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Posted on May 22nd 2020
Newsletter 22/05/20
Schools are all about communities and when I look back over this half term, I am so proud of our whole community for working together to find new ways of communicating and for supporting each other. I am particularly proud of the students who have risen to the challenge of the Virtual School and produced a lot of excellent work.
Following the parent, student and teacher surveys we have made a few changes to the Virtual School provision and will begin Phase 3 on Monday 1st June.
On Wednesdays mornings from 9-9.30am students will have a live Teams session with their House Tutor. This session will be linked to our Human and Life Skills curriculum and focus around student wellbeing.
On Wednesday afternoons, we are introducing a series of screen free challenges. Students will be encouraged, where they can, to work with a virtual partner to complete them. To enable this to happen, we have made some slight changes to the timetable which you can find here: https://0e58658be539ee7325a0-220f04f871df648cf4a4d93a111e3366.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/harris_secondary_wimbledon/uploads/document/Phase-3-Timetable-.pdf
You will know from the calendar that students were due to have their examination week during the second week after half term. I don’t think it is appropriate to have an examination week, but each subject will ask students to complete a significant piece of work which they will need to send in. Teachers will set the work through the lessons and students will need to spend 45 minutes completing it in lesson time. This work will be set between the 15th and 26th June. We will send out more information about this after half term.
This significant piece of work will be marked with a percentage and returned to the students. We will publish end of year reports on 16th July and will include this percentage within an average of other assessments completed during the year.
Students are not required to complete any revision for these pieces of work as they will be able to use their books when they are completing them. However, please encourage your child to make this their best piece of work.
I would like to emphasise that I do not want the students to do any work over half term. It is a time for relaxation and a time away from screens.
The 29th and 30th June will be screen free days and teachers are currently planning some exciting challenges for students to complete during these days.
Lessons from 13th - 16th July will also be slightly different and will focus on transition to the year above. This is especially important for the Year 8 students who will move from Lower to Upper School. Mr James is Assistant Principal / Director of Upper School and begins this role from 1st June. He will be responsible for the pastoral care of the students in the Upper School and will be in touch with Year 8 parents after half term.
It is my ambition to invite all students (in small groups of 15) for a session on site during the week of 13th July but I can only do this if it is safe to do so. I will continue to follow the government advice and be in touch closer to the time if we are able to do this.
We will hold a Virtual Honours Evening on Wednesday 15th July at 6pm. Please save the date.
Thank you for your continued support and best wishes for a safe and happy half term.
Happy Eid to all our families who will be celebrating this weekend.
