February 1st 2021

Dear Parents / Guardians

 

Thank you for your support of Home School today. We have so much to commend students for and so very much to be grateful to their parents and families for.  We and the children’s teachers are very optimistic about students’ current learning, as well as for their prospects for further success when they rejoin us on site.

We hope you received your weekly Guardian Summary last Friday afternoon in respect of your daughter or son’s learning for the week. It is vital students remember to ‘Submit’ when they complete an assignment and that they remember to carry out any improvements a teacher requests, then ‘Submit’ again when returning the assignment to them. Otherwise, the assignment will show as undone in the Guardian Summary.

Our Guidance Managers will continue to make telephone contact with families this week to check on student welfare and to raise any concerns we may have around student attendance to Live Online lessons or submission of assignments for students in Years 7 – 13. We are aiming to ensure 100% attendance to Live Online lessons, so all the students are in the best possible place with their learning and poised for further success when they rejoin us on site.

 

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and students will receive information about this with their PSHE assignments this week, via their Daily Tutor. Parents, please also see the NSPCC Learning link below, which contains a wealth of information for parents and carers about the promotion of good mental health amongst our young people at this time.

Supporting children’s mental health during coronavirus | NSPCC Learning

Please do let us know if your daughter or son is unwell and cannot attend Live Online lessons just as you would let us know about absence from school. In addition, where a student tests positive for COVID-19, please inform us, as we submit a daily return to the Department for Education about positive cases amongst the student body.

 

Tomorrow, we will resume Lateral Flow Testing in school for students, who are on site.

 

We will open Bookings for our Years 7 & 8 Parents’ Day on Monday, February 22^nd shortly after 10am tomorrow. Appointments will run from 10am – 6pm with 5 minute video appointments. Our IT manager is confident in the platform we are using, and we are removing the 5 minutes’ buffer in between each appointment mentioned in Friday’s letter. To aid you with the booking process please see:

Parents’ Guide – Parent Consultation Days – How to book and attend Video Appointments

We will close bookings on Tuesday, February 9^th at 3pm.

 

The Daily Tutor Time activity tomorrow is:

 

Digital Library

 

Students should let their Daily Tutor for Tuesday know what and how much they have read at the end of tomorrow. We are extending our Reading Breakout Groups within timetabled Live Online English lessons to Year 8 this week and to Year 9 next week. We very much wish all our students from Years 7 – 13 to undertake 20 minutes reading a day, as this is so helpful to their development.

 

We want all our students to remain safe by following the National Lockdown Guidance

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home

 

as well as to remember social distancing, hand washing and face coverings, so as to play their part in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

 

Yours Sincerely,

                               

 

Sonette Schwartz    

Principal    

 

Charles Joseph

Senior Vice Principal