Dear Parents and Carers,

Autumn weather is now well and truly here! Whilst everything looks beautiful, days are getting colder therefore coats, hats, gloves and scarves will be needed by students during their journeys to and from school, during breaks and lunches.

Covid cases at our school

Compared with other Trafford secondary schools, we have seen relatively few positive Covid-19 cases within our school community. You will have received letters about this but to date we have had one staff case and 4 student cases. Thank you for all you are doing to keep your child(ren)/ward(s) safe! Our numbers self-isolating are increasing amongst staff and students due to a family member testing positive and we are continuing to set work remotely for students to complete at home.

As we are now in a national lockdown, you might have expected the school to move to ‘Tier 3 or 4’ of educational provision, as in my previous bulletins. The Government have said that these tiers will not automatically be brought in now. Schools and colleges remain open and at Altrincham College we continue to operate as we have done all term with the strictest health and safety measures in place at all times.

We may, however, face a situation in the future where we do not have enough staff to open the school fully, or we have to send year group bubbles home. In situations such as these, we will decide whether our school should move to Tier 2 provision (rota system) or something similar. We will of course give you as much notice as we possibly can on this.

Our school Risk Assessment is now being updated in light of yesterday’s Government announcement. This will be on our school website shortly.

We do not believe we currently have any Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) students in school. If you receive notification that your child/ward is CEV over the next few days, please let us know. CEV students should not come into school during this lockdown period. Children who live with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable should attend school.

If your child tests positive or needs to self-isolate, please email us at:

covid@altrinchamcollege.com

The risks of serious illness in school age children remains very low. To help us keep these numbers low, I must insist that if your child is showing symptoms you keep your child at home, you have them tested and keep them at home whilst awaiting test results.  They should only return to school if the test is negative and they are not displaying symptoms. In the season of coughs and colds, a reminder that Covid symptoms are:

• a high temperature
• a new, continuous cough
• the loss or change of their sense of taste or smell

Please only go for testing if you are symptomatic.

 

Covid costs

As you will be aware, the cost of running our school under current Covid restrictions has been considerable. We have converted spaces into classrooms, enhanced the catering offer and outside spaces to allow for social distancing and the day-to-day costs continue with sanitisers, cleaning materials, extra cleaning staff, and face masks to name a few of the things we now need to buy. We believe we are managing this well but we do not have any extra funding coming into school to help with this.

I would therefore be very grateful if you might consider making a small voluntary contribution towards our Covid costs? Every penny counts!

To this end, we have set up an area on ParentPay where you can add whatever amount you wish next time you log in. With grateful thanks in anticipation.

School Uniform

Our school uniform supplier shops are currently closed. However, items can be ordered online from one of our official suppliers (Monkhouse) here: https://ma.swischoolwear.co.uk/email/preview/190

PE Kits

I would like to reiterate my message from last week about the standard of PE kit we expect in school. Students must wear a blazer over their kit and a coat on top of their blazer if cold. They may also wear plain grey or black track suit bottoms. Students must not wear any tracksuit, sweatshirt, t-shirt or joggers to school, only their PE Kit and blazer. The other option is that they wear full school uniform and bring a pair of trainers to change into for their PE lesson.

Unfortunately, when students do not follow these rules we have seen a decline in the standards of behaviour in lessons, therefore if a student does not come into school in the correct attire they will either be isolated (if we have capacity to do this) or sent home.

 

Staff Star of the Week

The award this week goes to Ms Kinder! Ms Kinder is our school Receptionist and during the long period without the Internet or telephones, Ms Kinder remained cool, calm and collected…even whilst only being able to use a tiny mobile phone!

Ms Kinder, you are an absolute STAR!

Student Star of the Week

The certificate this week goes to GW in 8.5! This student has been nominated by teachers for being the first student to reach 100 positive praise points this year! She is a real star! Well done!

Have a happy and healthy weekend!

 

Stop the Spread! Stay safe!

Thank you for your continued support of our school.

 

Kind regards
Ms. Earle
Headteacher