Dear parents,
Following the frustrating decision that we reached over the weekend to cancel many of the activities that had been planned for this final week of term, I wanted to provide a brief update on plans for the rest of the week.
Year 9 students on the residential trip to Wales, and the Year 7 & 8 students at Stubbers have now safely arrived and commenced their activities there. A huge thanks goes to the staff supervising these visits – we anticipate considerable time will be spent on water based activities!
Today our Year 12 students were able to participate in the first of their UCAS preparation days, it was fantastic to see them starting to plot and plan their route into further education, apprenticeships and employment. They will continue with these activities tomorrow.
The vast majority of year 10 students were able to commence the first day of their work experience. Hopefully many of them were able to benefit from work environments with air conditioning! Sadly those students who were due to complete their Duke of Edinburgh expedition have had to miss out on both the hike as well as the work experience. Plans are underway to reschedule the expedition as soon as possible, so please watch this space for more details.
The vast majority of students were able to shelter from the growing heat at home, and with temperatures still forecasted to remain high on Tuesday 19th July, we request that where students are able to stay at home safely away from the temperatures that they do so again. Colleagues have been busy reviewing the arrangements for the rest of the week and there is the possibility that some of the trips that have been missed on Monday and Tuesday may well be moved to the Wednesday and Thursday to replace the onsite activities that had been scheduled. Confirmation will be issued of this tomorrow, in order for students to be able to arrive at school properly prepared for their activities from Wednesday onwards.
The forecast from Wednesday onwards suggests that we will be able to continue with all of the planned activities for the rest of the week. Including the school walk on Friday. When, yes you have guessed it, it is now due to rain!
Thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation with our best attempts to balance the desire to provide new experiences for the students, whilst also balancing everyone’s health and safety concerns as a result of the high temperatures.
Many thanks – a further update will follow tomorrow!
Regards
Phil Grundy
