January 2022

We are looking forward to welcoming all students back in the new year. School will start with a carefully phased return for all pupils in January 2022. 

We will begin with Year 7 initially then Year 11 will then join them and each year group will have dedicated return to school sessions to enable them to start the new year successfully.

The expected days of attendance for year groups commencing on Tuesday 4th January are as follows:

Tuesday 4th January

Year 7 arriving at school at 08:30 and remaining in school.

Year 13 arriving at school at 10:30 and remaining in school

Year 11 arriving at school at 12:30 and remaining in school. Please make sure that your son/daughter has had lunch.

Wednesday 5th January

Year 12 arriving at school at 08:30 and remaining in school.

Year 10 arriving at school at 12:30 and remaining in school. Please make sure that your son/daughter has had lunch.

Year 7, Year 11 and Year 13 in school

Thursday 6th January

Year 8 arriving at school at 08:30 and remaining in school

Year 9 arriving at school at 11:00  and remaining in school

All year groups in school

Work will be set on Google Classroom for students who are not required to be in school during this week.

In response to the government guidance on the return to school, we will be testing all students once as they return to school. If you have not previously provided consent for testing and would like to do so please complete this form. Please ensure that we have up to date consent for your son/daughter. It would also be good practice if your child were to bring their own paper tissues and a small hand sanitiser with them to minimise risk of spreading any bacteria. 

Testing remains important in reducing the risk of transmission of infection within schools.

Staff and secondary school pupils should continue to test twice weekly at home, with lateral flow device (LFD) test kits, 3-4 days apart. If you are unable to test at home, please let us know and we will arrange for support. 

Can you please check that your son/daughter has all the necessary equipment on a daily basis to ensure that they are ready to learn and that they minimise the risk to themselves and others.

Our phased return will allow our students to become familiar with the new arrangements for access to school as work begins on our new building in January 2022. It is imperative that we keep health and safety at the centre of all we do during the new build project. The main staff car park will be out of bounds and closed to staff, parents, students and members of the public. Can you please park with due care and respect for our neighbours and refrain from parking in the bus bays at the side of school.

Uniform

Students should return in full uniform in January. The uniform also clearly outlines expectations on footwear, which must be plain black shoes of polishable material and with no sports logos. A reminder of our uniform list and PE kit list can be found here. Our uniform policy also clearly states that there should be no false nails, no false eyelashes, nose rings or earrings. Thank you for your support in ensuring that our high standards of uniform and appearance are maintained and allow us to remove barriers to learning.

Punctuality 

Students arriving late to school and to lessons can be disruptive to the learning of others and can result in significantly lost learning. Should a student arrive late to school or lessons in January they will be expected to make the time up at the end of the day.  Further information will be shared separately to this letter. 

Mobile Phones

As per our school safeguarding policy, mobile phones should not be used on school sites.  Please remind your child that mobile phones should not be used on the school site.  As per our policy mobile phones will be confiscated and will need to be collected from reception by a parent/carer. 

Arbor

As you know we have launched our new school MIS system called Arbor.  This has replaced SIMS and ClassCharts. You will receive your data checking sheets during the first week back in January and following this we will send parents details on how to log into Arbor to track attendance, behaviour and curriculum data. 

Reports

All year groups have completed assessments and data has been collected. We will be sending reports to parents in January.

Many thanks for your continued support and cooperation and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Kind regards

Maria Sharratt