We hope this message finds you well at the end of a very different half term at Haslingden High School. Whilst we know that home learning presents many challenges for staff, students and their families, we hope that this has been successful for your son/daughter during this time.
We understand that there will be a number of questions regarding the processes which schools will be asked to follow in order to award grades to Year 11 students this summer. We are expecting the outcome of the Ofqual consultation in the week beginning Monday 22 February and we will share further information with you as soon as we are able to do so. In the meantime, what is essential is that all students continue to work hard, engage fully with lessons and the learning resources, and submit all work when requested to do so. We have been extremely pleased with the manner in which the vast majority of our Year 11 students have responded to the new way of working this half term; thank you for your support in making this a successful transition.
We know that students may now also be thinking beyond the summer and we continue to endeavour to support them all in the decision-making processes for their plans following Year 11. Each year we are delighted that so many students decide to join us in our sixth form. Ms Marsland has shared a Google form for students to indicate their current plans and thank you for the responses we have received to date. Whilst we do not hold students to these responses, it does allow us to plan for the number of classes we may need to run in each subject and the necessary staffing requirements for the following year. It would therefore be really helpful if we had a response from every student, irrespective of their destination. Please could you encourage your son/daughter to complete a response as soon as possible if they have not already done so. The link can be found here.
Covid-19 has prevented a number of events in school this year and these include our options evening and sixth form invitation day which we would normally have held to support option choices at Key Stage 5. In the absence of the options evening, and to provide further information on the content and structure of each course, we are currently working on some narrated PowerPoints and/or videos, which we will upload to our website in early March. We will email you when these are available. However, even if we return to school on March 8 (which we hope is safe and we are able to do) there are a number of logistical issues which would prevent us being able to run the invitation day in the usual format, notably the increased risk of close contacts. This would also result in an additional day where Year 11 students would miss their face to face lessons and Years 12 and 13 would not be able to access sixth form on this day.
Students having a ‘taster’ of the option subjects they are considering to study in the sixth form is an integral part of the decision-making process and we are still keen to offer this to our students. We have therefore decided that we will run a Sixth Form Taster Day remotely on Wednesday 3 March. There will be no live lessons for Year 11 on this day but instead, students will be asked to attend up to five different sessions in subjects which they may be considering to study in Year 12. Students who have indicated that they will not be joining us in the sixth form next year are invited to attend but otherwise should use this day to research their own plans for post-16 study/employment; we will provide students with links to resources to support this. Attendance registers will be taken for all taster sessions.
We will share further details regarding the specific arrangements for this event in the first week back. In the meantime, we hope all our students and their families are able to enjoy a well-deserved break over half term.
Best wishes,
Tony Goodman
Deputy Headteacher: Quality of Education
L Marsland
Director of Sixth Form