CO-HEADTEACHERS’ UPDATE 05/01/2021

Dear Parent/Guardian

Following on from last night’s government guidance we would like to share with you the details of our plans for this half term.  To confirm, schools will be closed for face to face teaching for all students until at least February half term.  The only students that can come into school are children of key workers, vulnerable or SEN students who have registered through the key worker inbox.

Remote learning

The school day remains the same as follows

 The expectation is for the majority of lessons and registrations to be taught live via TEAMS, therefore your daughter/son should ensure that they log in promptly for each lesson as above.  The live lessons will be a mixture of teacher input, most likely to be 20 to 30 mins, followed by 20 -30 mins of students working independently but with the teacher ‘present’ online to answer questions as far as possible.

The exception to this will be if your child’s teacher is off sick or taking their turn supervising the key worker rota.  In both of these cases, the teacher will let the students know and set work for them to complete on TEAMS.  Additionally, PSHE lessons will also be set remotely rather than live.  There will not be any PE lessons for KS3 and KS4 students who are taking the sports leaders award.  

If your daughter/son is not ‘turning up’ to the lessons, or not submitting work as required, you will be notified by email from their class teacher, and if the problem persists the Head of Department and/or the Head of Year.  Equally, if you are concerned about the remote learning please contact your daughter/son’s Head of Year.

Absence

If your daughter/son is unwell and therefore unable to join in live lessons, please report the absence and reason using absence@holt.wokingham.sch.uk  If your daughter/son has been tested positive for Covid-19 please can you also email the absence line, even if they are well enough to do the live learning.  This is for statistical purposes.

Catch up sessions for Year 11 and Year13

We have put these on hold for now but will be in touch by early next week.

GCSE and A Level Exams

We are still not completely sure of the exact arrangement for the exams in the summer and we appreciate that this uncertainty is really unsettling for Year 11 and Year 13 students and their parents. Please be assured that when we have clarity we will share this with you.  In the meantime here are our plans regarding the internal and public exams.

January public exams – these have not been cancelled to date so as far as we are aware they are going ahead as normal but we will clarify as soon as we hear one way or the other.  

Pre Public Exams (mocks)

Due to school closure we have delayed the internal exam schedule as follows

Year 11 PPEs

These will now take place in school the week beginning February 22nd and March 1st.  This will also incorporate the English Language PPE wave and the Maths PPE wave. A new timetable will be sent out in due course.

Year 13 PPEs

These will now take place the week beginning March 8th

Year 12 PPEs

We have decided to cancel the January series and keep the summer session in June. 

In the meantime, it is important that all Year 11 and 13 students stay motivated and on task ensuring that they maintain a good grasp of the required knowledge and skills and prepare for internal assessments as normal.  The same applies to Year 10 for POR.

Laptops

In line with the DFE’s recommendation that we teach ‘live’ lessons it is essential that your daughter/son has access to a computer with an internet connection for the majority of the school day. Using a phone or tablet to access these resources is fine for reading but to engage interactively and to upload work, students need a keyboard. Whilst the majority of students have access to a laptop or desktop with a reliable internet connection there are a number of students who are relying on their phone or tablet to access live lessons and complete home learning. In addition, we know that some students maybe sharing a computer with siblings or parents and can only use it for a short period of time each day.

If your daughter/son is struggling to access a computer during the school day to access all live lessons, we would recommend that you purchase a laptop for her/him. Sadly, we can only provide school laptops for students who are eligible for disadvantaged student funding but we could loan out laptops for a few days if your daughter/son is waiting for a computer to be delivered or to be fixed.  If you want to discuss this further please can you contact your daughter/son’s Head of Year

Free School Meal Provision

Edenred vouchers are not available for this lockdown period.  Chartwells, our catering providers, are providing weekly food boxes with ingredients to make some meals. Mrs Simmons, Deputy School Business Manager, has emailed parents who eligible for these boxes.

Key workers

If you are a key worker or your child is vulnerable or is SEN and are unable to work unsupervised from home then please email keyworker@holt.wokingham.sch.uk to request a place to complete their remote learning in school.  Due to social distancing and year group bubbles we have to cap our numbers in our limited computer rooms, so please consider carefully before you request a place. 

Lateral Flow Testing

We are rolling out the LFT, on a much smaller scale than planned, to staff and students who are in school during lockdown.  We will send out further information to parents of students who are in school in the next few days.  We will await more guidance on government plans to roll out LFT once school has reopened. If you have any queries please contact your daughter/son’s Head of Year.

We will replace our blogs with a weekly update on a Wednesday, from next week, for the duration of school closure.

We wish you well at this difficult and unsettling time.

Kind regards

Mrs A Kennedy and Mrs K Pearce

Co-Headteachers