Firstly, and most importantly, I hope that all members of the school community are staying safe and well at this very challenging time. We are all having to do this for very good reasons but that doesn’t make it easy and we shouldn’t underestimate how it will test us all.

Our Year 11 and Year 13 students remain very much in our minds and we are communicating with them separately as groups. For the wider school community I think that there is already an awareness that grades this year will be awarded on the basis of teacher assessment which will then be externally moderated. It has been indicated that students will be awarded their grades at the end of July. We are awaiting further information and guidance and will share it with parents and carers when it becomes available.

Not being in lessons is always problematic for learning and we are mindful that home learning presents challenges for everyone in the household. We hope that our plan for the period up until the end of next week is clear and we will then take stock for the period after Easter. The suggested home learning timetable on the website is available and contains guidance for suggested breaks and emphasises the importance of exercise when possible. Please keep a close eye on the school website for updates; we continue to monitor Show My Homework use on a daily basis to inform our planning.

At times like this we need to try to focus on positive things. As a country we have all been thinking about the bravery and dedication of everyone who works in the NHS and know that there are a great many of our parents and carers who do so; we are grateful for everything which they are doing in a broad range of roles at this time. It was also wonderful to see the 500,000 plus people who offered to become NHS volunteers this week and I would urge our students to reflect on this example of hard times bringing out the very best in people – it is definitely something we should celebrate.