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

Parent Update 28th May 2021

28th May 2021

Dear Parents,

Thank you for all your support this half term. Congratulations to year 11 and 13 as they come to the end of their assessment window. They are now moving into a new phase with more remote education and a chance for celebratory activities. We have been overwhelmed by the number of year 11s who have signed up to the fantastic range of activities we have put in place, from first aid courses and self-defense classes to taster A Level classes and DofE expeditions. We have had to put on extra classes for lots of these! Year 13 are moving into exciting university preparatory work and we look forward to seeing the learning they will share with us in a few weeks' time.

Returning to a 25 period week in September

Thank you for your feedback on the return to five periods on a Wednesday from September. We removed the fifth period on a Wednesday two years ago due to save money and were clear at the time that this was only for as long as we couldn't afford it. Finances now allow the return of this time, and based on feedback from parents and staff the final decision is for the extra hour to be returned to those subjects that lost it two years ago. I am letting parents know now so that the school community has plenty of notice of this change. It will come into action in September.

Face Coverings after half term

We continue to review the need for mandatory face coverings in school for pupils. We are aware that the half term will result in more mixing than during term time, and so we have decided to keep face coverings for the first week after half term to allow us to minimise the risks of transmissions as we return. We will then review every Wednesday about whether to move to face coverings being optional from the following week and communicate this to the school community. We will move to them being optional when the time is right, and we would expect pupils to still bring a face covering in case we need to ask students to wear one in certain circumstances when asked to by an adult. An example might be where the adult knows that the pupils are learning in proximity to a member of the school community who is critically extremely vulnerable.

Testing over half term

We have handed out more testing packs to students over the last few days. Do keep testing, and particularly so on Sunday evening before the return after half term, please. Thank you. Remember also to record the result of the test with us and also with the NHS. The front page of our website has the link for this.

Saliva Testing

We are hearing that we might well be restarting the saliva testing process at some point in the next half term, so please do dig out your test kits and labels and we will be in touch with more information when we have details.

Letting us know of any positive cases

Please continue to let us know of any positive cases of your daughters or sons over the half term. It is particularly important to let us know quickly if they occur in the first two days of the holidays as we may need to ask others in the community to isolate. Email attendance@st-annes.uk.com to let us know.

Survey for parents

One of our Sixth Form students has designed a questionnaire which will form part of her A level coursework. We are asking parents of students in Year 7-10 if they wouldn’t mind completing it in order to help with her studies. This is of course optional. If you were able to complete the survey, she would be very grateful. Click here to access the survey.

Have a great half term!

God Bless

Mr Rouse