Headlines By James Saunders 12th March 2021
The first week back after any break is always an important one. When it’s the first week back after a lockdown it is even more vital. We could be forgiven for worrying that both learners and staff may take time to adjust and find it hard to get back into gear. It has, after all, been eleven weeks since the school last resonated with the sound of a full complement of learners. I am pleased to say that on Monday the staff arrived full of focus and enthusiasm; excited to be reunited with our learners. We have staggered the transition of cohorts and this week have successfully tested our C11-C9s and welcomed back C10 and C11. Next week we will be back to full operational capacity as we welcome C7 and C8. I would like to thank families for their continued support and patience with the many additional demands placed on us to get learners back to school. Testing is one of those demands. Our testing centre has operated without any issues all week and those learners and parents who have been through have commented on how easy we have made it. Foolishly, in the middle of trying to welcome everyone back I agreed to a visit from the NHS to review our safety measures and approach to Lateral Flow Testing. I am pleased to report that the NHS representative stated that our testing centre was the most thorough and carefully planned he had come across in any school. He was very impressed with all of the control measures that we have in place across the school. I should be receiving a report from him next week. The other change we have had to introduce is to expand the expectations of mask wearing. When introducing any change there is always room for interpretation; guidance can be interpreted to mean different things to different people. I have had to spend a lot of time discussing the issues of masks with families and whilst I do enjoy speaking with families this has taken up a lot of time.
I appreciate that different people have different views when it comes to the pandemic but would like to point out that the guidance we have received is that masks in classrooms are only to be in place until Easter - two weeks away. After walking around the school to see how learners have been getting on I can report that they have embraced the return well. Many teachers have spoken to me about how great it is to be doing what they love - teaching a room full of wonderful learners. We remain committed to our development priorities, that day to day all learners and staff live through our core values and promote equity and well-being. I wish you all a safe and happy weekend James Saunders Congratulations To: Erin Smith and Rose Collier, our winner and runner up of the world book day challenge. Both will receive house points and a book voucher.
Changes to Published Inset Days This summer, due to the awarding of qualifications for Cohort 11 being determined by teachers, and the additional workload this places upon them marking additional assessments and examination papers, (which is usually carried out by awarding examination boards), a decision has been made across all Saffron Academy Secondary Schools for an additional Non Pupil Day to be scheduled next half term. For Honywood learners this will be taking place on Monday 24th May. Consequently no learning will be set on this date. Next academic year 2021/22 we will be changing the date of a previously scheduled Non Pupil Day from Friday 19th November 2021 to Friday 3rd December 2021. Copies of the updated term dates can be found on the following pages and published on our website.