Find your remarkable HJS/JLK 7th January 2021 Dear Parents/Guardians What a whirlwind the last few days have been. On Monday our focus was all about setting up a test centre but by the end of the day this had changed to a national lockdown and a return to virtual learning. The first few days have run very smoothly and this is testament to our staff who are well versed in virtual teaching. New Student Timetables We have devised a new timetable that will start on Monday 11th January. Generally, students will have four lessons a day with one hour in the day labelled as a “Screen Break” (some students might on occasions have two “Screen Breaks” due to the constraints of the timetable). We will be actively encouraging students to do something other than being on a screen in this hour. This might be exercise, reading or a challenge set by their Head of Year. Every Monday there will be a Head of Year assembly at 8:45am. Every Tuesday-Friday staff will be making “check in calls” to students from 8:45am-9:00am with the aim that every child will have received a phone call over the next few weeks. Lessons will start at 9am and finish at 3pm. Your child will have a virtual assembly tomorrow Friday 8th January P1 instead of their normal lesson led by their Head of Year who will share the new timetable with students and explain how it will work. Heads of Year will be sending out a Google Meet invite to students for the assembly. There will also be an opportunity for your child to meet with their tutor so they can ask any questions about their timetable The timetable will be emailed to you on Friday. Access to Technology We are continuing to work through the list of technology required for some students. Thank you for your patience whilst we source devices for your children. Please be aware that “Tech Support” consists of two teachers and one IT technician so they are not always able to reply to you immediately. If your child experiences any issues with technology and/or Google classroom then please contact techsupport@wintoncommunityacademy.org Attendance We expect all students to attend all of their lessons unless they are unwell. We are able to monitor attendance on an Academy level and at a Trust level. This means that if students are not attending their online lessons we will be contacting you via phone or email to let you know. Our support team will be making daily calls. Mass Testing We spent Monday getting the mass testing site ready however this has now been suspended by the Government until all students return to school. We do still need to have consent forms filled in for every child so that we are ready to start testing as and when we return. Here is the link if you
haven’t filled the form in yet: Consent Form Link The form must be filled in even if you do not give consent as we need to have a note of this on our records. Free School Meals The Government has asked for free school meals to be provided in the form of weekly food packs. Parents/guardians have been given an allocated day/time to collect their packs. If you have any questions regarding this then please contact Mr Parsons iparsons@wintoncommunityacademy.org Homework/Extension Work Instead of setting homework during this lockdown period each teacher will be setting a weekly extension activity for their class. Students will have the choice to complete this if they wish to. Communication Students and parents will receive a weekly communication from their Head of Year on Mondays. Students and parents will receive a weekly bulletin from myself on Fridays (apart from tomorrow as you have had this lengthy letter from me today!) We will aim to get any communication into these two documents to avoid lots of emails and letters being sent. I am fairly sure you are all sick of seeing updates from me! You will also receive the AET Edurio survey. As always a reminder that if any issue is raised in the survey you will not get a personal response due to anonymity. If you have any specific questions then please email your child’s tutor/teacher followed by their Head of Year/Head of Department. Key worker/vulnerable children From Monday students need to arrive at 8:45am. All students have been allocated a room and this will now remain the same for the duration of the lockdown. As we are in a national lockdown students are expected to adhere to all COVID rules. If they are unable to do this they will have to access their virtual learning from home and will not be able to attend the school site. Year 11 As mentioned in my letter on Monday night the Summer GCSE exams have been cancelled. Yesterday the Government announced that “teacher assessment” would be used to finalise grades for Year 11 students however we have no further information about what process we will need to follow for this. We will update Year 11 students and parents as soon as we know. It is crucial that Year 11 stay engaged in their learning as we must continue to gather evidence of their work as this may well be the basis for any teacher assessed grades. Year 11 Parents’ Evening is on Thursday 28th January 4pm-7pm This will be a virtual parents’ evening and appointments can be made in the normal way. The online booking system will be live from 10.00am on Monday 11 th January. Year 9 Parents’ Evening is on Thursday 21st January 4pm-7pm This will be a virtual parents’ evening and appointments can be made in the normal way. The online booking system is now live.
Year 9 Options Evening is on Thursday 4th February 4pm This will be a virtual event and more information will be coming out to you regarding this via Mr Messingham and Mr Head. Year 9 Teenage Booster Vaccinations 28th February At the moment we are unsure if the vaccinations will be going ahead. We are waiting for information from the NHS regarding this and we will be in touch when they do. Phew! I think that is all the updates. The main thing to look out for is your child’s timetable which will be emailed out to you tomorrow. If your child is unsure what lesson they should be in, then their first port of call should always be to email their tutor to help them. It is likely that in the first few days of the new timetable there will be some teething issues and this is to be expected given that we have 750 students accessing a new timetable all from home! Thank you for all you are doing to keep your children motivated with their learning at home whilst many of you are working from home yourselves. It is very much appreciated. In the first two days nearly 90% of all children in the school have attended their online lessons which is a superb starting point. Yours sincerely
Mrs Jones Headteacher