Dear Parents and Carers
Following yesterday’s government announcement, I write to update you on the revised arrangements for the start of the Spring term in January 2021.
Which pupils are expected to be in school?
All our pupils in Years 11 and 13, along with any vulnerable pupils and children of critical workers from other year groups will return, as planned, to school on Tuesday 5 January 2021 and will be in full time all week.
What do other pupils do?
All the other pupils in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 will work from home from Tuesday 5 January until Friday 8 January.
These pupils will be accessing remote learning set on Google Classroom or, if they aren’t able to, need to contact our school office to request paper copies. The videos to support the use of Google Classroom are still on our website and the chance to email a helpline email address if your child needs help in getting Google Classroom to work.
What happens on Monday 11th January?
Currently, all pupils will be expected to be in full time from Monday 11th January.
How will this affect January BTEC examinations?
There are BTEC examinations for some pupils in Years 10 to 13 in the week beginning 4th January. The dates of these cannot be changed and we will in contact separately with pupils in Years 10 and 12 who have these examinations regarding final preparations for the exams and the arrangements for them coming in to sit them. Pupils in Years 11 and 13 will be in school and will be able to take their examinations as planned.
How will testing work?
As you may appreciate we have received very late notice of this change to the start of term and we have been told far more detail will be released over the next few days, in particular regarding how testing will be expected to work. We will write again to update you as soon as we firmer details of how this will operate in practice.
Yours faithfully
Mr A Boyle
Headteacher
