Term 5 draws to a close today. It has been a busy term dominated by the assessments our Year 11 students have been taking. The next major stage of this process is the standardisation of these assessments which will be finalised on our Inset day on Monday 7^th June.

When we return in June we will take our first major steps to normality as we return to “normal” classrooms for our lessons. I am confident this will have a significant positive impact on teaching and learning and will be worth the disruption our early finish today will cause. I did provide details of our new arrangements in a separate communication earlier this week. Please do contact the school if you have questions regarding these.

Despite the positive news on COVID-19 which has enabled us to make the planned changes, we do know that the risk remains. Schools are expected to continue to undertake contact tracing over May half-term as part of the continued national effort to limit the spread of the virus. If your child tests positive for COVID-19 during half-term, having developed symptoms more than 2 days since being in school, no action is needed. However, if your child tests positive having developed symptoms within 2 days of being in school, please contact me (rjohnson@severnvaleschool.com)  so we can work together to identify potential close contacts and where necessary advise students and families to self-isolate.  

Details of the Year 7 and Year 9 Parents Evenings have been circulated this week. The Year 7 event takes place on Thursday 10^th June and the Year 9 event of 17^th June. On both days school will finish at 1.30pm to allow the Parents Evenings to run from 2.00 – 6.30pm. For our Year 8 Parents Evening two weeks ago this arrangement did allow for significantly more bookings to be made and led to the lowest waiting lists we have seen since we introduced our electronic booking system. Of course, it is not desirable to have to early finished in consecutive weeks. In a normal year these evening will be spaced out. Unfortunately the pandemic has resulted in us having to stage these events at this time following their earlier postponement.

It is an absolute pleasure to announce that in March 2022 Severn Vale School we will be putting on a production of We Will Rock You.  Public performances will run from 7pm on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th March. Put the dates in your diary and look out for information on how to get tickets which will be published soon. We launched this with students this week and will be publishing the audition schedule soon. We will need lots of adult volunteers, so please do look out for messages about this. If you have any questions please email Virginia Martin (vmartin@severnvaleschool.com). I will keep updating you via my weekly messages. We will also keep the website updated with information here.

Last weekend 38 Bronze participants completed the expedition section of their DofE award with a further 5 Silver participants completing on the Monday. The conditions made for a very challenging weekend and one of the hardest expeditions we have run, with almost four seasons of weather in three days. Despite the weather, students successfully navigated around the Vale of Berkeley, put up a tent and cooked a warm meal on a Trangia. Each group walked between 10km and 13km each day. Congratulations go to all of the students who participated. A big thank you also goes to the staff that supervised across the weekend: Mr Higgs, Mrs Darlington Mr Watkins, Mrs Waugh and Ms Jones.

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.

And finally I would like to thank Councillor Hudson the local councillor for Quedgeley and Severn Vale for the delivery of the Malteser bunnies. I hope the students enjoyed this little treat!

A week of fine weather is promised. I hope you and your families get to enjoy a great bank holiday weekend.

We will see the students again on Tuesday 8^th June (Monday 7^th is an Inset Day). It will be a week A.

Kind regards

Richard Johnson
Headteacher