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

Parent Update 21st July 2021

21st July 2021

Dear Parents

I hope this email finds you and your families all well. We had a great time at Sports Day on Friday and were sad that so many of our school community were unable to be a part of it due to self-isolation. We have really enjoyed having so many pupils back in this week as self-isolation comes to an end.

We are still having a number of cases over the past few days, and as my message said on Monday, with the national rules changing we are no longer identifying close contacts and asking pupils to self-isolate as a result. Instead, pupils testing positive with a PCR are being contacted by NHS Test and Trace who are taking over the process of identifying and isolating close contacts. Also, from the 16th August, no-one under 18 will be expected to self-isolate if they are a close contact. Instead they will be expected to get a PCR test. This will markedly change how next year feels, as we won't be having mass isolations of students as we have done this year unless national rules change again. I will be in contact again soon to explain what the expectations will be for the new academic year.

End of Term Timings

A reminder that our final day is Friday. It is a shorter day and we finish at 12:30. It is normal uniform on the last day.

Start of the new year

Year 7 start with us on Friday, 3rd September.

Years 8-13 start the new year on Monday, 6th September.

Testing on return in September.

The government are asking pupils to undertake testing before returning to school in September. We want to make this as easy as possible and so will be using the saliva testing as the primary way of doing this as opposed to the two onsite LFD tests that other schools have to undertake.

We expect all students in years 8-13 to complete a saliva test ahead of the start of term and drop it off to school on Thursday, 2nd September. Students were given extra saliva test kits on Thursday of last week. If they are not able to do this, they will be expected to drop them off at the start of term on Monday, 6th September. If neither of these are completed, we will be expecting students to complete two onsite LFD tests on Monday 6th September and Thursday 9th September. Testing is strongly encouraged but not mandatory so if you would like your daughter to opt out of testing, please email info@st-annes.uk.com so that we know. Thanks.

Details of how to complete a saliva test can be found here: Saliva Testing Programme

Parents Evenings next year

Our 7 Parents Evenings this year have been remote. Feedback from parents has been positive. 768 parents engaged with parents evenings this year, and attendance to parents evenings was 84%, higher than when in person! As such we intend to continue with them as we have done this year.

Reports

Reports are going out for a range of year groups before the end of term. Where students may have been isolating some of these will not have the students' targets and signatures. This is because these would be completed in tutor times and with students learning from home this has not been possible. There will still be feedback from the different subjects and for long reports a comment from the tutor.

Summer Holiday Activities

There are an amazing range of activities being put on across the city this summer thanks to national funding and the hard work of our local authority. These are all FREE for families in receipt of free school meals and at a cost to other families. Visit www.hafsouthampton.org to find out more and see the attached posters for information on these and also for information about a sports camp for 12 to 16 year olds as well as a Tech camp for aged 6-16.

Have a great Wednesday!

James Rouse

Headteacher