Coronavirus Daily Bulletin  STAY SAFE; STAY ALERT

Dear Parents/Carers,            

Phew, what a scorcher! Extreme weather at the moment which I am sure has some links to climate change post-lockdown!  Let’s enjoy whilst we can. We have ensured our students in school have plenty of time to do activities outside this week and have made the most of indoor sporting facilities during the downpours.

Phase One Re-opening

This week we welcomed back Year 10 students who were all keen to get back to some face-to-face learning. The vast majority of students attended each day, were impeccably behaved and worked hard. They were a real credit to you and themselves. Next week, provision for Year 10 continues and we round off the term with two more weeks in school for Year 12.

I hope your child has found the Teams lessons are going well and that these have been easily accessible? It’s important that we use this new development as a way of keeping students motivated to the end of term. Please remind your child to keep checking Teams for any upcoming online learning sessions.

It is important for students to check the ‘Activity’ tab within Teams regularly to see any announcements from individual members of staff.

At the time of writing, I await the Government’s latest announcement with bated breath as I am hoping it may shed some light and some detail on what is meant by “everyone back in September”!

We are currently maintaining a 2m social distancing rule and will not be reducing this to 1m this term. If social distancing is to continue into the Autumn term, we may well have to prepare ourselves for a continued phased return to school. I have been working with the Senior Leadership Team and our Trust to pull together models of what this might look like based on 25% of students back, 50% of students back and all students back with no social distancing measures in place at all. The timetable is completed for next year therefore learning and staffing is good-to-go, whatever the situation might be. I will of course let you know as soon as I can. It is no consolation to you, your child or me that every school in the country is going through this at the moment. All we ask is for some clear Government direction….and before we finish for the summer!

Summer Provision and Catch-up

The Government has announced funding for activity sessions during the summer break. Altrincham College will not be running any sessions over the summer holidays however Trafford Local Authority are hoping to run borough-wide sessions at local venues. I have no details as yet but please check the Council website for updates.

You may also have heard about funding for schools to provide catch-up for some students via a national tutoring service. We have no further details on this either but we do know that this programme will last the whole of the next academic year.

Great news received last week that Marcus Rashford (MUFC) was successful in his campaign to ensure children on free school meals were provided for during the holidays! This is a welcome change in policy and will be a huge support to many of our families at this time.

SEND Parent/Carer Online Event 1^st July 2020 – please book asap!

Q & A with Trafford Council, Trafford Parents Forum and Partners about Returning to School and Reasonable Endeavours. Are you asking yourself, What is Reasonable Endeavours?  What does this mean for my child or young person on SEN Support or with an Education Health and Care plan?  My school keep referring to a risk assessment, should I be worried?  What is the local authority’s statutory duty during this time?  My school are talking about a return to school, I’m anxious, I don’t know what to do?  Will my child or young person no longer be supported as outlined in their EHCP or SEN support plan?  If you have been asking yourself those questions recently, then this is the event for you. Trafford Parents Forum have invited Trafford Council/CCG representatives across Education, Health and Social Care to come together to answer your questions about reasonable endeavours, LA’s statutory duty during the pandemic and beyond, and the return to school. During the Zoom event everyone attending will be muted, you may switch off your video if you wish to. We shall email you the Zoom details before the event so look out for the email!  Book your place HERE Thank you so much, we look forward to seeing you at the event.   Headteacher’s Award for Kindness and Thoughtfulness                                                                         Emma, in 8.2 has a special mention this week as she has been learning sign language online during lockdown and now has a wonderful certificate to show for all her hard work! Well done Emma! The Award this week goes to Ryan in 7.3! He has been in school since the start of lockdown and has been consistently polite, kind and helpful towards staff and other students. This has meant a lot to everyone and all felt he was most deserving of this week’s certificate and Amazon voucher! Congratulations Ryan! Have a lovely evening. I hope you and your families stay safe and well. Kind regards Ms Kim Earle