March 23rd 2020

 

Dear Parents

 

On Friday, March 20th we provided initial information to parents in respect of how we will support students learning during their absence from school and sent key documents to begin the task of supporting your child with their learning at home.

 

1. Accessing email and Unify Portal (student resources)
2. SIMS student App
3. SIMS Parent App
4. Key E Resources (password information is included here)

Please ensure you download and save a copy of these documents, in case internet becomes slower and less reliable.

This will help them start their home learning journey and keep them safe.

From tomorrow Tuesday, March 24^th teachers will start to send classes information about work to undertake over Google Classrooms and any necessary materials to use during and outside sessions, via the school email system. Google Classrooms allows us to set work and deadlines for students.

You can find a link to all guides under the key information section of the website

We will scale up our use of Google Classrooms during this week.

Tuesday, March 24^th Periods 1 & 2.

Wednesday, March 25^th Periods 1 – 3.

Thursday, March 26^th Periods 1 – 4

Friday, March 27^th Periods 1 – 5

While we are scaling up our use of Google Classrooms this week we request that students in Years 7 – 10 follow their normal timetable as closely as possible in the lessons where work is not yet set on Google Classrooms by making full use of the E resources available for each subject and ensuring they have passwords set up in each subject. Students in Year 12 should access materials for their A level subjects in Student Resources.

 

Students may email questions to teachers between 9am and 3pm. Teachers and may sometimes reply via a class email if they judge this is helpful to more students. They will also do so in school hours, so answers may be delayed by a day or over a weekend.

The advantage of Google Classrooms over other Learning Platforms is it does not rely on students and / or parents being able to download large amounts of information simultaneously and will therefore be more reliable.

As we move forward we will keep reviewing our provision and may build or modify this as appropriate. Clearly, this is a first for us and we have prepared our systems quickly. However, we are confident they will support our students as well as is possible in these circumstances.

Those students and families, who rise best to this challenge will, we are absolutely certain, perform best whenever we are able to resume ‘normal’ provision. We are sure you will do all you can to ensure they maintain good and regular study habits – we will too.

 

For all our information we refer to the Government guidance for educational settings and will continue to do so following partial closure.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

 

The Government’s list of key workers has now been defined and is readily available on line. Guidance in respect of educational settings remaining open has also been further clarified an extract of which appears below:

And the most recent scientific advice from Gov.UK on how to further limit the spread of COVID-19 is clear. If children can stay safely at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading. That is why the government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and asked schools to remain open only for those children who absolutely need to attend.

Gov.UK Guidance further signals that children of 12 and above can generally remain at home alone in the family home, whilst parents are at work. The full guidance may be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

Government has stated GCSE and A level examinations will not take place this summer but they will ensure students receive their examination results.  Once Government proposals around this are published we will let you know.

Students, who are in receipt of Free School Meals may continue to receive these by picking up a packed lunch from school between 1 – 1.15pm. If you would like to do this, please mail the school Office account by 8am tomorrow morning giving the name of your child, so we prepare the correct number. We will keep you informed as and when a national voucher scheme becomes available.

We will contact you again about student Home Learning at the end of the school day tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24^th.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Yours sincerely

Sonette Schwartz                                                                                                               Charles Joseph