15th December 2020
Dear parent,
Thank you for the continuing messages of support to us as we enter the final week of this term. As I sit and write this, my window overlooks the school's quad, and our girls (and boys at sixth form) are passing my window. They are following the one-way system calmly and in good humour, all wearing face coverings of various design. Dropping in to lessons in recent weeks has shown, time and again, the high quality of teaching and learning which continues to be a hallmark of St Anne's. The resilience of all has been amazing to witness.
I have no doubt that this resilience is costly, and we are all in need of a break as a community. However, we will not be letting the end of term slip away without the chance to celebrate in a safe way on Thursday within tutor groups, and using the power of Zoom to run whole-school celebrations. I hope you have seen the message from Mrs Leat last Thursday about the plans for the last day of term, including making it a home clothes day. All our letters can be found on the school website under news.
At the same time, our community have shown wonderful generosity to local communities, supporting our shoebox campaign. We know that parents are often very involved with donations and so pass on our thanks to you for this. We know that the donations will be very well-received.
A reminder that:
Start of Term
A reminder that term restarts on Monday, 4th January, and it will be a week 1 timetable. However, it is likely that the number of cases will rise over the Christmas holidays, so please do check your emails over the holidays in case there are any changes to regional or national plans.
School Track and Trace over the Christmas holidays
It is vital that all families continue to follow the expectations with regards to coronavirus, particularly as we head towards Christmas.
If anyone in your household has any coronavirus symptoms, however mild, do not send your daughter or son into school or college, but stay at home and get a test for the person with symptoms. See this government link for more information on what to do. Note that the isolation period has been reduced from 14 days to 10 days as of the 14th December.
In all positive cases, you must alert the school by calling us and leaving a message or emailing attendance@st-annes.uk.com.
Up to and including the 23rd December, if your daughter or son develops symptoms and tests positive for coronavirus, we will then assess and identify if there are any close contacts within our community and inform them to self-isolate for 10 days from when they were last in close contact.
From the 24th onwards, if your daughter or son develops symptoms and tests positive for coronavirus, you should follow contact tracing instructions provided by NHS Test and Trace.
This means that, if you do not hear from us by the end of the 23rd December, you will definitely not be receiving a call from the school to ask your daughter or son to self-isolate for the rest of the holiday period.
Free School Meal Vouchers
We are delighted to inform you that the Local Authority has funded supermarket vouchers for children who normally get a Free School Meal; there are different arrangements for primary schools.
The voucher is worth £20 per child who is eligible, this covers the whole of the Christmas period. There will only be one voucher per child. If you have more than one child at St Anne’s who is eligible, you will get an email for each child.
We have arranged for the vouchers to be sent to the email address that we have on file for you at school. We are expecting that they will arrive on the 15th or 16th December.
The vouchers work the same way as the vouchers that were issued in lockdown and the summer holidays.
Please check your emails for an email from “Edenred”. You do not need a printer to be able to use the voucher, just a phone.
If you have any questions, please email the school at info@st-annes.uk.com for the attention of Emma Wright with your child’s full name a tutor group and we will get back to you in working hours.
Parents Evenings
We have now conducted our first online parents evening using School Cloud. The feedback we have had from both parents and staff was positive and also has helped to tweak our processes. Our next parents evenings are year 11 in January, and sixth form and year 8 in February. See our school website under Parents --> Parents Evenings for more information.
A message about the EU Settlement Scheme.
Schools have been asked to pass on the following message:
When the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December this year, the Government will start to roll out a new immigration system. This means that EU citizens and their family members (who right now exercise rights to live and work in the UK under EU law) need to obtain permission to stay in the UK. If you or any of your family are EU, EEA or Swiss nationals you will need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme. Any person who misses the deadline on 30 June 2021 and stays in the UK will be here unlawfully, with no right to work or access public funds. If in doubt – check it out: https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
Social Media use
We have had an increasing number of incidents from girls in years 7 and 8 where hurtful things have been said to each other over social media. It is important to remind you, not only that children under 13 should not have Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, Facebook (or many other) accounts, but also that school cannot become the place where these issues are resolved, whatever the girls' age. Please do not contact the school asking us to take action over things that are not linked to school. If hurt or offence is caused by something on social media or over the phone, you should consider whether your daughter should block someone or whether it is significant enough to call the police.
Lost property
We have a large number of items of lost property that are in the vestibule - including lots of coats, some of which were left before the first lockdown in March. We do not want to have large piles of clothes in a public area so will be disposing of these items over the Christmas holidays. If you know your daughter has lost something, please encourage her to check lost property.
I wish you and your families a safe, peaceful Christmas. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to school in the New Year.
God Bless
James Rouse
Headteacher
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