St Anne's Catholic School St Anne's Catholic School

Parent Update: 31st December 2020

31st December 2020

Summary of message:

	Monday, 4th Jan	Tuesday 5th-Friday 8th Jan	Monday, 11th-Friday, 15th Jan	From Monday, 18th Jan
Children of Critical Worker and Vulnerable Families of all year groups (sign up required)	INSET Day: No remote learning	Encouraged to come in for face-to-face learning.	Encouraged to come in for face-to-face learning.	Attending school in-person.
Rest of Years 7-10	INSET Day: No remote learning	Remote Education following their timetable.	Remote Education following their timetable.	Attending school in-person.
Rest of Year 11	INSET Day: No remote learning	Remote Education following their timetable.	Attending school in-person.	Attending school in-person.
Rest of Year 12	INSET Day: No remote learning	Remote Education following their timetable.	Remote Education following their timetable.	Attending school in-person.
Rest of Year 13	INSET Day: No remote learning	Remote Education following their timetable.	Attending school in-person for PPEs.	Attending school in-person.

Dear parents,

Further to the email I sent you at the start of the holidays, I am sure you are not surprised to see another one based on the national announcements made yesterday afternoon. This has resulted in a few changes to our plans, and they are summarised in the table above. In essence, most aspects are pushed back a week, but we do expect remote education to take place for all pupils from the 5th January. I remind you of what I wrote in my last message:

"[Students] who are not on-site are to follow their school timetables from home from 08:40-15:25 (apart from Wednesday when we finish at 14:25) and engage in remote education as led by their teachers on the hours when they would have their lesson. We would also ask that your daughter or son say good morning to their tutor from 08:40-09:10 who can also support with any pastoral concerns. We have found that following their timetable has, in the main, been the healthiest way of getting on with remote education. It sets the right boundaries for both students and staff and gives our young people a chance to practice how to build a positive work/life balance. To aid this, it is fine for students to contact their teachers using teams whenever they need to, but teachers have been told they only need to respond to these when the lesson would be timetabled, rather than whenever the message is sent. My advice to students would be that, wherever possible, students store up their questions and communicate with the teacher when the timetabled lesson is on."

If you know that your daughter (or son in sixth form) will have issues with being able to work effectively over the course of the day due to home arrangements or technological issues then contact us as we are able to help.

Mass testing

Alongside this, we will be aiming to roll out mass testing for all year groups in the first few weeks. We are planning this now. The intention is to administer lateral flow tests in the second week of term to as many pupils as want a test. These tests are not mandatory, but they are strongly encouraged. For children in years 7-10 and 12, this may mean having to visit school in the week beginning the 11th January to be tested before returning full time on Monday, 18th January. More information on this will be forthcoming next week.

Also, the school could do with your help: to be able to test the large number of pupils that we expect to test at the start of term, the programme requires a number of people to help run it. We will be using some staff in school, but we may well need more than this allows. If you, or family members, are available and would be happy to help with the testing process, I would be interested in hearing from you. Training is provided, and so will some sort of payment although it is not yet clear what that would be. You do not need to be medically trained (although experience would be a benefit). This is just for the initial mass testing programme and will be for a few days in the first few weeks only. If you, or someone you know, are interested please let me know by emailing info@st-annes.uk.com and putting the heading "Help with Testing".

I wish you a happy, safe and quiet New Year!

God Bless

James Rouse

Headteacher