Dear Parent/Carers,
We are now settling into the term with our new routines and systems in place. We are really pleased with the way in which students have returned to school, and are proud of the way they are responding and adapting to the changes in school. We will continue to respond to advice from the government and are continuously reviewing what we do to ensure our students are kept safe.
You will be aware that we have replaced parental face to face events with online versions for this term. Thank you to all of you who have attended our online events over the past two weeks. The ‘Power to Perform’ sessions for Year 10 and 11 were well attended and I hope you found them useful. We also ran a session on ‘How to Use Microsoft Teams’ to support remote learning. Again, thank you for taking to time to attend. We had large numbers of parents join us for this online event which was great to see and will help you to support your child with working from home. If you missed any of these, you will still be able to view them through our website or YouTube channel.
Parents of students in Years 7, 10 and 12 will receive an email or telephone call during the week of 21st September from your child’s tutor to update you on their progress since the start of the year.
Please find below further updates on:-
- Behaviour, Attendance and Rewards
- Seating plans and groupings
- Face Coverings and hand sanitizer
- PE kit
- Symptomatic students and households
- Behaviour, Attendance and Rewards
The next online event will be run by our Head of Key Stage 3 and 4 (Mr N Williams and Mrs A Hunt) on our ‘Raising the BAR’ programme. This session will explain how our Behaviour, Attendance and Rewards system works. Further information on this event will follow shortly.
- Seating plans and groupings
As we continue to review our risk mitigation plan, we have made a number of changes in order to further reduce the potential risk of transmission through further limiting movement around the school. This will help to limit the numbers of students who would need to self-isolate should we be in a situation where we have a confirmed case. With this in mind we have:-
- Adapted seating plans in lessons for Years 10-13. In GCSE and A level classes, students from the same tutor group will now sit together in lessons. The classes have not changed, but where the students are positioned has. This will allow us to easily track any close contacts should we need to and hopefully avoids the need to send home large numbers of students.
- Maths in Years 7,8 &9. For the foreseeable future, Maths in Years 7,8 & 9 will be taught in tutor groups. Making this short term change gives another way of limiting movement around the school and as such reducing the chance of transmission between students in the same year group.
- Face coverings
Could I please ask for your support in ensuring all students (unless exempt) arrive at school with a face mask covering and that they have a spare one in their bags in case it is lost throughout the day.
We would also request that students have their own hand sanitizer with them to use throughout the day alongside the provisions we have in school.
- PE Kit
We started this year with students bringing a change of footwear only for PE. This has allowed us a settling in period and to ensure we have the right systems in place to manage students during PE lessons.
Over the next few weeks, it is our intention to reintroduce the wearing of PE kit for PE lessons. In preparation for this, could I please ask that you ensure your child has the correct kit so they are ready to be able to do this. We will write to you with specific details on this next week.
- Symptomatic students and households
A reminder that the best way to reduce the risk of transmission is to ensure anyone with symptoms stays at home and gets a test.
If your child shows symptoms of Covid 19 or has a positive test, they will need to isolate for a minimum of 10 days at home. They will need to isolate for 14 days if they are informed of the need to do so through NHS Track and Trace or if a member of your household develops symptoms or tests positive. We will need to be informed immediately about this.
If a child develops symptoms at school, they will be put in an isolated space until they can be collected. Where this is the case, a test will need to take place as soon as possible and we will need to be informed of the results. We will not be able to allow a child back into the academy until either:
- There is a negative test result (we will need to be provided with the evidence of this)
- OR there has been an isolation period of 10 days
Symptoms
- a high temperature
- a new, continuous cough
- the loss or change of their sense of taste or smell,
If anyone in your house develops symptoms they should get tested. All family members should isolate until the test result is received. If the result is positive, all other household members need to stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the household became ill or if they do not have symptoms, from the day their test was taken. If anyone else in the household starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for at least 10 days from when their symptoms appear, regardless of what day they are on in their original 14-day isolation period.
Thank you once again for your support during this time.
Best wishes
Mrs Aitcheson