19-10-2020
We have two positive cases of Covid diagnosed over the weekend.
One of our cleaning staff and a student in Year 9 Set 2 / Year 9 St Patrick tutor group are positive.
The student was only in school last week for a limited time on Wednesday morning.
Our cleaner has been absent since Wednesday and works at the end of the day when she is in.
I have sent an email to parents of the students in these two groups. Please check your emails.
The teacher who tested positive a while ago is back in school today.
I know this will be concerning for you all. Please be assured that we are doing all we can to ensure parents have all the information they need.
We will always support you in the decisions you take. Our phones are going to be busy today, I expect. We must talk to the parents in Year 9 as a priority and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
16-10-2020
We are repeating the photo day for those who missed having their photo taken. This will be next Thursday 22 October.
From next Tuesday to Friday we will be presenting the certificates from the Prize Evening that was cancelled last July. Prize Winning students will be asked to come to see me for their presentation.
It is half term next Friday 23 October.
After half term, we will be changing the order of lunches so that another year group will get the chance to go first. I will share the plan next week.
There have been no more confirmed cases of COVID.
15-10-2020
Yesterday I mentioned the Teams app as being important for communication with teachers and for finding homework and supporting materials.
Our English department are checking in each lesson that students know what to do.
Today, I asked tutors to email all their tutees. I know that sounds strange as they see each other every morning, but we want to know that all students know how to email and that they can. Again, this is to check that all our lines of communication are open and students know how to reach us when they need to. Our English department and IT will be reminding students how to email next week, as some are still a bit unclear.
Please encourage your sons and daughters to check their emails. From today, I am going to copy my daily message to students as well.
On a completely different note, some students are carrying scissors in their pencil cases which is fine if they are the safety sort that we use but we have found some to be quite large which is not a good idea.
We have no further infections in school.
(Half term is next Friday 23rd)
14-10-2020
Today, can I ask you to check if your son or daughter has the Teams app on their phones?
Teams and Classcharts are the most important platforms we use in school. Teams is good for homework, sending work home and for communication with teachers.
Students can access Teams on their laptops but there is also an app.
Please can you make sure that your son/daughter has the app on their phones? This will really help us make sure everyone can see homework.
There has been a lot of chatter today amongst the students about ‘circuit break’ closures but I know nothing more than you.
Whatever happens, Teams will be a great app to have. We will check again that all students have the passwords so they can use it at home.
Thank you so much,
Miss Kennedy
We have no further infections in school.
13-10-2020
I hope you are well.
Our teacher is recovering well and we have had no further incidents of infection in school.
I am attaching a photo of a group of Year 9s who were on litter duty on Friday, tidying up the streets around school as part of our community focus. We want our neighbours to know that our students will all take turns picking up litter around school and in the nearby streets.
12-10-2020
I hope you had a lovely weekend.
Thank you for the kind get well messages for our teacher.
There has been an announcement today about GCSEs next summer.
It seems that most GCSE exams will be delayed by three weeks to allow student to catch up on time lost except Maths and English which will take place before May half term.
Most exams will take place between 7 June and July 2 2021. Once we have the timetable, we will share it with you.
Results Day will be on Friday August 27th which is later than the usual date.
I am sure there will be more clarity from our Government and we will make sure Year 11 are up to speed on today’s announcement.
Please be assured that we are doing everything we can to ensure Year 11 are working well in school.
There are no further confirmed cases of COVID in our school.
10-10-2020
As an extra precautionary measure relating to Thursday’s news, the members of staff in the department were tested and are all negative
Our staff have to follow a strict distancing protocol and we continue to ensure that all staff follow the rules.
We have made a new video for our school and those thinking of joining us. Thank you to the wonderful students who have taken part.
08-10-2020
I have promised to send you information about COVID as soon as we have news in school which is why this message is earlier than my normal daily message.
A member of staff has tested positive this morning for COVID.
The advice from the Department for Education has been that no one else needs to self-isolate at this time as social distancing between teachers and students has been in place for this teacher’s lessons.
If you have any concerns, please ring us. We are always happy to speak to parents.
I appreciate that this is concerning news. I know you will want me to wish the member of staff a speedy recovery. Your students have been following all our guidelines in school but we will take this opportunity to re-emphasise our safety measures.
I have emailed a letter to you which confirms this announcement and gives further information of symptoms etc.
16-09-2020
I am writing my daily message early today to clarify what to do if your child is being tested for COVID.
Our Attendance Officer Mrs Cross Laura.Cross@sjchs.uk and our Pastoral Admin Assistant Mrs Reynolds Paula.Reynolds@sjchs.uk are in contact with the parents of students who are absent.
I would like to thank all our parents for keeping us up to date with the reasons for absence. Remember that we fully support you when you have to make the decisions not to send your child in.
If a positive result of a test comes in, I will let parents know. We will email parents and use our social media.
If the result comes in in the evening, we will still send out the messages, but there might be a slight delay as we will be doing this from home.
We will respond to you as fast as we can.
If you book a test, please keep us updated with whatever the outcome. My email is Jacky.kennedy@sjchs.uk, Mr Nevitt is Ian.Nevitt@sjchs.uk or use Mrs Cross’ email above. We all check our emails in the evening.
When I write that we have no confirmed cases in our school community, I mean amongst our staff and our students, but if there is, we will let you know as soon as we can.
Today, as I write this, there are none.
Best wishes and stay safe,
15-09-2020
I hope you are all well.
We have been reminding students about wearing masks in corridors. If you wish your son or daughter not to wear a face covering, please email our Heads of Year.
Mary.Eldon@sjchs.uk Year 7
Todd.Stuart@sjchs.uk Years 8 and 9
Kate.Hodgson@sjchs.uk Year 10
Holly.Donaldson@sjchs.uk Year 11
Please ensure that students have a bottle of water. It has been really warm in school this week.
We have been showing students around from primary schools this week and last week, so I have been in lots of lessons.
Our students and teachers are working very well. I know we have been focussed on safety, but we are also focussing on learning, too. The students seem to be making a real effort to get back to learning.
Year 7 were allowed to play on the asto-turf at lunchtime today because there were no classes using the space. There was a very big football match with boys and girls playing really well together in the sunshine.
If Year 7 students want to play on the astro-turf at lunchtime, they will need their trainers which they can carry in their bags. We will provide the football! (This can only happen if there is no lesson taking place.)
There are no confirmed cases of COVID in our school.
14-09-2020
It is Roald Dahl Day today and a number of staff have dressed up to celebrate his writing and to make us smile. Look out for the photos on our social media!
We have had a number of parents ringing this morning about their child’s symptoms asking what advice we would give.
I know it is a nightmare to book a test. We know lots of colds are going around. We cannot advise you if the symptoms you describe to us are a common cold or COVID related.
(High Temperature, loss of taste or smell, continuous cough.)
I would advise you to use your parental instinct as you know your child best.
If you son or daughter has COVID symptoms, my advice is to use NHS 111 online.
Not everyone who has a cold needs to get tested. And students who have had a cold can return to school.
Distinguishing between colds and COVID is difficult, so if in doubt try and get advice from NHS 111 online.
We will support you in whatever you choose to do. We know students will have absence in this difficult time and we will be alerted if there is a positive test.
You must put your families first at all times and we will support you when you do.
We have not had any confirmation of any positive tests related to our school community.
11-09-2020
Our first full week at school has gone very well.
We were all nervous about coming back to school, but it has been good to be back.
Students are following all our guidelines very well.
Photo Day on Monday. I have sent a text to remind you.
We have not got any confirmed cases of Covid connected to our school.
We have a new section of our website for Year 6 and Year 5 students. More videos will be there next week showing off our school.
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
10-09-2020
Our Year 7 video is going live today so please look out for it on our website and social media.
Thank you to all our students who took part.
There is another video in the making – a virtual tour of school. We received a request for a Year 8 video which we are planning to do.
The extra lessons for Year 11 at the end of the day are going well. All Year 11 students have the opportunity to go to their option subject and Science and RE at the end of the day for extra tuition.
One of the changes we have this year is whole Class Reading in Years 7 to 9 every morning. We will publish the list of books that we are using very shortly so parents can see what types of books we are covering.
Our Achievement Point lists go up on Friday. There are currently 6,022 achievement points across the school which is an excellent start. I am looking forward to seeing who is leading each year group.
School Photo Day , Monday 14th September.
We do not know of any confirmed cases of Covid connected to our school.
I hope everyone is well,
Miss Kennedy
09-09-2020
We have made a video of Year 7s first days and I have posted the link and a password on email to all Year 7 parents.
Year 7 parents, please check your emails. There is a short message from me and the video. It was lovely to go around and capture Year 7 in their lessons and in moving around the school.
Reminder that it is photo day on Monday 14th.
We are hearing about other schools and Covid around the country.
For that reason, I will continue to send messages each day. It is best you hear from us what is happening, rather than relying on other means.
I am showing around Year 6 parents and students each day. My time is booking up quickly, so if you know of anyone who wants a tour, please get them to book in.
Mrs Gaffney will arrange the tours: 01900 873290.
08-09-2020
School Photo Day is next Monday 14th September. We take photos every year so that our school database is up to date.
Photos will be available to purchase. If your child has PE on Monday, and you would rather they were in their uniform for the photo, it might be best to pop a shirt and tie in their bags that they can slip them on before the photo.
If you don’t mind the photo being of PE kit and blazer, that is fine. We will send a text on Friday to remind you.
All students have been informed about our building plans which start next week. Firstly, we are installing canopies on three of our yards.
Our post-Covid plan is for students to have as much fresh air as possible. The canopies will allow student to be outside if it is raining.
Secondly, we are about to spend a lot of money building a Creative Media classroom for media and photography lessons. We have good results in all our GCSE subjects but feel that our creative subjects need improved facilities, These projects will be finished by half term.
I will keep you posted as to how they are progressing.
We have no known confirmed infections connected to our school.
07-09-2020
We are really pleased with the attendance and behaviour of our students last week. There were 2016 achievement points in the three days of last week. This is an excellent start. We have good attitudes and behaviour normally, but considering all the new arrangements we have, we are very satisfied that the students are adapting well.
We do think it is important that students move around during the day and get some fresh air, so getting the one way system right has been important. We have made some small changes after some student feedback and we are happy that it is working well.
I know some parents of Year 6 are following us on our Facebook Page / Instagram. In place of the Open Evening for Year 6, we are showing parents and students around during the day or after school. I am very proud to show our school off during the day but tours can be accommodated either way. Please book a tour if you are interested.
Year 7 will be scheduled a special lesson in an IT room on Teams and Classcharts next week to ensure everyone knows how to log in.
Individual School photos will be taken on Monday 14th September for all students. These will be available to purchase. More details to follow.
I hope that you are all well. We have no confirmed cases for anyone in school or connected to our school.
04-09-2020
I hope you have a lovely weekend. I will continue my daily bulletins next week.
Year 7 are currently in mixed ability groupings until we have the results of our CATs tests.
These are verbal (reading) and non-verbal (matching patterns) tests that indicate a students’ ability.
The results will help us re-organise groupings after half term. The tests will take place next week.
I have explained that there is nothing to worry about and no preparation to do.
We have a mixed year group socially distanced Homework Club in the Library which is open from:
Monday: 2.45 – 5.00
Tuesday: 2.45 – 3.30
Wednesday: 2.45 – 5.00
Thursday: 2.45 – 5.00
Friday: 2.45 – 3.30
Year 11 will get priority access to the 4 desktops and the adjacent study table. Laptops will be available to other students if required.
There is no need for students to book in advance.
Homework is set on Classcharts. Please ensure everyone has a login.
There are no reports of any infections associated with school.
03-09-2020
In the last days before lockdown I gave a daily message and I will continue to do this in the first few days of this term. We all need reassurance that school is working well and that students and staff safety is our priority.
It has been good to see the whole school together again and I am pleased that students have followed the new systems well today.
Year 7 are finding their way around very well and everyone is getting used to the one way system. Our students have been excellent.
Classcharts logins have been given to all Year 7 students and they have the logins for parents, too.
Thank you for all your support in getting us to this point.
We are not aware of any infections connected to our school.
