The Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday felt like another step towards returning to normality. As most parents and carers will probably be aware, it is no longer necessary for students to wear face coverings in school from Monday 17th May. We will adopt this change as a school and act in line with government guidance as we have over the past 14 months. It is expected that students will continue to wear face coverings on school and public buses and also that staff will continue to do so in communal areas in school where social distancing is difficult.

We are mindful that there may be some students who wish to continue wearing face coverings for a little while longer and I will be talking with students next week about this in order to explain that this is something which we will support with sensitivity as a school community. None of us has ever experienced anything like this pandemic before and our experiences of it vary considerably; as we emerge from these restrictions we will support each other and this is absolutely part of that process.

As I wrote last week, the return of assemblies from Monday will allow such messages to be delivered properly and we very much look forward to them – the only caveat is the weather but hopefully we will dodge the showers!

As with the rest of society, we will await further announcements about what will be feasible in school from 21st June and then into the next academic year. However, we already have some really exciting plans in place for our Enrichment Week in July and further information will follow soon about this; we are really determined to finish what has been a challenging academic year for our students on a high - they have done brilliantly and we will keep telling them so.