January Lockdown – 5 Jan 2020

 

Dear Parent/Carer

Re: National lockdown to come into force on Wednesday 6 January 2021

You will be aware that the Prime Minister has announced that a new national lockdown will come into force at 00:01 on Wednesday 6 January.

During the period of national lockdown, schools, alternative provision, special schools, and colleges will remain open to vulnerable children and the children of critical workers only. All other children and students will learn remotely until February half term. The mock exams planned will be postponed.

January Examinations

Public vocational exams scheduled to take place in January will go ahead as planned following the schedule below. You will also receive a final version of your examination timetable following this letter if you are due to sit any of these exams. Please ensure you attend these examinations in full uniform and that you wear a mask upon arrival to site. Please ensure when you arrive at the site you go directly to the exam hall to be registered before going to your venue. We also ask that you arrive between 15-30 minutes before your examination so that we have all pupils accounted for before the start time of the exam. That means for a 9am exam please arrive by 8:45am and for a 1pm exam arrive by 12:45pm. We cannot stress how vital it is that pupils attend these examinations, as these could be critical evidence to secure their final qualification outcomes bearing in mind the current uncertainty regarding how final components will now be completed.

 

PPE (Pre-Public Examinations)

With the announcement that schools are closing from Wednesday we have paused all PPEs for years 11-13 until we get clarification on how pupils will be assessed from the Government. PPEs formed a vital part of our evidence base, to accurately predict pupil outcomes, last academic year and therefore we hold the ambition to sit these examinations when the Academy is able to reopen.

Summer Exams

Despite the rumours circulating on social media, there has been no formal decision made on the Summer Exams, this means it is vital that year 11, 12 and 13 students engage fully in their remote learning as ongoing work and assessments will be valuable in ensuring students obtain results in the summer that they deserve. More information to follow.

Remote education

We know that receiving face-to-face education is best for children’s mental health and for their educational achievement so we will be offering ‘live lessons’ throughout the week; each Google Classroom will indicate when these lessons will be happening. Please read the parent guidance to support your child at home, but the remote learning provided by the academy will include:

  • Assignments, so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
  • Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher via a live lesson or a pre-recorded lesson.
  • Assessment to identify how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum using questions and other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly, using digitally facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate.

We have rigorous systems for checking whether pupils are engaging fully with their work, and we will inform parents immediately where engagement is a concern.

Free school meal provision

During the period of national lockdown, we will continue to provide free school meals or food parcels for pupils who are eligible for free school meals. Further information on collection for those that have ordered will follow shortly.

We thank you for your support of the Academy and should you have any queries please direct these to our email address parentenquiries@hundredofhooacademy.org.uk

Yours sincerely

Mr C Guerin-Hassett   

Principal