24 March 2020
Good afternoon,
A number of updates from us on this first day of lockdown - we are getting used to running a school remotely, with staff and students communicating by email primarily.
Year 11
Colleges are beginning to send out information about preparatory work that Year 11s can be doing. Runshaw's information is here and Cardinal Newman is posting it on Twitter here. Well worth a look if your son or daughter are intending to go to one of these colleges in September.
Remote working
Teachers are setting work each day for each of their lessons and sending it out by email. We have been sorting out password changes etc... over the last couple of days. It is the student email addresses that we are using, not parents - teachers are communicating directly with students through their Office 365 school emails. We have been sending out printed packs to those without computer access, but this is much less effective. Students will take varying amounts of time to complete the work. This week is about making sure that everyone is getting work to do - we will be having a look next week at how we can ensure that completed work is returned to the teachers.
Provision for children of workers in critical sectors
We made provision for 12 young people today on site. The government is absolutely clear - children should be at home unless it is absolutely impossible for that to be the case. That is where they are safest. As we plan provision for next week, if you need to make use of our supervised provision in school as a worker in a critical sector, please would you send us some form of identification as a key worker (e.g. email us a photograph of your identity badge or a letter from your employer) and also an email or letter with your shift or work pattern from Monday. The government is clear - children need to be with you if you are not actually at work - that is the safest place for them. This will enable us to plan for staffing and resources for next week in the context of increasing staff illness.
Use of school email addresses
Please just be aware that staff will not respond to messages from students which are not from their school email addresses - this is to ensure that everyone is clear that the communication is for school purposes.
British Sign Language
Many of our students enjoy learning British Sign Language in an enrichment day in Year 8. We have become aware of an online course at this link - https://www.british-sign.co.uk/learn-online-british-sign-language-course/ . We are not marketing it, but it may be of interest to several of our students. Click on the link and follow "Covid 19 crisis - pay what you can" for more information.
I fully appreciate that you are in a difficult position with your young people at home - we are doing our utmost to make sure that they have plenty of things to do!
Best wishes and stay safe in these challenging times.
James Harris
Headteacher
Posted by James Harris
Category: WLD Updates
