End of half term letter from Mr Day - 21/10/2020

Dear Parents & Carers,

This half term has been a new experience for us all in returning to full time education at Sewell Park Academy, but I would like to thank you all, alongside the students and staff for your continued support and how smoothly this half term has gone.

I would publicly like to thank the staff, especially for their extra miles of movement between lessons over the term, and our students for their adaptations to becoming as COVID secure as possible. In all cases, they have ensured our new safety arrangements have been praised by both a regional representative of the National Education Union and a national project called “Volunteer It Yourself”. Both of these have said that measures at Sewell Park have gone above and beyond other schools which they have been in; within the region and nationally. Although nothing can remove all risks in the current world, I would hope you would agree that measures are in place to keep students, staff and the wider community safe. Please see Mr Gannon’s letter earlier this week detailing our expectations and procedures for both uniform and safety.

Throughout this term, the standard of learning has been excellent from our students and they have transitioned back to the return to school exceptionally smoothly. It also feels like our largest ever year group in Year 7, have always been a part of our community. Over the next half term, you will see the next stages in the continued development of our ethos of “Enriching minds, enabling success”. This will include the development of our ‘habitus’ programme; aimed to develop the skills in our students to be successful throughout their lives, as well as highly employable in these current changing times.

All students have access to a “Remote Learning” folder for their year group on Google Classroom. This details a parallel curriculum to that of the departments within, which has lesson by lesson resources for any absence from school. Although, we expect students to use this in a period of self-isolation, this is also available for students for any absence and to support any work missed. Alongside this, after half term, we will be publishing details of the Government's Catch-up Premium being paid to schools, and how we intend to support the students with this. These resources will also support our Year 11 students with their PPEs on their return.

If, over the half term break, a student or parent should test positive for a case of Coronavirus, we would ask that you let us know as soon as possible on our out of hours number of 07856 242916. I would like to wish all members of our community a safe and restful half term. It is well needed and deserved by all and know that our students will continue to adhere to social distancing rules during the holiday to help support safety in their community. 

Yours sincerely,

David Day

Headteacher