Dear Parent/Carer

I hope that you are keeping safe and well at this difficult time. I think that we are all starting to feel the strain of confinement, however, every time I turn on the TV and see the immense difficulties being faced by people on the front line, I thank my lucky stars for what we have got. We all miss being at school and we miss the life, fun and laughter that our students bring to the Academy. We can only hope that we will return to some sort of normality sooner rather than later.

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you as to what is going on. We started back to our virtual school at 9 a.m. on Monday 20th April, we will be open 5 days a week from 9 a.m. until 2.45 p.m. until the situation changes and the Government advises us to open again. So far the majority of our students are engaging in the learning being provided which is excellent. Thank you.

As part of our safeguarding responsibilities, we need to keep phoning you twice a day to touch base with our students, to ensure that they are safe and well and engaged in the learning and support that we are providing. You may have noticed that the Government has launched the Oak National Academy www.thenational.academy which provides online lessons for students from reception to year 10. Our students can dip into it, alongside the google classroom and hard copy work that they have available. It might also be useful for you if you have other children at home.

Engagement and motivation is really important in times of challenge. To this end you will have already hopefully seen Oli’s Friday quiz that he runs on Instagram at 2 p.m. each week for students.  In addition to this, starting this week we are putting in place a daily challenge for students via google classroom. They will be fun challenges that students complete and submit. There will be a winner chosen each day who will win a £10 e-voucher from amazon. This is purely for fun and to maintain engagement with our students. Alongside this, we will continue the student of the day awards for students who are working well and if they achieve 5 awards they will be sent a £50 Deliveroo voucher so you can have a feast on us!

By now parents of year 11 students should have received a letter that we sent out from OFQUAL outlining how the exam grades will be allocated. Please contact me if you have any questions. Unfortunately we cannot discuss actual predicted grades as they will be moderated and then passed to the exam board to make the final decision. Exam grades will be available for collection from High Pavement on 20th August.

Many year 11 students have been asking about “Suits day”. Unfortunately given the current situation, we have had to postpone the event. However this is a temporary measure and they will have a “Suits Day” once shops and venues have reopened. We do not intend for any of our students to lose out.

You may have noticed in the news yesterday that the Government is offering laptops and 4G connection, for vulnerable students and those under social care who do not currently have access. The details of this have not been made clear to us at this point. Please be confident that we will be working with the local authority to support any identified needs.

Free school meals vouchers have now moved to the Government website. We have been working hard over the weekend to access the website and order them for you and apologies for the wait.

I think this is about it for now, but I will aim to keep you all updated as we move through the term. Please keep an eye on our school website as this has lots of resources and information for you. As always please contact me directly if you have any concerns or queries.

Thank you for your continued support

Kind regards

Kerrie Henton

Principal

Stone Soup Academy