September 18^th 2020

 

Dear Parents/ Guardians

 

Thank you for your support of your child and us since our return to school. The students have settled well to a very different school environment to the one they left in March.

 

We hope you have already activated the Google Classroom Guardian feature to receive a weekly summary of work set each Friday for your child in each subject and enable you to have a greater degree of oversight of their learning. The Guardian Summary will enable you to ensure any necessary catching-up is done over the weekend. Our teachers will be running through our Using Google Classroom for Students guide with all their classes and particularly with our new Year 7s as we get underway.

 

We are making a number of important changes to our calendar for this half-term:

 

1. The Year 11 Consultation Evening of September 23^rd is now postponed.

This will be replaced by a socially distanced Parents’ Consultation Day on site at Brockhill on Tuesday, November 3rd running from 10am until 6pm.

 

2. The Year 10 Consultation Evening of October 13th is now postponed.

This will be replaced by a socially distanced Parents’ Consultation Day on site at Brockhill on Monday, November 2nd running from 10am until 6pm.

 

3. The year 12 /13 Consultation Evening of November 10^th is now cancelled.

This will be replaced by a socially distanced Parents’ Consultation Day on site at Brockhill:

For Year 12 on Monday, November 2nd running from 10am until 6pm.

For Year 13 on Tuesday, November 3rd running from 10am until 6pm.

 

School will be closed to all Year Groups on Monday, November 2nd and Tuesday, November 3rd. Work for lessons on those 2 days will be set in Google Classroom for completion and submission at the end of each day. We will inform you of future changes to the school calendar after half-term.

 

In our current work with students, we are emphasising the importance of 98%+ attendance along with self- organisation and planning. These skills are crucial to the learning of students and may become even more so in the event of further disruption to schools. We are also emphasising the importance of social distancing wherever possible, particularly at Break and Lunchtimes when they are with their friends. Standing or sitting and talking at a distance of 2 arm lengths from each other is achievable for all with doubtless a few reminders along the way!

 

Most importantly, we do not know what the future will bring in terms of Public Examinations: Year 11 and Year 13 could possibly be in the position of having to rely on our predictions to Examination Boards, which would be rank ordered across their Year Group, for their final Grade. We are encouraging students to work hard and early as the academic year starts up and not ‘leave it until the last minute.’

Thank you for your continued support.

 

Yours Sincerely,

                                                                                                     

Sonette Schwartz                                                                                            

Principal   

 

Charles Joseph

Senior Vice Principal