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Letter to Parents 24th February
24th February 2023
Dear Parents,
I am writing to you following my letters of January 19th and 26th about strike action by the National Education Union on Thursday, March 2nd.
In the absence of significant progress in talks today and tomorrow with Government representatives, the NEU have stated they will call upon their members to take industrial action on Thursday, March 2nd in respect of their ongoing pay dispute. I wish Government and Union representatives well in seeking and finding agreement but time has run on, so far with apparently no or little success.
In the likely event of industrial action taking place, we understand a large number of our staff will do so, as indeed they did in February.
We must make changes to our normal operations, in order to be both effective and safe next Thursday.
These changes will be very largely identical to those we made for the day of industrial action in February, and we will again move to remote learning for Years 7 – 10 next Thursday, March 2nd.
Assignments for students in Years 7 - 10 will be posted by teachers who are not taking part in the industrial action in Google Classroom to undertake at home.
Where assignments are not posted in Google Classroom for all of a student’s lessons, we will provide you and them with additional links to BBC Bitesize or Oak Academy online resources via further letter early next week.
Students in Years 11, 12 and 13 should attend for on site learning at Brockhill, where teachers who are not taking part in the industrial action will deliver their lessons as normal. However, the Dance GCSE practical examination will not take place on Thursday, but will do so as soon as is practical thereafter. All after school activities will be cancelled on Thursday, March 2nd.
Where the teacher of a Year 12 or 13 class is taking industrial action / absent from school Years 12 and 13 students will sign in and undertake private study in the Sixth Form Study Area.
If the teacher of a Year 11 class is taking industrial action / absent from school Year 11 students will attend the Theatre and undertake personal revision activities with their own materials: - for example, their own flashcards, revision guides and revision timetable.
They may receive advice about revision for Public Examinations: - for example, they may watch a Walking Talking Mock Maths GCSE examination.
Parents of students in Years 7 – 10 in receipt of Free School Meals of will receive a separate message to this early next week about arrangements for meal allowances on Thursday, March 2nd.
Where a student in Years 7, 8, 9 or 10 is the child of a critical worker or is vulnerable as defined by Annexes A & B of the Gov.uk Emergency Planning and Response for Education Guidance and no other arrangements are possible, we will offer the possibility of supervised private study at school of the identical materials set for all students in Google Classroom. Please ask via email to the school office account for a Supervised Private Study Request Form.
Only students who meet the criteria of the Gov.uk Guidance and for whom we have received and acknowledged by the end of school on Tuesday the completed Supervised Private Study Request Form will be able to use this facility. Guidance
I am sorry about this further disruption to you and to your child’s education, and I am grateful to you all for the understanding you have shown.
I cannot yet comment on arrangements for scheduled strike days on Wednesday, March 15th and Thursday, March 16th but wish Government and Union representatives well in seeking and hopefully finding agreement before then, should they not do so over this weekend!
Yours sincerely,
Charles Joseph
Principal
