Daily update 27th April 2020 – I hope you all had a relaxing weekend.

Contact home
Tutors and support staff made phone calls home to connect with families and check they were ok. The feedback we have had from families has been hugely positive about this and my impression of this is that it was hugely appreciated by families. It also enabled us to discover things about individuals to enable us to further support.

PPE
A group of staff, led by Mr Smith, have made hundreds of visors that have gone out into the medical and care communities – well done and thank you to those staff.
Many staff have been making scrub bags and face masks to go out into the community. Thank you to those staff.

Years 11 and 13
Further information about vocational qualifications was released on Friday but this still gives quite generic information and leads to an Ofqual consultation, which you can find here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881008/Exceptional_arrangements_for_assessment_and_grading_in_2020.pdf
It states that we should not be collecting further work for vocational courses. If you have been working on something that you wish to hand in, please do so whether it is complete or not by Wednesday of this week. We continue to wait to hear from each awarding organisation for each of these courses about how these qualifications will be graded and awarded.

Year 11
For those students returning to our 6th form, offer letters were sent last week to the school email address of students. They need to confirm their place by replying to the email they were sent. Any questions about 6th form applications and choices should be sent through to Miss Warburton (kate.warburton@nkacademy.co.uk).

New classes are being set up today in Microsoft teams for each 6th form option subject for Year 11 into Year 12. Teachers have been working hard to put in a coherent bridging curriculum for students entering our 6th form. Each subject will be setting work over the next 4 weeks, which should be submitted through teams. Mrs Barber has also created a ‘Transition to 6th form’ team to support a remote induction programme. She has created a video message for students that can be seen in this team.

For those students who have not applied for 6th form and who need further career guidance, Mrs Thorpe, our careers adviser, is available. I know many of you have already had a careers interview with Mrs Thorpe but if you would like further support from her, or us, please let us know through careers@nkacademy.co.uk.

Technology for vulnerable and disadvantaged students
Just for your awareness, the government issued further information on Friday about the technology available to Year 10 disadvantaged and other vulnerable children. There will be a number of staff working on getting this right at the beginning of this week as each academy has a limited allocation of devices, which will need to be prioritised based on strict criteria. At the moment we are only able to register and complete a survey for our school for Year 10 disadvantaged students. The local authority will do the same for any children who are care leavers or who have a social worker. We are not yet able to place any orders and it might be several weeks before we receive any devices.

Challenge Tasks
The challenge tasks for this week are attached and are also available on our website in the Parents section under NK at Home.

I hope you are all safe and well and have a routine that is working for you. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please let me know.

With very best wishes,

Jo Tunnicliffe
Headteacher