Message to all families
Friday, July 10, 2020
Dear Parent/Carer,
I sincerely hope that you and your family are safe and well at this time.
A huge thank you to all of you who have taken the time to email members of staff or myself thanking them for their work in supporting your child(ren). Whilst this situation has been a huge challenge for all of us, I am pleased that we have received such praise and recognition for the work that we have done. As always, if there is anything else that we can do to help you then please do contact a member of staff or myself (gregg.morrison@prestonschool.co.uk). A reminder that if you wanted to contact a member of staff at the end of the year then all email addresses are on the ‘contact us’ tab of the school website.
As you will most likely be aware, new government guidance was released at the end of last week. Unless there is a significant change in this between now and the end of august, which is quite possible, there will be a full re-opening for all year groups from September 2020. Since that guidance has been released we have been working incredibly hard to make sure that we develop a plan for all students and staff to return safely in September. Due to the fact that it may change between now and then, and to allow us to continually refine and improve this, my plan is to share this with you in late August. However, please do prepare for your child to return to school in September. To help reassure you that we will do everything that we can to keep the whole school community safe, I can share with you the following headlines:
Hygiene and handwashing, as well as the washing of equipment, will be prevalent at every opportunity throughout the school day. This will include us giving all students their own individual hand sanitiser (free of charge).
Each year group will be in their own ‘bubble’ which will reduce the contact with other year groups
We will continue to run a full curriculum and we will not disadvantage them by ‘dropping’ subjects for students
Students will wear uniform each day, except on the days when they have a practical PE lesson when they will wear their PE kit all day.
Whilst the staff have coped superbly whilst working remotely, we cannot wait to see and teach your children again!
One of the year groups affected by this the most has been the Year 6 students who join us in Year 7 in September. As we haven’t been able to do any meaningful face-to-face transition with them, we have slightly re-arranged the plan for the start of term to give them a day in school, replacing the transition day that they did not have in July. Thank you for your patience with this, as it is a slight change to the published calendar:
Thursday 3rd September 2020 INSET Day for staff
Friday 4th September 2020 Year 7 only in school (transition day)
Monday 7th September 2020 Year 7 only in school (The Preston Way training)
Tuesday 8th September 2020 All students return
We are aware of the students who are anxious about returning to school and about those who have not engaged in as much academic work as they should have done over the last four months. We have plans to support both of these groups of students when we return. Indeed, the pastoral and academic support that we provide for our young people in September will be more crucial than ever. We firmly believe that we can best support them by getting back to the routine that school provides, alongside the individual care that some will need. Having seen the 120 students from Year 10 return to school, I am sure that they will quickly get back into the routine and will enjoy seeing their friends as well.
As this is the last day for students to be on site during this academic year I would like to thank the Year 10 students who have returned so professionally over the last four weeks – you have been a credit to all of us. Thanks also to the children of Critical Workers who have been in school completing their school work, some of whom since March. You have worked hard and it has been good to have your company in school. I hope that the service that we have provided, including every bank holiday since lockdown, has helped your families and the superb job that they have done in their work.
Yours sincerely,
Gregg Morrison
Principal
