Daily update 7th July 2020 – Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well.  

Planning for September – Transport focus

Planning for September continues today.  Thank you for sharing your questions and concerns with regard to September, many of which focus on transport.  I attended a meeting yesterday with other headteachers and a representative from the transport team.  They are awaiting further guidance from the Department of Transport for school transport from September. I have asked to see the risk assessment produced by the local authority when it is completed and I have asked them to send it to all parents who have requested transport.  In the meeting we were informed that requests for school transport for September is significantly lower than this time of year normally, which is to be expected in the circumstances, however, I would urge all parents who have children who would normally use school transport to get to school to put in the request for September to the local authority as usual, so that the provision to NK Academy can be effectively planned in advance of September.  

As a school, we have responsibility for ensuring that our students and staff are safe whilst they are in school.  We are working really hard to put plans together for September that will enable us to minimise the risk to our communities whilst they are in school and we are confident we can do this effectively – further information will be available shortly about plans and risk assessment.  School transport to and from school is the responsibility of the local authority and something that, unfortunately, we have little to no control over.  I do, however, want to be able to represent parents and students within our academy in the discussions with the local authority’s education, transport and public health teams.  I have further meetings with them this week so, if you wish to ask any specific questions about transport, please send your questions by replying to this email.

Art Competition

Ms Hibbs tells me that it has been a challenge determining the winning entry for the video games character design due to the overwhelming amount of entries.  The winning entry is ‘Charis Stone’ which has been drawn by Grace in Year 8. Well done Grace! All the winning entries are being put in a prize draw and this will be drawn at the end of this term – more information next week. 

This week the challenge is to recycle a piece of cardboard to create a piece of artwork. Cardboard is a great medium to draw onto or to create sculptures from.  We are looking forward to seeing how you can creatively include it within a piece of artwork. Send your entries to melanie.hibbs@nkacademy.co.uk by Monday 13th July. 

With very best wishes,

Jo Tunnicliffe

Headteacher

NK Academy