Dear Parent,
What a week! It seems an age ago, a different age, when we bid farewell to 1300 pupils and students and with no idea as to when we would meet again, although safe in the knowledge that we will come back together as a community, stronger and wiser and with a deeper appreciation of each other and of St Christopher’s as a place where great things happen.
I do hope that you and your family are well, establishing new routines and possibly detecting some benefit from being able to stop, think, observe and reconnect with each other.
I want to offer a sincere and fulsome thank you to you all for the way in which you have engaged with the online work set for pupils. Your response to this work has been overwhelmingly positive and helpful. Pupils too seem to have established good habits and routines with many viewing the set tasks as ones to really engage with rather than simply rush through and complete in a cursory manner. A number of pupils have let us know that they are working harder now than they typically would at school!
One challenge in the weeks to come will be to maintain this momentum and with this in mind it is worth reminding you that:
- Teachers have been asked to set work on Synergy and to include an indication of how long the task should take to complete. This applies to all work, even that which is completed in different formats such as Microsoft Teams. We hope that this is a way of ensuring that you have a complete picture of what is expected from teachers.
- During the Easter break the amount of school work will reduce to that set for a typical holiday.
- We aim to contact you directly if your son/daughter is reluctant to engage with the work set or indeed where we are of the view that a pupil is going above and beyond what is expected. Do let your child’s head of year know if you have any concerns around engagement with work.
- Most year groups are scheduled to sit school exams during the summer term. It is our intention that these exams will continue to take place as soon as is practically possible on our return to school. Work completed at home during these works of enforced absence is likely to form part of these assessments.
- We continue to wait for detailed information from the Department for Education in relation to public examination courses and the awarding of grades. Teachers have been asked to set work for all year 11 and upper sixth classes with a view to completing the exam specification in full.
- All families eligible to free school meals ought to have been contacted. Please let us know if that is not the case, likewise for families who are struggling to access work electronically on anything other than a mobile phone. In both instances we should be in a position to help.
- School continues to remain open for the children of parents employed as critical workers and for our most vulnerable pupils. Please contact Mrs Moran (n.moran@st-christophers.org) if you would like to find out more about this service.
Do please stay in touch. We are working hard to offer our pupils a good level of education in a difficult situation and we want to get it right.
Please continue to pray for our school community, the nation and wider world.
R D Jones
Headmaster
‘And we know that all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’
Romans 8:28