Daily update 14th May 2020 – Year 10 & 12
I want to update you this morning on our current thinking on the recent information released from the government on Monday evening with regard to Year 10 and 12. Firstly I will share with you the information and guidance received so that you can clearly see what any decisions made will be based on. Secondly I will outline what I believe the next steps should be for North Kesteven Academy.
Information and guidance received
The initial information was that schools are to “offer some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 and year 12 students who are due to take key exams next year, alongside the full time provision they are offering to priority groups.”
I was expecting further clarification of this statement but yesterday the daily update from the Department of Education stated:
“All schools are different, and it is not possible for government to set specific national guidelines that could be universally applicable. Instead, we have created a framework to help school leaders and academy trusts to start thinking through the steps they might need to take to enable them to open their schools for more pupils.”
Yesterday there was a virtual meeting with the local authority called “School Leader Recovery Co-ordination Group Engagement” at which the current situation and the issue of reopening school was discussed. There was also some further support available from other professional bodies such as the Association of Senior and College Leaders.
What are the next steps at NK?
Let me be clear:
- The safety of everyone is the first priority.
- The school is open currently for vulnerable children and children of keyworkers. We will continue to be open for these students.
- We have been practising social distancing and all of the hygiene and cleaning guidance since lockdown began for everyone that has been attending school.
- The school will not resume normal lessons for Year 10 or Year 12 or expect them to attend in the normal way on 1st June.
- Parents will not be fined for their children not attending school during this time. It will be entirely parental choice to take up the offer of contact with teachers.
- The school will be offering some contact with teachers for Year 10 and 12 students.
- The detail of this is still to be determined and will be communicated to you in due course.
- We will be continuing with our home learning strategy for all students, in all year groups, including Years 10 and 12 during this time.
- We will shortly be sending out a survey to parents of students in Years 10 and 12 to ask for your thoughts but we want to do this when we have published further detail on what the face to face offer will be so that you are able to make informed decisions. If you have any thoughts in the meantime, please do contact me by replying to this email to let me know. Thank you to those people who have sent some thoughts in already.
Quiz
On a lighter note, tomorrow is quiz night! 54 families played last week. The code for this week is 142263 and the link is https://myquiz.org.
Any questions, please email helen.gordon26@outlook.com and the winner can email her to receive your prize.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please do let us know.
Stay safe everyone.
With very best wishes,
Jo Tunnicliffe
Headteacher