Dear Parent/Carer,
I am extremely pleased with the way that Year 11, 12 and 13 have settled back into their lessons in school over the past week. It has been fantastic to see our students back in school, socialising with friends and enjoying their lessons with the staff. Today, our Year 10 students arrived back, very keen to get going with their on-site learning and, I must say, they have made a brilliant start! The staff are all so pleased with the way they have settled back in. Overall our plans to return students to school has progressed extremely smoothly and been very successful. We will continue to ensure the safety of everyone during the return to school is our number one priority – there will be no compromises in relation to staff and student safety. Up until now, our students have remained in year group bases but we should be able to access some specialist rooms shortly. In the meantime, we are continuing to facilitate practical lessons as best as we can and are working hard to mitigate any issues wherever possible.
We are all very conscious of the fact that we do not want Key Stage 3 students to feel forgotten.
It is very important to all of us to get Key Stage 3 students back in school as soon as practically possible but this is all down to more rooms being made available. As discussed previously, our temporary rota to return each year group for two days of learning on a rolling programme is outlined below. We will need students in the following year groups to report for school on the dates shown. They must enter school through the front Newton Road entrance and assemble outside of the main entrance to school at 8.20am. On the day that their year group is in school, students will enter through the English side main street doors and proceed up to science as their year group base. On the days that students are not in school, the remote learning programme will continue.
Key Stage 3 On-site School Rotation
• Wednesday 22nd November – Year 7 in school
• Thursday 23rd November – Year 9 in school
• Friday 24th November – Year 8 in school
• Monday 27th November – Year 7 in school
• Tuesday 28th November – Year 8 in school
• Wednesday 29th November – Year 9 in school
We are aiming to have the whole school back in the building together as soon as possible after this last rotation. Our phased return plan is being continually reviewed and I will update parents further if there are any changes to the plan.
Key Student provision
The school has capacity to be able to offer a Key Student provision to Year 7, 8 and 9 students. Last week we have been able to accommodate 40 students but with the KS3 rotation starting on 22nd November, we are able to expand this provision and increase the capacity to 60 students. Key student’s families have been contacted by the year Teams this week to offer these additional places to their child.
Welfare calls
Pastoral staff have been contacting home to a number of students from their year groups and making sure that they can access their work as well as checking on their welfare. These calls will continue for the next week but the pastoral teams will try to contact all the students from their year groups.
Yours sincerely,
STEVE CAMPBELL
PRINCIPAL