A message from the Principal

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Dear families,

As we approach the last two weeks of a very unusual term and academic year I wanted to write to you to with a few updates.

Firstly, although I keep repeating this, I cannot write to you without once again expressing my thanks for your hard work, dedication and commitment involved in supporting your children and Preston School over the last four months. This is not a situation that any of us would wish to find ourselves in, but I have nothing but admiration and praise for the way that we have worked together as a community during this difficult time. Different people have been affected in different ways by the current situation, and we have supported a great many students and families. If there is anything that we can do to support your child or family then please do get in touch and we will do whatever we can to help.

A reminder that the last day of the school year is Friday 17th July 2020. We have a very small number of staff who are leaving Preston School at the end of the year and I will share these with you next week so that you can contact those that you wish to, to thank them for working with your children. Despite the current situation making recruitment more tricky than usual, I am delighted that not only are we fully staffed for September but that we have subject specialists in all roles and have expanded our provision in both Geography and Computing due to the success and popularity of both subjects.

For the last three weeks we have welcomed back some Year 10 students for English, Maths & Science lessons. We have had 20-25 students in each day and they have all been a credit to their school community, getting used to their new way of working and being in school very quickly and without fuss. The logistical planning of this small group coming into the school took a lot of time so I await the government’s announcement later on today before we begin planning for what September will look like. I hope that we can get back to normal as soon but in a safe and protected way. Our numbers of students in school whose families are Critical Workers continues to rise and is currently 25-30 students per day.

We have decided that in the last week of term (Monday 13th-Friday 17th July) that there will not be any students on site. This included the Year 10 students and those working in Room 5 and the LRC. The reason for this is two fold, but both are linked to the current situation. Firstly, whilst our staff have worked together online and have been meeting regularly, there are many things that we need to do in school (whilst obviously maintaining social distancing). These include the production, analysis and sharing of resources and the updating of teaching areas – most of which have been locked up for nearly 4 months. Secondly, work to the IT infrastructure and the site that was due to happen during the Easter and May half-term holidays is outstanding and we do not have enough time in the summer, when there is also other planned work, to complete everything. Much of this work is to the areas that the students are currently occupying when they come in to school. We will, of course, continue to set work on Google Classroom and hold Google Meet lessons where applicable, so the students will be kept busy.

Once announcements are made with regards to what schooling will look like in September, we will be in touch with our plans. As always, these will be formulated with the safety and well-being of every in our school community as our number one priority.

Thank you once again for your ongoing support and I will be in touch again next week.

Best wishes and take care

Gregg Morrison

Principal

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