December 10th 2021

                                              

Dear Parents / Guardians

Our Terrace Restaurant will serve Christmas Dinner for £3 to students next Wednesday. This will be a shorter experience for the students than in a ‘usual’ year, so we can prevent the Restaurant becoming overcrowded. Nevertheless, we hope it will be an enjoyable part to our final week of term.

Free School Meal vouchers will be issued to parents for the 2 weeks of the Christmas holiday by WONDE next Wednesday. Please see Parent and Guardian Ordering.

Teachers are currently offering 34 lunchtime clubs over the school week, and we would like all students to sign up for one club. Please encourage your daughter or son to sign up and attend: Lunchtime Clubs 2021 / 2022

From January, we aim to return to offering on site after school revision sessions to Years 11 & 13 students but want the maximum number of students to access the Live Online sessions with their teachers next week.

We would like to remind you that students will be learning remotely on Friday, December 17th with work set in Google Classroom for all students. Students should stick to their normal timetable and work on those tasks through the day and submit all work at the end of the day. Teachers will also set Homework Assignments in Google Classroom as per the Homework Timetable. No online live lessons will take place with teachers. No student should attend school on Friday, December 17th.

We hear with concern of high numbers of cases in some Kent schools and request that students wear masks, in order to support us to continue to operate normally. This is particularly important in classrooms and indoor spaces, where social distancing is simply not possible. Otherwise, we continue to operate all precautions we announced to you via our letter of Letter of September 2^nd – Arrangements for September and Beyond

Since we returned in September, we have had 206 students and 9 members of staff test positive for COVID-19 – that is 36 students and 0 members of staff this week. 10 of the 36 students who tested positive this week are in Year 10, where a significantly lower proportion of students have worn masks than in the 6 other Year Groups.  Many of the students have been asymptomatic and identified by in school or home testing. Where we have positive cases in a class we often retest the class or close contacts on the following day. We will update you once weekly on positive cases and maintain our current testing regime until the end of the February half-term at least.  Please test your child at home 3 or 4 days apart from each in school test.

Year Group	In school test	At home test
Years 13 & 11	Monday AM	Wednesday Evening
Years 12 & 10	Tuesday AM	Thursday Evening
Year 9	Wednesday AM	Saturday Evening
Year 8	Thursday AM	Sunday Evening
Year 7	Friday AM	Tuesday Evening

 

Where however we are concerned by possible cases in a class, we may increase the frequency of in school testing.  Please remember to keep ordering Lateral Flow Test Kits for your family. Order Rapid Lateral Flow Tests

We would like to remind parents and students that mobile phones should be turned off and in the bottoms of bags during Tutor time and lessons. Students must not use mobile phones before break or lunch when use will be permitted. This means that mobile phones should remain in students’ bags when moving between lessons. Students must not wear or carry headphones or ear pods in school at any time. Students must only wear a black or dark blue waterproof – non leather – coat. Where students do not meet our clear expectations in respect of uniform we may send students home and / or confiscate items, then requesting parents attend school by appointment to pick them up.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

Sonette Schwartz                                Charles Joseph

Executive Principal                              Principal