As I have said on many occasions, this is a difficult time for everyone, but I have no doubt this has been an extremely stressful time for students preparing for exams this summer. Although exams have been cancelled, I am sure it has not felt like this to the students who have been faced with a half term of regular assessments.
As I mentioned in my letter to all parents the decision to revert to remote learning for the entire school was not taken lightly, especially given that there are a number of assessments outstanding for some Y11 students.
Throughout the process of us having to award GCSE grades this summer, we have been mindful of the requirements set out by the examination boards, but equally, the wellbeing of our students. I feel sure that most of them understand and support our decision to do a number of low stakes assessments over this half term, rather than single high stakes assessments in the last week of this half term. As such, the majority of students have already completed most of their assessments. However, I am mindful that we want to provide the small number of students with assessments outstanding, with the opportunity for them to demonstrate what they know, wherever this is possible.
Most students have completed five of the six maths assessments and we believe we will have sufficient evidence on which to base our judgements. As such, students do not need to attend the maths assessment on Friday, but may do so if they feel it would help them to improve their grade. To help plan, if your child is intending to attend the maths assessment, please email Mr Sherrington (Curriculum Leader for Maths) with their name, form and class teacher.
The other subjects below have requested that students do attend wherever possible. If students are unable to attend due to having to self isolate or through illness, there will be another opportunity to sit these, or similar assessments, in the week after the half-term break. Due to the current outbreak, we are keen to minimise the amount of time students are in school and as such have condensed the outstanding assessments into as short a time as possible, whilst being mindful of the pressure this potentially creates.
| Day | Time | Subject | Students report to |
| Tuesday 25 May | P1, P2 | French listening | Dining rooms in Broadway building |
| Friday 28 May | P1 | Maths | Sixth Form Theatre |
| P2 | Biology (Triple Science only) | Sixth Form Theatre | |
| P3 | Physics (Triple Science only) | Sixth Form Theatre | |
| P4 | DT (11BDT1 only) | Sixth Form Theatre |
Any ‘catch ups’ in subjects not on the above list will be offered in the first week back after half term. Further details will be provided next week.
Where all assessments have been completed, teachers will not be setting work for the remainder of the week. However, for those subjects where assessments remain outstanding, individual subject teachers will be in touch regarding any work required to support students.
The intention was to write to Y11 parents this week regarding work that students could be doing after half term to help prepare them for the next stage of their educational careers. We will be directing students considering A-levels to the bridging units on our website which help support the academic jump from GCSE to A-level.
I am sure students were looking forward to their ‘last day’ on Friday, and we were in discussion in school about whether the traditional leavers’ assembly could take place, given the advice on ‘large gatherings’ and a number of students would have been unable to attend due to having to self isolate. We are looking into the feasibility of holding this assembly at a later date and further information will be provided on this in the near future.
Thank you for your support and understanding, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,
Mark Jackson, Headteacher