Headteacher’s Update – 3^rd July 2020

Following the government’s announcement yesterday, I can confirm that the plan is that all students, in all year groups, will return to school full-time in September.  Year 7 will start on Thursday 3^rd September, and the remaining year groups (8 to 11) will begin on Friday 4^th September.  This is excellent news, and we will now be studying the guidance to ensure we have in place protective measures for children and staff, whilst ensuring all students can receive the high-quality education they need.  I will write to you before the end of term, with further details.

Year 10 face-to-face sessions continue to go well.  It is lovely to see the numbers of students returning to school growing each day.  Ofqual, the government body in charge of examinations and qualifications, are currently consulting on the GCSE exams for our students next summer.  It looks likely there will be some slight modifications to content and the number of exams in some option subjects to help schools manage the lost teaching time this year.  We will be holding a GCSE Information Evening on 24^th September, to share this information with you.  In the meantime, students should be keeping up to date with all their home-learning and school sessions, as the message is very clear from Ofqual that students will be sitting exams in the Summer series of 2021.

I appreciate that this is a worrying time for Year 11 students, as they are uncertain about what their GCSE grades will look like in August.  This is not helped by the growing number of social media posts, claiming that GCSE grades are to be dropped nationally.  There appears to some email traffic offering GCSE retake courses, too.  It saddens me to see companies appearing to prey upon the anxieties of our young people, and I would urge you to delete these communications, and reassure your child that whatever 20^th August brings, there will be a positive next step.  In the meantime, please remind your Year 11 child to keep checking school emails, as we need to be able to update them on things such as the arrival of hoodies, or the date for a Year 11 Ball.   Please also encourage your child to email their tutor or CLT about any worries, or simply just to touch base.  We are all still here for them.

Our Year 6 Parents’ Meeting was well attended this week, and we hope that we were able to reassure parents that everything is prepared for their child joining us in September.  Mrs Hughes has been into Primary Schools again this week to talk to Year 6s; it would appear that our Welcome Year 6 video has gone down really well.  The staff are really looking forward to meeting them on 3^rd September.

Best wishes, Paula Hearle