Parents/Carers

Temporary changes to the school day from term 2

We wanted to remind you that from 2 November 2020 we are introducing temporary measures to reduce inter year contact at lunchtime with the aim of minimising infection rates. Our intention to further enhance our risk assessment has been made more urgent by the increase in the number of Covid positive cases at Highfields and other local schools.

Students have been told of the changes and over the half term break we will amend their timetables to reflect the changes below and they will be issued with their new timetables during period 1 on the first day back.

All students should go straight to their period 1 classroom and lesson for 8.45am on 2 November.

The temporary change of timings are as follows:

Start time Finish time

Period 1 08:45 09:35 Period 2 09:35 10:25 Break 10:25 10:50 Period 3 10:50 11:40 Period 4 11:40 12:30 Form Time for Y7 / Y9 / Y11 / Y13 12:30 12:50 Lunch 12:50 13:20 Form Time for Y10 / Y12 13:20 13:40 Period 5 13:40 14:30 Period 6 14:30 15:20 Y7 / Y8 (Starkholmes) & Y9 / Y10 (Lumsdale) leave site 15:20 Tutorial Y11-13 15:20 15:30 Y11 / Y12 / Y13 leave site 15:30

Student two week timetable clarification

As you are aware, as part of our Covid-19 measures to reduce the times students are together and moving through school, we have been running a two week timetable of lessons since starting back in September. This has been successful and will be continued on return in November with the new timetables.

We wanted to clarify that as we finish our term on ‘week B’ we will return on 2 November on ‘week A’. The holidays do not count in the two week timetable.

Important note about communication between home and school

We would like to thank the vast majority of families who are calm and respectful when communicating with the school. We are especially grateful to parents/carers who manage to remain calm even when they are unhappy with the school. This approach helps us to resolve issues more quickly.

In a very small number of cases recently some parents/carers have been rude and disrespectful to staff, especially those in pastoral teams. In two cases this week, personal attacks and abusive language caused two very experienced staff members to become distressed.

Where staff performance is affected by stress it is children whose education is compromised.

Staff are carrying out governor ratified policies. Any complaints about conduct should be made in writing and in line with our complaints policy.

All members of the school community are entitled to respect and consideration.

Staff should respond to verbal abuse or disrespect by saying, ‘I feel that your tone and/or language are disrespectful and if it continues I will end the call/ meeting’. They have the full support of the headteacher and governors in doing so.

WEDUC

We are aiming to launch a new school to home communication system next term called Weduc. Initially we will be using Weduc for direct communication only of any Covid-19 updates and alerts to families, before we fully launch the system later in the term.

All parents/carers will receive an email with instructions on how to download the Weduc app to your phone and log in details for the Weduc website. Please ensure you are able to access Weduc to receive the latest alerts from school.