26.05.2020 IMPORTANT INFORMATION for Parents and Carers

Procedures_for_coming_into_school_during_covid.pdf

26th May 2020

Dear Parents/carers

You may have heard the government press briefing yesterday announcing that schools which have been shut are re-opening after TT fortnight.As you know, we have been open throughout the lockdown period for specific children only.Thank you for your forbearance and support in looking after your children at home.The purpose of this letter is to update you on what we are thinking of doing after TT week.For parents of children in Y10, further details will be sent to you later this week.

We are still required to maintain physical distancing of 2m and to uphold good hygiene.We are expecting a delivery of mobile handwashing units which will help with the latter.To achieve the former, we have rearranged classrooms to give each student a designated work space.The maximum we can fit in a room is 6-7 if the students need to work at their computers.This is about ¼ of normal class size.As we have fewer teachers than normal as some are having to shield, I am asking support staff to help supervise students.This still means we only have capacity for ¼ of the children at any one time.If we were to take in all of Y10 and Y12 full time, that would be all the spaces gone.As most of Y10 and Y12 have been working well remotely and do not require parents at home to supervise them, it seems inappropriate for those students to take all the available space.They also gain nothing if all they are doing is the remote learning they can do more safely and comfortably at home.No other child would be able to attend school.As we already have 6 rooms operating, this is not fair nor desirable.

So, I am working on a rota which would give each student in Y10 a lesson per week for each GCSE subject and mean they would be in school for 1 ½ days a week.

They would be in groups of 8 and we will try to keep those groups as contained as possible whilst accommodating options.This means they will not be in sets for core subjects and will not necessarily have their usual teacher.They will however have a subject specialist. The rest of the week they will need to continue with their remote learning.

For Y12, I am planning a rota based on their A level options so students would have an afternoon for each option and be expected to continue remote learning for the rest of the time.

To facilitate contact tracing, should it be needed, students are limited to a specific area of the school and will be expected to arrive for a specific time and leave once their lesson is over. We are keeping the groups as constant as possible. They will be given designated entrance doors to use so they do not mix with the rest of the school.They will be expected to follow the additional rules to help minimise the spread of the virus and keep everyone safe. If they do not follow these rules, they will not be allowed on site at all.

I hope this reassures parents that we are doing our best to keep safety at the forefront of our thinking.If however, you prefer for your child not to attend school for the time being, that is perfectly okay. We will send specific information later this week.

If you have children in other years and are now expected to return to work, provided you fall into the key worker category, you can request a place for your child to attend school.Please use the form on our website to do this as each child is given a specific room and entrance door.Please do not just send your child to school as there will not be a place ready for him or her.

School is closed over TT fortnight so that teachers and support staff can have a holiday.I hope that you will allow your children a holiday from school work as well.

If you need supervision for your child and have no other options, MSR are offering some activities on the school site.The form is on our website and places are given on a first come first served basis.This is for younger children only.

For those of you with children in Y11 or Y13, we have put a link to the latest Ofqual guidance on the website.Teachers have been working on the predicted grades and we have to submit these next month.We are not allowed to tell you these grades as they are subject to change by the exam boards.It will be regarded as malpractice if we do discuss this with you so please do not ask us, we do not want to get into trouble.Results will be published in August on the original results days.At the moment, we are not sure how we will manage this – it depends where the Island is in terms of managing the pandemic.Cambridge CIE (IGCSE and IA level) offer an electronic service so students can obtain their results directly from this.We will let you know more when we know more ourselves.

Thank you again for all of your support in these challenging times.I hope that you and your families are keeping well.

Kind regards

Sue Moore