01 July 2020

Dear Parent/Carer

I am writing a short update this week as there is not much news to share at this point.   We welcomed back Year 12 students last week for face to face sessions for each of their A Level subjects and a session about planning their future and university applications.   Attendance was again very good and 82% took advantage of the opportunity to come into school during the week.  Everything went smoothly and, like Year 10, they were also appreciative of the time with their teachers.   As well as the number of students attending it has been encouraging that the measures we have put in place to keep everyone safe have been working well and we have not need to make any changes.

Staff have continued to make calls to students in years 7 to 9 and are getting close to the end of the list.   They are trying again when nobody is able to answer and they have enjoyed having contact with students.

Last week was National School Sports Week and a number of students and members of staff took part in the Aldridge Mighty Miles event.   They have been running, walking and cycling and tallying up the miles covered.   As a whole school, we accumulated 1,643 miles which is approximately to Romania.   Thank you to everyone who took part and to Miss Newman for organising this.

The main news since my last letter is that the government has confirmed that schools will not be expected to stay open through the summer break for any students.   This means that for the students who have been attending since the lockdown began the last day of term will be Friday 17^th July.   It also means that we will not be setting any further work for students after that week.   They will need a break as much as their teachers.

We know from the news that all students are expected to return to school in September and are currently awaiting guidance on how we should approach this.   There has been plenty of speculation in the news about how this might be done but the official guidance is not due until the end of the week.   Once this is received, we will start to plan for everyone to be back at school.   Whilst there is no detail yet, it seems clear that school will be very different to what we are used to for some time to come.   We will try to make it as normal and welcoming as possible at the same time as following the advice we are given about how to keep staff and students safe.

I will endeavour to give as much information as possible before the end of term and also continue to ensure that fuller details are available on the website as has been the case for the partial return of students in Years 10 and 12.

With best wishes

Ian Bryant

Headteacher