Headteacher weekly update 09.09.21

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the start of the new school year!

It has been lovely to see lots of new learners starting with us this year, we are all really excited about supporting them on their learning journey. Equally, it has been great to our current learners returning and settling back into school.

Friday finishing times.

School will be finishing at 3.15 on Fridays.

As I mentioned last term, we were hoping to return to a full day on Fridays (3.15 for most learners) and I’m pleased to confirm that is the case – this will start tomorrow (Friday the 10^th of September).

New faces:

Along with new pupils joining us this term, we have a number of new staff joining us too. This year marks the first academic year we will have reached our pupil capacity as a school since the Sherwood Hill Campus was opening six years ago. Every year since then we have increased our staffing numbers and this year is no exception. We are also using a number of agency Teaching Assistants to support us until we have recruited to permanent TA positions this term and next. I wanted to let you know that two of the new starters are Simon Gale and James Taylor, who are joining our Senior Leadership Team on an interim basis as Deputy Headteachers, these positions are to fill the two vacant positons we had following Simon and Rose’s retirement at Christmas last year. Simon Gale will be based at Sherwood Hill and James Taylor at Sherwood Park although with some time at the Hill too.

Communication:

We are reviewing the way we communicate (and what we communicate) with you all, currently. We have had lots of positive feedback about weekly information updates during the pandemic and the use of the website and particularly class dojo, however we are also responding to families who have feedback that they require a hard copy. There will be more information on this over the coming weeks, but please do let us know if you require a hard copy of letters and newsletters as we do not want anyone not having access to the right information – apologies if you have not had this access previously.

Covid reminders:

As we are all adapting to the reduction in restrictions in schools, I wanted to remind you of two areas of guidance which are really important for us in keeping everyone safe:

Symptoms: Please do not send in your child if they are displaying Covid 19 symptoms and please collect your child promptly should they start to display symptoms whilst at school.
Now that schools are no longer responsible for track and trace it is essential that you inform NHS track and trace who will then identify people who may have been a close contact. It is no longer in the guidance for children who are close contacts to isolate, but I would ask you to be extra vigilant about possible symptoms of your children before sending them in.

I am looking forward to working with you all over the coming year and celebrating the achievements of your fantastic children!

Best wishes

David