Dear Parent,
The government have recently made a number of important announcements regarding the opening of secondary schools for the spring term.
Week commencing Monday 4th January
ALL pupils and students will receive remote education. Teachers will be in school and will deliver lessons as per their timetable. In most cases this will be a live lesson, one where the teacher will be in contact with the class via Microsoft Teams. Pupils working from home must follow the detailed guidance contained in my last Update (18th December).
The children of key workers (as defined by the government) have been offered the opportunity to attend school in person where they will follow the same scheme of remote education being completed by their peers at home. This small group have already registered and been informed that a place has been reserved. Please do not send your child to school if you have not received confirmation of this sort.
Week commencing Monday 11th January
Pupils in years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 will continue to receive remote education. Those in years 11 and 13 and the children of key workers will return to school with year 11 pupils sitting their PPE (mock) examinations.
Week commencing Monday 18th January
Normal service resumed with all pupils, students and staff in attendance.
Mass Testing for COVID-19 (coronavirus)
In my last Update I shared our intention to cooperate with the government’s plans to introduce the mass and regular testing of pupils and staff for coronavirus. We are confident that action of this sort will enable more pupils to attend school for more of the time. No pupil wants to experience the disruption to school attendance experienced by a significant proportion of our students during the autumn term.
Testing on this scale presents us (educators and not health workers) with considerable demands. We are confident that we can rise to the challenge but we do need a few more days to finalise our plans. I will share these with you by the middle of next week, including the details of consent forms, test protocols, timescale etc.
Current government guidance on mass testing is based on the assumption that schools will be able to draft in a team of volunteers to help with the delivery. Can you help and offer your time to ensure that we can do this? No experience of working in the health sector is required and training will be provided. If you can help please contact Mrs Moran with your contact details at n.moran@st-christophers.org
With best wishes for the New Year and for a happy and healthy 2021.
RD Jones
Headmaster