Dear Parents and Carers
Firstly, I would want to wish you all a very happy New Year. I hope that over the Christmas break you have all been able to have some sort of break from the normal routine, and hopefully most of you were able to see more of your families this year than last, although I am aware that there were several of you who experienced another challenging year of muted celebrations as a result, of the ongoing pandemic.
| Key Messages |
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1. All Students should complete a lateral flow test and register it on both the school link and the Government NHS site before returning to school https://testregister.co.uk/login |
| 2. School commences again for all students on Wednesday 5th January 2022 |
| 3. On arrival at school students will be provided with a further supply of lateral flow test kits and will be given the opportunity to complete a test before going to their lessons. |
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4. Highlights from last half term can be viewed via the following firefly link. |
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5. All students will now be asked to wear a mask whilst in lessons as well as when moving around the school as per the Government request. |
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6. Please see below for some sad news with regards to some retired colleagues who have sadly passed away over the Christmas period. Our condolences clearly go to all of those affected. |
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7. Please be aware of the updated systems for reporting the absence of your child sent out in separate correspondence by my colleague, Ms Halkes. |
Further detail:
1. It was really pleasing during the second half of the Autumn term to see a steady increase in the number of students regularly testing and registering home test kits. In the final weeks before Christmas approaching 40% of the students were registering tests. I would urge all families to complete and register a test prior to returning to school on Wednesday. This really does represent our very best opportunity to reduce the spread of the virus and to keep the school operating as normally as possible.
2. The media is full of reports anticipating high employee absence across all areas of society as a result, of adults needing to isolate due to being infected by COVID. Staff at Highams Park School have been testing regularly and, with the exception, of those medically restricted from doing so, we pretty much have 100% participation in regular testing to help ensure early detection of the virus in our work force. To help further prevent the spread of the virus could I please ask all families to consider their child having the vaccination. Clearly, it is acknowledged that this is a personal and on occasions complex choice but will certainly help to prevent the spread of the virus and again contribute to being able to keep the school running smoothly. We will contact you as soon as we are aware of any disruption to learning but will do our utmost to ensure face to face teaching continues as normal in January.
3. Please ensure your child is at school punctually on Wednesday morning. For the time being we shall continue to postpone whole Year Group gatherings in assemblies but on the first morning shall have an extended Form Group time to facilitate the distribution of lateral flow test kits, so students can continue to test at home on a weekly basis. Additionally, any student who has not completed a test at home before coming to school. will have the opportunity to test to help ensure we do not unwittingly re-introduce the virus into the school environment.
4. With all of the focus upon COVID it is easy to forget the many other areas of school life that we were able to re-establish during our first term of the year. Well done to all students of Years 11 and 13 who were able to complete some important mock examinations. We hope that it will not be necessary to use these results to calculate final A Level, BTEC and GCSE exams. However, the attitude and involvement of the students in these interim assessments stand them in good stead for the planned final examinations in the summer. Please follow this link to Firefly where further detail can be seen about a wider range of activities that also took place: https://highamspark.fireflycloud.net/news/school-news-and-events
5. As you may well have seen, recent Government advice has been issued asking all students to extend their wearing of face masks whilst at school to include when they are now sat in a classroom. Prior to Christmas students did well at wearing face coverings whilst indoors in communal areas. Please ensure that your child returns to school with a supply of face masks, so that they are able, to now wear a mask throughout the day unless outside or eating and drinking.
6. Those of you with older children who have now departed from Highams Park School will no doubt remember two recently retired colleagues; Mr Ken Creswell, DT teacher and Mr Tony Perrett, Headteacher. It is with much sadness that I have, to inform you that both have passed away over the Christmas period. They will be fondly remembered by the Highams Park School community, and I am sure I can speak for everyone in sending their families our condolences at this difficult time.
7. Ms Halkes sent out an important update to parents and carers in the last week before the Christmas break. This detailed how absence needs to be reported to the school. Please have a careful read through this and ensure that you use the correct system. In times of increased absence from school due to COVID it is a real challenge to keep our attendance systems running, so your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your ongoing support, we look forward to welcoming the students back on Wednesday morning.
Yours faithfully
Mr Phil Grundy
Principal
