To all in the Noadswood family,
I know you will all be reeling from the announcement we have all listened to from the Prime Minister, stating the commencement of a full national lockdown from tomorrow morning, including school sites being closed to students (with the exception of our key worker groups) until perhaps February half term, as things stand at present. The latest updated government guidance is here (click link)
I want you to know we remain alongside you, as we have been throughout the pandemic, and we will keep in close touch, every step of the way. Our thoughts are with you all, and your children and families, whose work, education, finances and health are of such concern for you, now more than ever.
The plans we have announced with respect to learning for all students this week remain unchanged.
Namely:
Lessons - from Tuesday 5th January 2021
We will provide Year 11 with a mixture of live lessons delivered via Teams, pre-recorded and Oak National Academy resources to support your child’s learning, according to their school timetable, from Tuesday 5th January. Where a pre-recorded lesson occurs their classroom teacher will be available in their normal lesson slot to answer any questions via ePraise.
The rest of the school will be provided with on-line learning tasks pertinent to their curriculum on Tuesday 5th, and then they will begin a similar mixed diet of live Teams lessons, pre-recorded lessons and Oak National Academy Lessons from Wednesday onwards. Similarly, their classroom teachers will be available via epraise during non-live delivery. If your child has any problems accessing their work or doesn’t have access to an internet connected device please contact their house leader directly and we will do all we can to assist you.
We will get in touch again by close of play Thursday at the latest with our plans for next week.
We’ve been at our best when you’ve reached out to us with your worries, the support you need, your suggestions and the things that would help you all sitting alongside what we put together and roll out.
So please know we’re here for you and your children in exactly that way right now.
Please use health@noadswood.hants.sch.uk or headteacher@noadswood.hants.sch.uk, or get in touch with any member of the leadership team, or your child’s house leaders, tutors, our ELSA or our LSAs .... anyone at all across the staff you’d like to speak to.
Noadswood isn’t closed - just our physical site - so keep close in touch.
The final point I want to make tonight is that the PM spoke about the Secretary of State for Education liaising with Ofqual regarding decisions to be taken about the summer series of GCSEs and BTecs scheduled for 2021.
We will have our ear to the ground in the various local and national forums we belong to in order to get you the information about developments in this respect as soon as it’s available.
However, we also have our child development exam scheduled for Thursday 7th January for which we’d already made provision, despite the situation we were already in with respect to site closure for this week - we are following the news about this closely this evening, and the second there is a formal announcement about it, we will write with clarity to the students and parents/carers concerned.
We understand how much anxiety all this will cause - I so wish we could take that feeling away from the students, but we’ll supply clarity and support the minute we can.
We will be back with you with timely updates, all the reassurances we can (and no doubt some pet pictures) very soon.
Wishing you all our best,
Kathryn Marshall and the Noadswood Leadership Team