Quick Links

Quick Links

The East Anglian Schools Trust

Enter Site Part of

Online Working

 

5 January 2021

Dear Parents, Carers and Students

I hope you are all well.

On New Year’s Eve, I wrote to you all to outline the plans for a phased return to school. I am sure that you will already know that yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that a new national lockdown would come into force tomorrow, Wednesday 6 January.

During the period of national lockdown, schools will only remain open to vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. We have been informed that public vocational exams and assessments scheduled to take place in January will go ahead as planned. It is very important to attend exams as these will be running as arranged.

All other children and students will learn remotely until February half term.

Yesterday’s announcement also outlined that it is not possible for exams to go ahead fairly this summer. The department for Education has informed us that, ‘The Secretary of State for Education will be asking Ofqual to consult rapidly on an approach for alternative arrangements that will allow students to progress fairly.’

Online Learning

Remote Learning will take place for all students. Lessons will all be set using Show My Homework and a combination of approaches will be used. For all year groups, teachers may choose to use approaches which include PowerPoints, recorded activities, video clips, articles for reading and standard worksheets. For students in examination year groups (GCSE and A level), teachers may choose to add aspects of ‘live’ learning using Microsoft Teams. More information will follow on this. Please CLICK HERE to access the instructions outlining how your child should access online learning from home. Please take the time to read through this with your child and do contact us should there be any queries or difficulties.

'Live' Learning Arrangements 

‘Live’ sessions can be used for feedback, explanation, delivery of content or answering of student questions. Some teachers will use ‘live’ learning to help introduce a subject, check understanding or address misconceptions for students. A ‘live’ learning session can last the duration of a lesson or work well for a smaller ‘chunk’ of the lesson. 

Whilst some teachers may start before this point, from January 18th, the arrangements will be as outlined in the table below. Different subject teachers will choose to take different approaches to this but as a minimum expectation, ‘live’ learning will take place as highlighted below: 

Key Stage 

Minimum Expectation of ‘live’ learning combination 

Key Stage 5 

One live session per week, per subject. 

Key Stage 4 

English, Maths, Science – one live session per week, per subject 

Option subjects – one live session per fortnight 

Key Stage 3 

English, Maths, Science – one live session per fortnight, per subject 

Other subjects – live sessions as required if department chooses to run them 

 We will continue to follow the school timetable, with work being set by the class teacher on the appropriate day. The ‘live’ session can be at any point within the cycle, as decided by the class teacher, but will always take place at the time the lesson would have happened in school.  

How do I access 'Live Learning'?

Firstly, please ensure that your child accesses their emails every morning. This will tell them when they have a ‘live’ lesson. 

For a full explanation of our rationale and arrangements for 'live 'learning - CLICK HERE for our Online 'Live' Learning Update

Please ensure that you read and then follow the Step-by-step instructions for Parents, Carers and Students 

 

Keeping in Touch

We want to ensure that we continue to keep in touch with students through this extended period of school absence. Doing this will hopefully provide a continued sense of belonging and support for our students over the next half term.

Students can contact staff for support. This can be done using the email addresses provided in the link. Please CLICK HERE for staff email addresses.

Heads and Assistant Heads of House, Form Tutors and the SEND Team will also begin to contact students over the next week to speak to them individually. This will be to ensure that they are coping with the work set but more importantly, to maintain contact with them during this extended period of being away from school.

Safeguarding Students

Bungay High School is committed to promoting the physical and psychological wellbeing of students and ensuring their safety. During this difficult time, we would like to reassure you that we will continue to be available to support, guide and operate in ways that best safeguard our young people.

If you are concerned about the safety and wellbeing of a young person, please contact:

cli@bungayhigh.co.uk – Main School

J.Somerfield@bungayhigh.co.uk – Sixth Form

Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing

The coronavirus (COVID-19) testing programme will commence as planned to enable weekly, routine testing for staff and initial testing for students, followed up by daily testing if necessary. This will also allow us to test pupils when they return.

The information provided in my last letter to you, explains testing in more detail.

In Summary

With information still coming through to us fairly rapidly, further details will be shared with you and students as soon as we can.

I have endeavoured to communicate this with you quickly and as a result, there may be aspects that change over the next few weeks (or days!). Should any significant developments or changes occur, again, this is something that we will communicate with you. I am sure that you will have questions that arise as a result of this letter. Should there be anything that we can support you with, please do not hesitate to contact staff at school using the direct email addresses for individuals posted on our website.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding during what is a very challenging time for us all.

Stay safe and I look forward to resuming a more ‘normal’ school situation as soon as we can.

Yours faithfully

Angelo Goduti

Headteacher


NHS Test and Trace: COVID-19 testing for staff and students 
 

We will be testing all staff and students who want to participate from week commencing 11 January 2021. 

Please find a leaflet below to help explain how this works - it also detailed in the letter to parents above.

Information Leaflet

 

Teachers will continue to support via email. Please be patient with the time taken to respond. Please click here for staff email addresses. Please follow the learning activities on Show My Homework daily. If there are any problems with SMHW, please email Mr Gillett