Message from the Headmistress
Dear Parents,
I hope you are all well and enjoying the sun at the latter end of the week. Better than the thick socks and jumper weather we had earlier on.
Can I start my update today by saying what a wonderful job you are all doing as you continue to support your children’s education, to the best of your abilities given your work loads and family circumstances. It is so tough and we can all only do what is possible…
There has been a lot happening this week for educationalists to consider and this newsletter is late this Friday as I have been putting our school plans together for the second half of this term, in the light of the government plans to re-open schools to children in some key year groups from 1st June.
We are working with constantly shifting guidance and advice and everything I write below is subject to change.
We currently intend that we will phase opening as follows for JUNE:
Monday 1st June: Staff training meeting; key teachers arranging classrooms and preparing for the return to school of some children. School closed to all but the children of key workers.
Tuesday 2nd June: RECEPTION children can return to full time school 9.00am to 3.00pm each day.
Tuesday 2nd June: YEAR 6 children can return to full time school 8.45am to 3.30pm each day.
Monday 8th June: YEAR 1 children can return to school 8.45am to 3.30pm – MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY and FRIDAY.
W/C 15th June: Some provision will be available for YEAR 10 (to be confirmed).
W/C 22nd June: Some provision will be available for Nursery children and other Junior year groups (to be confirmed).
We are also busy working on transitional plans for those joining the school as new pupils as well as ‘flying up’ arrangements for children to meet their new teachers for September.
The key worker provision will continue throughout but we will need to amend our hours of opening to 8.30am to 3.45pm daily. We would like you to let us know your requirements for this provision and request that children arrive at 8.30am to enable us to adjust staffing if required.
We are working hard on our risk mitigation planning and will publish the detail of this for you next week. We want parents to feel safe leaving their children in our care and to understand that we will be taking all appropriate measures to ensure the safety of all by social distancing, increased cleaning, increased focus on hygiene, changing the flow of children around the buildings, altering the classroom layouts, having varied start and finish times to the day, and much more. For now, and whilst I craft the full document, I would like to ask parents what they would like us to do to make them feel more comfortable with our arrangements. If you have any suggestions, please email them to me within the next 5 days.
Next week we will be sending round a request to the parents in Reception and Year 6 in the first instance to ascertain if they intend for their children to return on the date stated above. This information will inform the rooms we are using and staffing requirements. Once the learning is back in the classroom, on these days the online provision will minimise as the focus of the teachers will be with the present children.
In readiness for re-opening, I will be preparing a mini handbook for parents outlining further information which will be useful for this transitional period.
We will be asking parents to send children into school with a packed lunch for this half of term.
This is a brief summary of the plans but much more will follow next week. Please contact us to seek clarification if you are unsure of the key messages, or have queries, and remember these plans are still subject to change if the government changes the rules.
Senior timetables for form times, mentor sessions and lessons is as follows:
We are looking forward to our first ever Virtual Open Day (Thursday afternoon) and I remind you to put friends and family in touch with us if they are considering a Hollygirt education for their children for September.
Finally can I heartily congratulate our Year 10 who stood for the position of Head Girl / Boy and who presented so well in their hustings. Especial congratulations to our election winners: Safiyah (Head Girl) and Fahad (Deputy Head Boy). I look forward to working with you and the prefect team when we return to our ‘new normal’.
I wish you all the most relaxing weekend.
Mrs Hutley
Headmistress
Message from the Head of Juniors
Click here to view this week’s Stars of the Week
Dear Parents,
I hope you have all had a good week. I continue to be so impressed with the work being submitted and can’t praise the children enough for their efforts.
You will of course have heard about the potential phased reopening of schools next half term for some year groups. Please ensure you have read Mrs Hutley’s message above.
Teams lessons next week will be as follows:
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Wright
Head of Juniors