Live Lessons – FAO Parents and Carers

19th May 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

I sincerely hope that you and your families are safe and well.

Thank you to those of you that message our staff to thank them for the tremendous work that they are doing in our Virtual School: we all appreciate it.

The purpose of this letter is to provide you with the position of our Trust schools on the extended opening of school following the government announcements and guidance we have received last week.

The guidance and requirements for extended opening is very different for secondary schools compared to primary schools. We are required to further support the virtual learning of our Year 10 and 12 students with some face to face interaction. We strongly believe that our virtual lessons are effective and to bring students back in at this point will serve no purpose as we would have to split classes into much smaller groups and therefore could not guarantee that children would have their usual teacher. Therefore, Year 10 and 12 students will continue with this Virtual provision, coupled with live video links with their assigned Senior Leader mentor. We will evaluate this again in June and may then decide to slowly reintegrate the two year groups back into school.

Years 7, 8, 9 students will continue to work in the Virtual school and will not be back in school until September. We will continue to maintain the existing provision for the children of key workers and vulnerable children. We expect 100% of students to follow their usual timetable that starts with the daily assembly at 8.30am.

We are working in very challenging times and we are asking staff to educate children very differently; I want to assure you that we are constantly evaluating and reflecting on the safest and most effective way forwards.

In readiness for September, there is much work to be done with our staff and with our buildings to prepare for a safe return. We will continue to share our plans with you and will always act within government guidance. In order to prepare for September, we will have an Inset day on Thursday 2nd July therefore there will be no Virtual School however our mini school will remain open to those children of key workers and our vulnerable students.

I know that you will continue to support us and recognise that we want to make the right decisions for all of our students and staff.

Yours Sincerely,

Nicola Bayliss

Headteacher