School Update 18 March 2020 (COVID-19)
We continue to navigate the school through the views announced by the government, their expert panels and the announcements from the World Health Organisation, as we strive to keep students, staff and the community calmly informed about the implications of the Coronavirus. We hope to maintain a sense of calm purpose with a focus that keeps the school open until instructed otherwise as we believe, for healthy children and adults, schools are good places to be and, the knock-on effect of school closures on parents should not be ignored.
Parents are, however, urged to make family decisions regarding the health and possible isolation of their children and to follow the necessary advice from Public Health England regarding treatment and actions to manage ill health; all people with flu-like symptoms - a fever above 37.8° or a persistent new cough – should stay at home. A useful link to the NHS online assessment is available here.
This means parents must keep their children at home if they are unwell OR if the rest of the family have been advised to self-isolate.
Public Examination Season
There is meticulous planning taking place behind the scenes by the examination boards to assess how to keep as much normality as possible during the examination season if closures are required by public health bodies. We expect more public announcements in the near future. Meanwhile, it is important for all of us to reassure students that rather than fixating on possible disruption, their energies should go into learning, practising, and revising in the usual way at this time.
However, if government requires schools to close during this key revision window we would like to reassure parents and pupils that the staff have been preparing for a scenario where academic support, including feedback, will be available online. Programmes of study, including revision materials and past papers will be provided electronically and the expectation will be that it is completed. Teachers will monitor the completed work and provide feedback on submitted work. Staff will also be checking their emails throughout the working day (8.30 – 3.30) to support student learning and answer their questions.
As far as possible uploaded work will reflect subject time allocations, current schemes of work and planned timelines for progress and completion. Some work can be self-checked as mark schemes for key examination work can also be uploaded after a suitable time lapse. Students will also be able to use this time, if not a final year GCSE and Diploma student, to consolidate on recent work and extend knowledge through further research online.
GCSE students have already been given much advice and direction towards online learning materials to support all GCSE subjects. Revision resources such as GCSE pod, Seneca, Free Science Lessons on Youtube and BBC Bitesize are all important and easily accessible.
IB Diploma students have access to an electronic library of past papers and mark schemes to support their revision schedules during this key revision time.
We urge parents to share the pupil electronic access arrangements in Google Meet to support and monitor this approach and to make remote learning as effective as possible. Parents should also note that this is a learning platform between home and the school and they must encourage their children to be active with their learning, and the tasks that are set, to avoid falling behind once schools return to normal. We will also be in contact with parents if we are concerned about a lack of engagement by students.
We will provide further updates on the early summer external public examination season as more information is released to us by the IBO and Ofqual.
Other Matters:
You will not be surprised to read that we have many dedicated members of the teaching and support staff who continue to work to make the school environment positive and productive. They are providing meaningful cover and extra encouragement wherever it is needed. The Governing Body is extremely grateful to these dedicated professionals that are working hard and helping to steer the school through these temporary choppy waters.
This update also presents the following recent decisions:
- Extra-cleaning routines are now established and operating effectively throughout the school.
- After-school clubs and societies will continue as normal for as long as the school can operate as normal, unless they are affected by a staff absence.
- Imperial College has cancelled the Year 12 Physics Masterclasses.
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award:
Bronze. The Practice weekend in April has been cancelled but we do not expect this to have a detrimental impact on the qualifying expeditions in June, although it is possible that this will be delayed until the final weeks of the summer term.
Silver. The Practice weekend at the end of the term has been cancelled and we do not expect this to impact on the qualifying expeditions planned for the end of the summer term. We are in negotiation with The Awarding Body on both of these matters.
Gold. A final decision will be made on the Practice Expedition to the Brecon Beacons in May and the Qualifying Expedition to Morocco on the 20th April 2020.
Malawi: Ecology and Diving. The parents meeting on the 25th March has been postponed for the time being and a final decision on the Malawi Expedition will be made on the 20th April.
It is our resolve that Parents should not lose out financially and we will liaise directly and forcefully with the travel companies and insurers to this end if expeditions are cancelled once final decisions are made.
For now, please remember our two key points for parents:
- The school website will provide updates and be our core information route as we respond to government advice;
- Parents should keep their children at home if there are health concerns.
W J Oakes
18 March 2020
