Dear Parents and Carers
I hope this letter finds you and your family well at what undoubtedly is a time of unprecedented challenge for us all.
Sustaining education for all pupils is leading us to new ways of working but we are very conscious that the children and parents who will be the most anxious are those of pupils who would have been due to sit public examinations this summer. We have been promised far more detailed information this week about how grades will be decided and as soon as we have this and have had the chance to consider its implications we will be back in touch.
Inevitably your children will have some anxieties about what will happen in September, assuming that they are able to return to an educational setting by then. We appreciate this and we would like to reassure you that we have a place for your child in our college.
Our Year 11 and Sixth Form teams have already had discussions with your child over their future plans, however, we know from experience that these can change with time and so they have set up a Y11 Sixth Form google classroom [class code: 5lduy3r] for all our Year 11 students to join.
This classroom will allow our Sixth Form team to keep you updated with information and provide the facility for your child to communicate with them. The transition to Sixth Form is another major step in your child’s life, as we already know your child best academically and pastorally we are best placed to support them and we will continue to do this. Members of our teams will also be in touch directly to support you. Most staff are now working from home so phone calls may appear as number withheld rather than St Mary’s number.
We are also conscious that the end of Year 11 marks a significant transition point as pupils move from Key Stage 4 to 5 and we would normally acknowledge that with our Year 11 Celebration Assembly and Service where we would celebrate your child’s first five years with us. We will be exploring ways that we can recreate this as far as possible and would welcome pupils sharing ideas and reflections in the google classroom which we can then incorporate in our celebration.
Please do encourage your child to stay in touch with what’s happening through the Google classroom and do contact us if we can help. We look forward to seeing your child in September, if, hopefully, not earlier. We have some exciting new developments planned for our Sixth Form which we’ll share with you separately.
Yours faithfully
Mr A Boyle
Headteacher
