Welcome to the first weekly email of the Spring Term 2022. The Spring Term is always an exciting one; the days are getting lighter again (if still cold!), children have had the first term to find their stride in their year groups and friendships and there are some key events for pupils to look forward to. On the topic of key dates, please note that our Summer Open Day will be held on Saturday 21st May 2022. Open Days are compulsory events for pupils to attend and the expectation is that the majority of our pupils will be in school to support us. Whilst I would encourage any parents who wish to help the school to volunteer to do so, I also understand that an Open Day does provide a lovely window for a leisurely brunch! If you would be available to volunteer to help on the day, please email Mrs Nunn ([email protected]).
From Monday, Years 11 and 13 will be undertaking their mock examinations. The mock examination process has always been a serious one for pupils to get a feel for the formal examination process and to have a good benchmark on where the children’s learning is at this stage. In light of Covid-19 and the possibility of Centre Assessment Grades being based in part on the results from the mock examinations, the process becomes even more crucial to the academic success of our pupils. Officially from the DfE, the line is that examinations will go ahead for the Summer of 2022 but then this was the case for 2020 and 2021. What we will do, as we did in previous years, is keep our pupils focused, confident in their learning and prepare to ensure our children get their very best grades regardless of the methodology for assessing it. Good luck to some of our Sixth Form pupils studying BTEC who are also taking formal, external examinations next week.
Next week also sees the return of our ExEn provision. You’ll know that this week we needed to take some time to reflect on whether running the full suite of ExEn was the right thing and, as confirmed by Mr Gear, we have decided that, for now, we want to continue to give pupils the breadth of experience they deserve. Please find the updated timetable here. If you would like to book onto any additional sessions please email Mr Gear on [email protected].
We open the term with some changes to Covid-19. For the pupils, the main change is that masks are required again in classrooms for Senior aged children. The pupils have been fantastic this week and have taken it all in their stride as they have done since March 2020. Aside from that, there are a few changes of note. Firstly, contact tracing has now been pushed back to schools. This means that you will begin to receive communication from us again when there is a case in the school that we deem your child to be a potential close contact of. As a rule, this will be pupils in the same year group or pupils who have travelled on the same bus. The letter, which is taken from a template shared by local public health team, will be the same letter sent each time. Please bear with us as we work through this process. If your child is identified as a close contact, your child should then be tested daily for 7 days using a LFD test but they can continue to come to school. Isolation is only for pupils who have tested positive. It is worth noting that as of Tuesday 11th January PCR confirmatory tests are to be suspended. If a person tests positive on an LFD, they are to take that as a positive result and isolate from that point and not seek a PCR.
I understand that we are a busy school community in the centre of Leamington and that this will have challenges associated with it. That said, I must stress the need for the school community to act in a manner that is conscientious of others and to conduct ourselves within the values of the school. Please ensure that parking places are appropriate, considerate of others around and of the local community. If, during pick up, a member of the school team does have cause to pop over a chat about parking, please understand that it is our collective duty to safeguard people in our community (including pupils from other schools using Kenilworth Road to travel home).
The first mantra of the New Year comes from Amicus; Smile; Help others smile too. Mr Dobson, Head of Amicus, writes that “as we enter a new year, many of us will have set ourselves new targets and challenged ourselves to take up new hobbies. For many, we will begin eating heathier (and, maybe, even taking part in Veganuary). For others, we will be firing up the new gym membership and improving our exercise routine. Unfortunately, many of these resolutions hit a wall at some stage sooner rather than later. Whether it is the busy nature of the working day or family commitments, many massive challenges fall at the first hurdle. Experts suggest that 80% of resolutions are forgotten by the end of the year due to the sizeable challenges we set ourselves. However, January is still your opportunity to adopt small changes which can make a major difference to your life and that of others. One challenge could be making that added effort to smile at others. As a resolution it costs nothing and takes little to no time. This being said, it can provide the positivity you or someone else needs to move through their day. Resolutions do not need to be grand, time consuming or expensive. They simply need to make a difference to your life or that of someone else. A smile can do just that.”
