Good afternoon,
We hope you and your family are keeping well.
I wanted to write and thank you for your ongoing support. We know that home schooling is incredibly challenging and we thank you for the great job you are doing, as our students are engaging really well with their home learning. Staff are enjoying delivering MS Teams lessons and are particularly enjoying the live interaction with students; we hope that students are finding the lessons beneficial and they are helping maintain their motivation.
Your support is invaluable in ensuring that your son/daughter starts their home learning at 9.20am each day and follows their school timetable. Work will continue to be delivered via Show My Homework or MS Teams during the period of the enforced school closure. If you have any concerns relating to home learning please do contact your child’s Head of Year.
Some parents have told us that their children are finding the workload significant, and I would like to emphasise that it is not necessary for your son/daughter to continue working once a lesson has finished. We do not expect students to be working in the evening or at the weekend, and it’s absolutely fine to leave work unfinished if it can’t be completed during the duration of the lesson.
We know how important it is that children have the appropriate technology for their learning, and we have now distributed over 100 laptops to families. If your child needs access to a laptop or an internet connection please do contact the school and we would be delighted to help.
We are awaiting further announcements from the Department for Education regarding the reopening of schools and, as soon as we have further information, we will share this with you.
The school has responded to the recent Ofqual consultation process on this year’s GCSE, A level and vocational examinations. We know our Year 11 and Year 13 students will be incredibly anxious about this and as soon as we have confirmation of what this process will ‘look like’ we will share this with parents and students.
Staff are now able to access twice weekly lateral flow Covid 19 tests in school and we are in the process of rolling this out to the children of key workers and vulnerable students who are attending school.
We wanted to remind you of the support available to families:
Derby Covid Community Response Hub (DCCRH)
DCCRH oversees the distribution of food parcels across the city. If you or anyone you know is facing difficulties due to the current Covid 19 crisis please contact: Derby Covid Community Response Hub (DCCRH) on 01332 640000 (option 5) or via [email protected] and DCCRH will deliver a food parcel to your door.
The school works with the Department for Education to provide free period products for all students who need them. We are conscious that while students are learning at home they can’t access the free products. If your child would like to receive a selection of period products please do email us on [email protected] and we will post them out (in discrete packaging).
If you are dropping your child off at school you may notice a new member of staff in a high vis jacket or waistcoat! The school has employed a full-time security guard to patrol the exterior of the premises to ensure the wellbeing of students and staff.
The school will close for the end of term break on Friday, 12 February and reopen to the children of key workers and vulnerable students only on Monday, 1 March. The majority of students will continue to work at home until further notice.
Please do contact staff at the school if you have any concerns over free school meal vouchers, IT access or anything at all. We are here to support you. Please telephone the school on 01332 204040 between 8.30am and 3pm, use the contact form on our website, or contact me via the PA to the Principal, Miss Walendziewski, [email protected] .