October 16th 2020

Dear Parents/ Guardians

Thank you for your support of your child and us since our return to school. The students continue to settle back to their new and different school routine. We and staff are very impressed by just how much so very many achieved during the months of Home School and over the summer holiday.

We hope you are finding the weekly summary of work set useful. If you have not already activated the Google Classroom Guardian feature to receive this or are encountering difficulty please let us know.  

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 by the end of each day. 

Today, we are providing you with our Digital Library for this and next half-term with links to new recommended titles for students in each year group to read.  Reading is so very important and we ask that you encourage your child to undertake at least 20 minutes of reading each day. Educational research shows that students, who read more perform better in Public Examinations. Students may choose a title HERE.

Students must not come into school if they need to self-isolate under prevailing Gov.uk guidance. Anyone self-isolating with symptoms must access testing and engage with the NHS Test and Trace process. If a symptomatic student attends school, parents will be contacted and the student will be isolated until they can be picked up. We will require written proof of a negative Covid 19 test prior to readmitting any student, who has been self-isolating or was sent home with symptoms of Covid 19. 

We have received word from Kent County Council that they are launching an Educational Psychologist Service Parent Consultation Line in November. More details are available HERE.
    
We are also showing NHS health messaging Hands Face Space videos daily to stress the importance of social distancing wherever possible, particularly at Break and Lunchtimes when they are with their friends. Please remind your child about this too! 

Most importantly, whilst Government has announced a 3 week delay to Public Examinations other options remain open: 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. Students to work hard and early as the academic year starts up and not ‘leave it until the last minute.’ To this end we will carry out regular class testing and summative assessment, but we are not in a position to run Walking Talking Mock or Pre-public examinations in the Examination Hall at the moment.

Thank you for your continued support. 

Yours Sincerely,
                              
Sonette Schwartz                        Charles Joseph
Principal                            Senior Vice Principal