Week 2 of the school lockdown is complete. The news seems to be dominated by some truly grim statistics currently which certainly does highlight the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in. Fortunately, there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the progress being made with the vaccination programme.

In school we are all getting used to delivering our remote learning offer. Overwhelmingly this seems to be progressing well. The attendance and engagement of the students has been really impressive. Across all year groups the students have adapted well and they are getting to grips with the particular challenges associated with remote learning. As well as the challenges, there are also opportunities and I know from my own classes that the nature of the learning has also given the chance for different students to shine.

What has been truly unbelievable has been the level of support we have received from parents. I have been absolutely inundated with emails thanking staff for the quality of their lessons and the school’s provision. It is a real tonic to receive these message and is truly appreciated by all of the staff.  

We are always seeking to develop our provision and are constantly evaluating what is being offered. For our Key Stage 4 students we have developed a range of paper based resources to complement their online delivery. The collection of these resources took place today and went very smoothly. One theme that has emerged from students, parents and staff is the lack of a break between individual lessons and the need for extended periods of screen time as a consequence. To address this, from Monday 18^th January we will be reducing lesson length from 55 minutes to 45 minutes. This will give all involved a break between lessons, allowing them to stretch their legs and most importantly giving them a break from the screen.  I believe this slight reduction in lesson length will be more than compensated for in an increase in the quality of learning.   

Despite the fact that most students are making good progress with their learning, I know from conversations I have had with students and parents that a number of students are finding the current situation really difficult. That is only to be expected. Please remember that our staff remain available to support the students. The best points of contact are always the Tutors or the Heads of Year. There is also a wealth of well-being material and links on the school website here.

In addition to our remote learning offer our in-school provision for the children of key workers and other key groups continues. The numbers have increased slightly this week but the provision remains at a manageable level. As always, I would like to thank parents for only using this provision when they absolutely have to.

Alongside our remote learning offer and key worker provision, we are also in the process of finalising our facilities to deliver the Government’s Lateral Flow Testing programme. This week we are starting with the testing of staff. Friday has been designated our testing day so we will all be undertaking our tests sometime today. Our testing for students starts next week when we begin the regular testing of students in school as part of our key worker provision. This should provide us with a useful learning experience prior to us potentially rolling the programme out more fully should we be expected to do that.

One of our fabulous NQTs, Miss Ramsey, led a truly inspiring project with our Year 7s before Christmas. This project asked the students to write letters to members of our community living in nursing homes or hospices who may not have been able to see their friends or family over the festive period. With their tutors, the students were able to discuss how these members of our community may have been feeling and what they could do to help make someone smile.

In Miss Ramsey’s words: “The responses and letters produced by year 7 were incredible!! I had the absolute pleasure of reading through most of them, and some of the words written and illustrations drawn were beautifully heartfelt and caring. A BIG thank you to the Year 7 tutors for supporting their students to write such wonderful things and helping to put together an incredible collection of letters and to the students for such a wonderful response!”

This week, we received an email from one of the nursing homes expressing their gratitude, and saying how lovely it was to read all about our Year 7 students and how understanding they were about the current situation. A massive thank you to Miss Ramsey for leading this project and to the Year 7 students for embracing it and for demonstrating the empathy evident in their letters.

Last Friday I was watching the FA cup on television and was delighted to see ex-Severn Vale student Harrison Sohna playing for Aston Villa. Harrison left Severn Vale in 2018, and along with his twin Myles, is a member of the Aston Villa Under-23 squad. It was fabulous to see Harrison realise his ambition of making his first team debut. To do that against the current premiership champions must have made it all the more special. We wish both Harrison and Myles well in their pursuit of a professional career.

 

As always, I include my weekly reminder about Free School Meals eligibility. If your financial circumstances have changed, your child may be eligible for Free School Meals. If you click on this link you will find guidance on the eligibility criteria and the application process. It's a quick process and we are notified of all FSM entitlements by Gloucestershire County Council each Monday. I would urge you to take a look if you think you may benefit from financial assistance.

To end this week I thought I would share some of the Zoom stars identified by our staff over the past week. I have already mentioned how impressed we have been with the fabulous response from the overwhelming majority of our students. I thought it would be lovely to get the staff to nominate students who had absolutely excelled in terms of their engagement and work produced. So, here are this week’s Zoom stars:

Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11
Joe Hawkins	Maddie Woodger	Michael Merrett	Keon Sanniola	Abby Davies
Sydney Lay	Robert Walker	Ella Toms	Nathan Asante- Otchere	Jack Cook
Christopher Moroney	Beatriz Silva-de-Faria	Callum Lee		Kacey Bayliss
Evie Bell	Oli Hansen	Evan Green	Dylan Bartlett	Amy Hobbs
Maisie Harlock	Isobel Higgs	Amber Rowles	Ben Pritchard	George James
Jayden Davenport	Szymon Beeger	Shanaya Taylor	Finn Creese	Chloe Quick
Charlie Ward	Ethan Garwood-Wyatt	Riley Chandler	Sitranan Pulong	Stephon Brandford
Lucas Prewer	Henry Driver Dickerson	Harrison Page	Jake Thompson	Marley Oliffe
Grace Miller	Zane Hunt	Danteiye Hawes	Denecia Blake	Ayesha Diallo
Freya Bingham	Zara-Mai Luter	Edie Dowdeswell	Jorell Sanniola	Max Wheeler
Riley Ashworth	Oliver Leonard	Melanie Torres	Tom Wager	Amiya Ryan
Lily Symonds	Matthew Bartlett	Pippa Anderton	Liv Otterwell	Calum Preece
Oliver McDade	Danny Roberts	Tom Greenaway	Jack Osbourne	Sam Dean
Grace Dyer	Oliver Leonard	Ruby Williams	Shana Walsh
Finley Turley	Jack Amos	Alex Ip	Molly Newman
Christina Newman	Ryan Trigg	Ben Sachs	Ruby Thurston-Booth
Isabella Murray	Brandon Bailey	Cerys Screen
Sasha Riddler	Maja Burkacka	Olivia Daglish
Ruby Jones	Savannah Link	Caitlin Loombs
Edward Warriner	Ashley Whitmore	MJ Davies
Amy Northmore	Gracie Wintle	Michael Merrett
Lilly-Anne Wood		Anja Brotherston
Noah Scourfield		Molly Voyce
Ade Popoola		Oliver Matthews
Filip Skiba		Thomas Bingham
Chris Blythe		Finlay Tanner
Kobie Chew
Olivia Sargent
Evie Bell
Amy Northmore
Charlie Ward

 

I look forward to sharing the names of more Zoom stars next week.

All this left for me to do is to wish you a safe and a healthy weekend! Do look after yourself and your family.

 

Kind regards

 

Richard Johnson
Headteacher