Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our latest newsletter.  I hope you find the selection of articles below of interest, particularly where your child has been involved in events. We have spent a lot of the term managing absence both of staff and students and are really looking forward to focusing on more exciting aspects of school life.  It is therefore great to see enrichment opportunities on the rise as venues are opening up with fewer restrictions.  We are booking our first series of overseas trips with the likes of the School ski trip next year, MFL trips to France/Spain, and Gold Duke of Edinburgh.  Both international and local trips are so important to enrich the curriculum and support student motivation to extend their studies in areas they are interested in and we really encourage students to take up these opportunities where possible.  Please be aware though that as these trips are released some will require students to have a Covid pass, providing an additional layer of requirements for these trips.  A link to the details for these passes can be found here.

We have been re-thinking our curriculum in light of the impact of Covid.  Particularly in Years 7 and 8 we have students who have missed out on whole rotations of subjects, such as Design Technology, Drama, Food Technology and therefore have never had an experience of that subject.  This, along with other reasons, has resulted in our curriculum being adjusted so that Options will no longer be chosen at the end of Year 8 this Easter, but will instead by chosen by our current Year 8 students when they are in Year 9, i.e. February 2023.  This will enable these students to have a proper experience of all of these subjects and enable any gaps in learning to be closed, whilst also allowing core subjects more time to teach their subjects at greater depth.  Current Year 8 students will be able to specialise in some subject areas early.  Please find further details here.

There is a real determination by the DfE to have GCSE, BTEC and A Level exams this summer and recent information has been released, explaining on a subject by subject basis, which parts of the specification for each subject will not be examined this summer as a result of the lost learning time due to lockdowns.  We have put all the relevant links in the document that can be found here:

Students_FAQs_Summer_2022_JCQ

Advance-Information-for-General-Qualifications-2021-22_JCQ

At the same time we are still being asked by the DfE to continue with the ‘TAG’ Teacher Assessed Grade process.  Year 11 and 13 will be sitting a series of assessments after half-term, which will provide a second mark in case we need to move to TAGs.  Students should be taking their success in these assessments seriously, as one of the reasons that TAGs may be implemented will be as a result of inequity in the impact of Covid on different parts of the country.  There will be a third TAG assessment in the early summer for Year 11 and 13, should we be asked to implement it.

If you are wondering how to get your child caught up with a missed Covid vaccination, then you can find a link here to support you.  Further, with March approaching and the heating working in all our new build areas, from after half-term, students will return to wearing only their blazers in class and not their outer coats.

Lastly, Innovate, the catering company that runs our food offer at break and lunch, are increasing prices on some of their food range to cater for rising costs.  We have been able though to keep the price of the main meal at £2.30 which still reflects a very good price, for a hot main meal and dessert.

We have also seen several students recently going into negative balances on their Squid account. After half-term we will cap any negative balances allowed to £2.30 to avoid this but to also ensure that no students would ever be left hungry. Of course, any need beyond this would also be dealt with on an individual basis and we would always make sure that all students have access to food at school, even if their Squid account is short of funds. We hope you feel this is a sensible approach.

We wish you a relaxing half-term if possible and look forward to welcoming all our students back on Tuesday 1 March for our usual 8.55am start.

Work Hard, Be Kind, Have Passion,

Ed Hillyard , Headteacher