Thank you to our school community for the way you have maintained communications with us during this time. We have a number of differing priorities at the moment and just wanted to update all on the changes in place. 

The following video is only 2.33 mins long and will give you an understanding of changes in place at the school. This is unchartered territory for all and our main focus is ensuring that we have the right measures in place, balanced with the needs to provide progress tutorials for our students without compromising the safety of our staff. 

 

 

We will be providing different videos for others as the routes they use to the classrooms will change. It's important that that everyone recognises the changed environment. While we are keen to get back to something bearing a little more similarity to previous practice, for now we are confident that our approach is right for our school community. 

What this video won't be able to communicate to you is how much we miss our students and our staff. Without our school community, we are a selection of empty buildings. Today we started to rebuild our school community, a small piece in a much larger puzzle. 

In parallel to these changes, if your daughter is in year 10, she will soon be contacted to schedule in either one to one or small group tutorials across the subjects she is taking at GCSE. We are exploring how to expand this to other year groups. 

For information, the government issued new guidance for secondary schools today. We will of course continue to adhere to these in collaboration with local schools and the Local Authority  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools#:~:text=From%2015%20June%2C%20secondary%20schools,year%2010%20and%20year%2012)

What can you expect from us - yr 10: 

Some students will be allocated to a Bubble to work within school which will be based in one space all day, they will not share facilities with others and have no contact with other bubbles.  The staff allocated will be known to your child but may not be their class teacher.  The aim of onsite presence is NOT to teach lessons but offer progress tutorials and progress sessions to support online learning, review and ascertain gaps for the approrpriate department to address. This presence on site will be supplemented with one to one or small group remote sessions. The online offer remains central to our provision. 

What are you doing to keep my daughter safe? 

• Observing social distancing in rooms. 
• Students will be limited to using one room only.
• Lunch will be delivered to classrooms to reduce travel across the site 
• Unnecessary surfaces/items have been removed and classrooms will have a clean at the end of every day as well as being cleaned in the middle of the day when students are outside. A full deep clean is scheduled to take place on a Friday leaving 72 hours before the building is used again. 
• Students will be reminded and taken to wash their hands regularly, including on entry and exit 
• Rooms are provided with disinfectant wipes, tissues, bottled water, hand sanitiser and these are expected to be utilised by staff and students 
• Students will only mix with those in their bubble
• We risk assess daily, make changes if needed and will communicate with you any key changes 
• Any children failing to socially distance will be isolated work on their own
• We recommend that students undertake a full change of clothes each day and that all clothes that have come in contact with different environments (public transport, school) are washed at a minimum of 60 degrees. 
• We have staggered times for entry and exit for bubbles to reduce the risk of social interaction between large groups of students both within the school and in the locality 
• We advise students walk, cycle or are dropped off by car, avoiding the need for public transport. 
• Children are advised to avoid using local shops, transport or meeting in groups during this time 

When will you be open for other year groups? 

We are following the advice from the government, scientific advisors and national bodies on when we will be permitted to open and when we can do this safely.  We will continue to communicate with you about this.