It’s been a wonderfully positive first full week back at school and I would like to commend all of our students for their maturity and adaptability – it has been so impressive. For our Year 7 students it is of course all new and they continue to shine with their enthusiasm, immaculate uniform, manners and positivity.

I wrote last week about our school being a community within a community and I was delighted this week to meet with the organisers of the Wallingford Litter Pick which is taking place in and around the town on Sunday 20th September. They will be doing the activity of “plogging” - which is a new term for a combination of jogging and picking up litter - and even paddleboarding on the river picking up litter. They are keen to get as many people involved locally as they can and we will be supporting the event as a school next week with small groups of our students playing their role in supporting the local community. If you are keen to be involved then we are sending out details of arrangements through our social media channels.

Clearly the national position regarding the pandemic has changed again this week. We work within the parameters of the guidance for schools and there have not been any changes to this but we will implement any new guidance which comes through if and when it does.

I would again point parents and carers to our September arrangements document if there are any questions or concerns:

http://www.wallingfordschool.com/index.php/announcements/returning-to-school-in-september

Please be assured that we will communicate any information which may apply to students if and when we receive it. A point worth highlighting again within the national guidance is that if a member of a household displays at least one of the symptoms of COVID-19 then they will need to self-isolate immediately, be tested and the whole household will need to self-isolate for 14 days unless or until a test result is negative. Please also note that the guidance is that individuals should only be tested if they develop symptoms.

A reminder that symptoms are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

We look forward to next week and the release of our first “virtual” Parent Information Events for Years 10, 11 and 12 with eager anticipation. We will also be filming in school next week for our “virtual” Open Evening in a couple of weeks’ time; please be assured that we will only be filming students for whom we have consent for such filming and we are really looking forward to showcasing our fantastic school in this way.

Thank you for your ongoing support with all of this; we are endeavouring to communicate clearly with all of our families and if you have any questions then please do get in touch with the school.