convinced there are ways to do it safely and still send them off in style, so watch this space. We are also committing to allowing small groups of students in to get their results, this will be done with social distancing rules at the forefront, but we believe strongly that it is an iconic moment in their journey and we want that to continue.
Tutor review meetings – Last week we mentioned that we would like to repeat the review meetings that we did with the Year 10 students with other year groups, unfortunately due to the preparations needed for a full return to school, announced this week, we will not run these until the Autumn term. If you have any concerns about your sons/daughters progress or learning please contact your child’s tutor and they will arrange for a meeting to be held before the summer break.
Key Worker provision – Children of key workers are still very welcome to attend school during the week. Attendance needs to be pre-booked via ParentMail, and a reminder goes out each week. You can find out if you work in a critical sector here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision
Free School Meals – the government is continuing these throughout the summer in voucher form. We will be delivering one final jumbo box of non-perishable food to those that still receive boxes in the last week of term and that will be followed by 1 voucher approximately half way through the holidays, delivered by email. Everyone who has been receiving vouchers will receive two vouchers over the summer, one at the start of the holidays and as above, one half way through. Please make sure we have your correct email address ASAP so there are no issues with vouchers.
Sports Hub – bootcamp classes continue to grow in popularity with over 20 joining us last Monday evening across all ages and levels of fitness. If you fancy getting fit have a look at the available classes here, they are great value at £3: https://app.glofox.com/portal/#/branch/5e6fad8c05183638913a35af/classes-day-view
End of term – School finishes at 13:30 on Friday July 17th, we will be doing end of term messages, via LIVE link, from year teams and other members of staff at this time and hope that students can watch this message.
Student Rewards – the following pupils are to be congratulated for receiving over 6 nominations for their demonstration of FRA values during lockdown:
Year 7: Emma Sweet, George Randles
Year 8: Evie Hermes, Millie Van Den Broek, Will Hughes
Year 9:Adam Stephens, Charlie Pallet, Chloe Tann, Emmie Bullie, Kayleigh Wirzley, Pamela Simpson
Year 10: Caitlyn Matthews, Emily Denne, Fran Johns, George Newton, Harry Bayes