Announcements

Exam Guidance

Please click on the link for information on how exams will be graded for Year 11 and Year 13 students for Summer 2020 GCSE, AS and A level, Extended Project Qualification and Advanced Extension Award in maths. Guidance for teachers, students, parents and carers

Arrangements during the Easter break letter to parents

Dear Parents,

I would like to thank you all for supporting our school at such a difficult time. The vast majority of families have made arrangements with family to keep their children at home in line with the Government’s guidance, and this has enabled us to provide supervision for the small number children of key workers and vulnerable children, who are not able to stay safely at home, during the pandemic.

We have begun providing some suggestions of activities that your children might like to do over the Easter break as I know for many it will continue to be a difficult time. As it is unlikely that we will be returning to school on Monday 20th April we will continue to support home learning through our Google Classroom and our website.

We have made a large number of deliveries of learning packs and Free School Meal food packages to homes across the town and beyond too and I am very grateful to parents who have made the journey up to school to collect work for their children.

The traditional Easter holiday break starts next Monday 6th April 2020 and continues through to Friday 17th April 2020. The academy will remain closed during this period to the vast majority of students. We will continue to provide care as needed during this holiday period for only those children of key workers (where both parents are required to be in work and therefore cannot be in the family home) who have continued to attend school over the past two weeks.

Free school meals will not be provided over the Easter holiday for any children who would normally qualify. Therefore, those pupils attending school during the Easter break will need to bring a packed lunch. This is because our kitchens will not be open during the holiday period.

Following the Government’s announcements over this past weekend, it appears likely that schools will remain closed to the vast majority of children for some of the summer term. Therefore, we will continue to provide care only for the children of key workers and vulnerable children when the summer term begins on Monday 20th April 2020.

Please keep in touch through our website and stay safe in your homes during this national crisis.

Sylvia Thomas

Fun Ideas for Easter

Fun ideas for Easter poster

Check out your Core Project classroom for links.

update for parents: Monday 30th March 5.30 pm

Dear Parents/Carers

I hope you had a good weekend and managed some semblance of normality. At least the supermarkets seem to have more items on the shelves again following the mass panic buying we saw a week or so ago.

Today we have managed to deliver the remaining packs to Year 7 students who did not take them before the shut down happened last Friday. Tomorrow we start on Year 8 and hope to finish them by Wednesday.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse we are trying a new strategy this week for Free School Meals. Families will be getting two days’ worth of food on a Tuesday and a Thursday which means less journeys up to school. We will review this at the end of the week to see how it has gone. There will be no FSM provision over the Easter holiday period as our caterers will be on holiday. We are also starting up a delivery service for FSM families who are self-isolating tomorrow with four staff kindly volunteering to come into school to take food round.

We are also looking at setting up a Helpline for those families who are finding things a real struggle at the moment. We will let you know more about this service once we have sorted out the logistics. Please remember we are always at the end of an email and we are willing to help in whatever way we can.

Sylvia Thomas

Letter to parents Friday 20th March 2020
(You can download the letter which includes the form for key workers)

Sylvia Thomas

Health and Wellbeing

See our Health and Wellbeing page for web links for community health groups, statutory sick pay and entitlements due to the Coronavirus, stress and emotional health advice and Covid-19 resources.