Dear Parents and Carers
I hope that you and your family are safe and well.
As you will know, the lockdown has been extended by at least another 3 weeks and schools remain closed. We will continue to provide pupils with support and work to complete at home.
Thank you for all that you are doing to support school work at home. I mentioned in my letter at the beginning of the holiday that we are keen to make distance learning as manageable, sustainable and purposeful as possible, so we have made some changes to KS3.
For KS3 we will be moving to the timetable below from Wednesday 22 April 2020, moving from five lessons a day to three sessions. Each session will be approx. 60-75 minutes and your child’s teacher will set work on Google classrooms in the usual way. There will be an overview of the work on the school website so that you can see what has been set. As you can see, there is a very clear emphasis on daily health and wellbeing activities during these challenging times.
From Monday 20 April, BBC Bitesize are providing a programme of daily lessons in an expanded version of the website and in special programmes broadcast on BBC iPlayer and BBC Red Button. These lessons on screen will be six different 20 minute shows, each designed to target a specific age group, from ages five to 14. Maths, Science and English will be covered in dedicated programmes, and other subjects such as History, Geography, Music and Art will also be covered. For older students, BBC Four is also joining forces with Red Button for evening programmes to support the GCSE and A Level curriculum.
For KS3 work for today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday) pupils have been asked to complete these BBC Bitesize lessons and to check their Google Classrooms to make sure there isn’t any work missed.
The BBC Bitesize timetable for KS3 this coming week is
The timetable for KS4 and KS5 has not been changed as we continue to teach the content and skills of the GCSE and A level curriculums. There is likely to be supplementary material on BBC Bitesize for KS4 and KS5 as well. I will be in contact again within the week to give further detail about grading and ranking for GCSE and A level this summer following up from my last letter.
So …. the summer term begins – and not in a way we could ever have imagined two months ago. However, whatever the challenges, I know that we will each continue to do the very best that we can, putting the needs and wellbeing of all within our school community first and foremost. Thank you for your support.
Yours sincerely
Miss Collins
Headteacher
