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Dear Parents and Carers,
Further to my letter of 3rd July I am writing to you with details of the school’s plans for reopening in September 2020. As outlined in my previous letter, I fully understand the challenges that families have faced during the period of school closure and lockdown. We are very grateful for the support that you have provided for your child’s education during that time.
Our plans for welcoming our students back in September consist of two phases. Phase 1 will cover the first week of the academic year (Wednesday 2nd – Friday 4th September), Phase 2 will begin on Monday 7th September and continue from that date.
The arrangements for Phase 2 will remain in effect until the Department for Education (DfE) indicates a change to the national guidance issued to schools on 2nd July.
Phase 1: Induction and Reintegration (Wednesday 2nd – Friday 4th September)
By September the vast majority of our current students, particularly those in our new Years 8-10, will not have experienced any ‘in-school’ education for nearly six months. In addition, we will have an incoming cohort of new Year 7 students who have had none of the usual induction visits and instead have had to try to learn about their new school by only using the resources on our website.
As a school it is our strong belief that the mental health and well-being of our young people needs to be our highest priority at this time, following what has been an extremely difficult and limiting period for our children. We believe that it is vital to ensure that all our students experience a safe and positive return to school in order to reduce their levels of stress and to provide them with the best opportunity for success later in the term.
In order to achieve this with the staffing and spaces available to us we have made the decision to offer a ‘blended’ curriculum during Phase 1, with a combination of in-school and home learning experiences. On the first day of term, school will be open to new Year 7 students only so that they can receive a full induction and orientation day, supported by all of our staff. Year 7 students will also attend school for full days on Thursday and Friday.
All students in other year groups (the new Years 8-11) will be set home learning tasks to complete on the Wednesday. They will also be invited to come into school on Thursday or Friday for an individual well-being meeting and discussion with their Personal Learning Guide (PLG). Our PLGs have provided wonderful support for our young people during the period of school closure and we very much want this to continue. We held similar meetings for many of our current Year 10 students prior to their return in June and the feedback was very positive. Students will be sent an individual appointment time and they will be asked to arrive shortly before the meeting and return home afterwards. They will also be set home learning tasks to complete on Thursday and Friday.
A summary of Phase 1 for each year group is as follows: -
Wednesday 2nd September
Year 7 - In school all day (8.30am – 2.00pm) for an Induction Day
Year 8 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 9 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 10 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 11 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Thursday 3rd September
Year 7 - In school all day (8.30am – 3.00pm) for introductory lessons
Year 8 - Attending school for a 20-minute well-being meeting with their PLG and learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 9 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 10 - Attending school for a 20-minute well-being meeting with their PLG and learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 11 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Friday 4th September
Year 7 - In school all day (8.30am – 3.00pm) for introductory lessons
Year 8 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 9 - Attending school for a 20-minute well-being meeting with their PLG and learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 10 - Learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Year 11 - Attending school for a 20-minute well-being meeting with their PLG and learning from home using online (Frog) or paper resources
Letters informing families of the times of their child’s PLG appointment have been posted home and the appointment details are also available in students' school email.
All students must wear full school uniform when attending school during this week.
We fully appreciate that the plans outlined above mean that the return to full-time in-school education for many students will be delayed. It remains our belief, though, that not offering such levels of support to our young people would be extremely detrimental and would result in lost or less effective learning in the future.
The timetable for remote learning for the 2nd to 4th September for years 8 - 11 is available here.
Phase 2: Full Opening under DfE Guidance (Monday 7th September onwards)
All students will be expected to attend school full-time from Monday 7th September onwards. The school will offer a regular timetable of five one-hour periods of lessons in all subjects and all usual rules relating to uniform and behaviour will be in effect.
Despite being open to all students, the operation and structure of the school will be significantly different to our pre-closure arrangements. We have had to comply with the guidance from the DfE, particularly the following directives: -
- “The overarching principle to apply is reducing the number of contacts between children and staff. This can be achieved through keeping groups separate (in ‘bubbles’) and through maintaining distance between individuals”
- “In secondary schools, and certainly in the older age groups at key stage 4 and key stage 5, the groups are likely to need to be the size of a year group”
- “All teachers and other staff can operate across different classes and year groups in order to facilitate the delivery of the school timetable”
- “The curriculum remains broad and ambitious: all pupils (should) continue to be taught a wide range of subjects”
For this phase, we have decided to create separate ‘bubbles’ of year groups and plan to deliver our curriculum whilst adhering to the following principles: -
- Each year group will have its own distinct school entrance and exit route (see below)
- Every effort will be made to ensure that students of different year groups do not mix with one another
- Each year group will be allocated to one corridor of the school and will (with some exceptions for practical subjects) receive all of their teaching within the classrooms on that corridor
- Students from different classes are permitted to socially mix with their peers on their corridor but for most subjects they will be taught in consistent groups
- All classrooms will be adapted so that, for example, all desks face the front of the class
- Teachers will move to the corridor / classroom where their class is situated – students will remain in that location in order to reduce movement
- Social times (Break 1 and Break 2 [lunch]) will be staggered so that no more than two year groups are taking a break at the same time
- Year groups will be designated as being either ‘red’ or ‘blue’ and will only be able to access zones of the school, parts of the Café and outdoor areas allocated to that colour
- All students will have access to Café Mojo during their social times
- Students will be expected to arrive at school at 8.30am – please note it will not be possible for them to access the school site before this time
- The school day will end at 2:50pm (on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) and 1:50pm on Wednesday.
- It will not be possible to hold the usual pre-school PLG meetings: instead, these will be scheduled to take place during the school day once per fortnight
- Each day will begin with a 15 minute ‘Welcome and Wellbeing’ period. This will take place in the student’s Period 1 classroom and be supervised by their Period 1 teacher
- Online assemblies will be delivered during this period
Year Group Colours, Entrances & Exits* and Classroom Locations**
Year 11 - BLUE
Entrance: TRAC Entrance --> Fire Exit Staircase to 3B02 / 3B03
Classroom Location: Science Corridor (3B)
Year 10 - BLUE
Entrance Visitors’ Entrance --> Fire Exit Staircase to 2B10 / 2B11
Classroom Location: English classrooms on Corridor 2B
Year 9 - RED
Entrance: Visitors’ Reception --> Spiral Staircase to L3
Classroom Location: Maths Corridor (3C)
Year 8 - BLUE
Entrance: Student Entrance (Blue Side)
Classroom Location: MFL classrooms on Corridor 2B / SPA classrooms (2A&G)
Year 7 - RED
Entrance: Student Entrance (Red Side)
Classroom Location: Humanities Corridor (2C)
*Exit points are the same as entrances, with steps reversed where appropriate
See diagram at the end of this letter
**Some classes will be located slightly away from these corridors due to rooming restrictions
Social Times – Break 1 and Break 2 (click here to view school day pattern)
Although it will not be necessary to stagger the start and end times of the school day, we have had to stagger social times for our five year groups. Instead of a short morning break followed by a longer lunch break, all students will now have two social time breaks – Break 1 and Break 2 – each of 30 minutes.
The staggered breaks will be named Breaks 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b and 2c.
Please see the attached ‘Day Pattern’ document for the details of when break will occur for each of the five year groups.
‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ year groups who have breaks at the same time will be kept apart and will only be able to access their respective zones of the school.
Health & Safety Measures, Hygiene Procedures and Response to Covid-19 Cases in School
The school will follow in full all of the guidance relating to Health and Safety measures and hygiene procedures. We will also fully carry out all of our legal responsibilities with regard to dealing with individual cases or larger outbreaks of Covid-19.
We are currently in the process of updating our whole-school Risk Assessment and will publish this on our website before the beginning of the new academic year. It is not envisaged that any member of our school community (with the exception of First Aid and personal care staff) will be required to wear items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at any time.
In Summary
As you can read above, the school has had to undertake a great deal of planning in a very short space of time in order to ensure that we can welcome our students back in September whilst following the national guidance. Some very difficult decisions have had to be made, but throughout our planning we have at all times prioritised the safety, mental health and well-being of our students and staff as well as national public health advice.
Further information will be sent to you in due course and will be posted on our website.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. J Cregg
Headteacher
Diagram of Entrance Points for Year Groups
