COVID-19 Response
As a school we have quickly adapted to our second full national lockdown and I’d like to thank you all for your support during this challenging time. I feel very lucky to work in such a supportive community, the people of Preston have ‘keep calm and carry on’ down to a fine art. We were planning from September for a second lockdown, so in the main the transition has been straight forward. Please find below some important information:
- Remote learning has been up and running for over a week. Unlike the first lockdown we are now able to offer timetabled lessons allowing live interaction between teachers and students, this means that those of you working from home or trying to juggle the demands of family life can trust that high quality teaching and learning is going on. If you have any issues regarding IT provision, access to TEAMS or support with basic resources please contact us at the school during the normal school hours, we will get back to you. Please support us by getting the young people out of bed and ready to learn by 9am every day. It will make an enormous difference when they return to us.
- The school has remained open for the children of critical workers and for vulnerable students. We are also running a rota for students on the SEND register and those at the early stages of English language development. During the last lockdown it was these students that slipped furthest behind and we are committed to ensuring that this doesn’t happen again. With this in mind, please try to keep your children working at home unless it is essential for child-care or safety reasons that they have to come to school. With the new strain of the Covid virus rapidly spreading throughout the country staying at home and reducing movement where possible is essential. Our teachers are all teaching from home, and we are mindful of putting too much strain on our hard-working support staff.
- Following the announcement of the cancellation GCSE, BTEC and A level examinations it is more important than ever that students in year 11 and 13 keep working hard. We don’t yet have full detail on how teacher assessment will work but it is certain to be based around continuous assessment, including during this period of lockdown. It is likely that when we reopen the school more widely that we will run our own internal examinations and students should therefore continue to cover the key knowledge for their courses.
- We are now fully prepared to administer lateral flow Covid tests for staff and students. We have worked hard all week to ensure that we are fully trained and prepared so that when we return to school, we can stay safe and stay open. I hope that you will support us with this initiative.
