News

Coronavirus Update

Please see Mr Walker’s latest update below:

Good afternoon. 

Further to my update last Friday, today’s update outlines important details for the remainder of this term.

Firstly, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the incredible efforts of everyone who has helped ensure that students complete their online work. I know that our pupils have adapted to this way of learning magnificently well, and worked so hard to complete their work. I also hugely appreciate your efforts, as parents/carers, in juggling so many other priorities to make this a success. Thank you.

September

Our calendared start date for students returning to school is Monday 7 September. However, this will be subject to decisions at a national level, and we shall continue to refine and update our plans.

Online work

As staff, we understand that we need to keep our core principles of setting good, engaging work, and ensuring we mark it and provide feedback to students. This system has paid dividends, and we must keep focusing on this and keep it as a priority. However, this week we are trialling online live teaching with groups of pupils, so we understand the most efficient and safe way of doing this. If this is a success, we will look to offer more online learning opportunities – we will keep you updated on how this progresses.

Year 7, 8 and 9 online work

We want to maintain the quality and completion of our online work. As we enter the end of this term, we are aware that students may well start to flag a little, having made such a wonderful effort so far. Therefore, we would like to end on a high, and have decided that Friday 10 July will be the last date for work to be completed and handed in by students in Year 7, 8 and 9. For the final nine days leading up to the beginning of the calendared summer holidays (Friday 24 July), we will focus on students who have work missing, and set different activities for pupils to participate in. This may be an activities week or graduation work; we are still finalising these plans. We hope this provides an end point that students (and you, as parents/carers!) can stay motivated for; this will be for the remaining four-and-a-half weeks before a change in direction. It will also allow staff time to finish this year’s work and begin plans for next year. Vitally, it should give you, as parents/carers, a break from the routines of online learning.

Year 10 online learning

For similar reasons as highlighted above, Friday 17 July will be the final date for work to be completed and handed in by Year 10 students. The final four days leading up to the beginning of the calendared summer holidays (Friday 24 July) will provide students with an opportunity to complete any unfinished work. It will also allow staff a chance to tie up all the loose ends with Year 10. Importantly, this will also work with the proposed dates for our Year 10 on-site provision.

Year 10 on-site provision

Today, I am writing to all Year 10 parents/carers to explain our on-site provision. Please could Year 10 parents/carers take time to read through this e-mail and respond as soon as possible, so we can plan the safest and best provision possible.

Safety Measures Video

This video highlights some of the key safety measures we have put in place to protect the safety of our students and staff. Please click the following link to watch (for higher streaming quality, click the cog in the right-hand corner of the video screen and select ‘Quality’ > ‘Auto 1080p’): https://youtu.be/OGygFXuc8RY.

Feedback 

Thank you for your support – we really appreciate it. As always, your input makes things better, so do not hesitate to contact me any feedback, good or bad.

Paul Walker

Headteacher