The following message went out to parents on Friday 12 July
With the end of term close now we wanted to give you a school update including the closing and opening arrangements of this and the next term. Unfortunately, the best laid plans have gone a little awry so there are some important details here worth reading:
* End of Summer Term Arrangements
* Bus Problems
* Year 13 Results Day
* Year 11 Results Day
* September 2024 Start
End of Summer Term Arrangements
The plan is to finish the term with our usual arrangement of a 12.00pm finish.
This early finish is designed to allow teachers to stay behind and sort our classrooms for re-decoration and refurbishment, support with site preparation for the various works going on over the Summer, and to ensure everything is in place for the fresh, new term in September.
All students will have access to the school canteen between 11.10am-11.40am so that they can get food if they need to. This particularly supports those children on Free School Meals.
However, today potential problems have emerged…
Bus Problems on Last Day
The following buses will not be available for the students on the last day of term until the usual time at 3.10pm onwards:
* Route 817 Fradley
* Route 818 Fradley
* Route 819 Fradley
* Route 829 Armitage & Handsacre
* Route 36 Stonnall & Wall
* Route 105 Armitage, Handsacre & Longdon
Previously, we did call the bus companies and confirm that the arrangements that have been in place for recent years were fine and that they could facilitate an early finish. They confirmed this would be the case.
However, we have been contacted today to be told that the arrangements have altered this year at another school and they will now be doing a full day. Regrettably, the bus companies cannot facilitate buses at two different closure times. We understand the bus companies’ position – but this is now clearly problematic for all of us.
We do have the option of doing a full day but as we have already told children, parents and staff that it will be an early finish we do not feel we can change this.
We are aware of some parents who are getting a quick getaway for Summer plans and it would not be right to upset that. Equally, we have building works starting from Monday that we cannot let slip to have things ready for September.
Consequently, we will end the school day at 12.00pm as planned.
However, if you cannot put alternative transport arrangements in place for your child then we will supervise them in school until the end of the normal school day (3.10pm). We will contact the bus companies to ask them to do a pick up at the school at the usual time.
Despite the fact that this has been totally out of our hands, we are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Rest assured we are as aggravated as you will be. We will contact local schools in September to confirm their plans for this time next year to avoid a repeat – or at least to give you and ourselves earlier notice.
If you would like your child to remain with us for the final afternoon then please fill in your details on this link. Please provide this information by noon on Tuesday 16 July so we have time to put staffing in place.
Year 13 Results Day
The school will be open for Y13 Results Day on Thursday 15 August 2024 at 8.00am-10.00am. Students enter via the Library entrance.
Staff will be on hand to support students with the post-18 routes wherever required.
Year 11 Results Day
The school will be open for Y11 Results Day on Thursday 22 August 2024 at 9.00am-10.30am. Students enter via the Library entrance.
Again, staff will be on hand to support students with the post-16 routes wherever required.
Parents Evenings Consultation
In recent years we have staged parents’ evenings as online / virtual. This has been successful in that we have seen greater attendance, received lots of positive feedback, and there is less waiting around for appointments for both parents and staff.
However, as it has been some time since we introduced this approach, and we have had one or two parents query as to why they are not face-to-face, we thought we would conduct a short survey to see where opinions presently lie.
Rest assured if we do remain online / virtual then there will be still be face-to-face contact via Y7 Induction Evenings, ACE Meetings (targeted after-school parents evenings), and Partnership Evenings too.
If you would like to express your preference on how Parents Evenings are staged moving forward then please complete the survey on this link.
Please provide this information by noon on Thursday 16 July.
September 2024 Start
The new school year begins for students on Wednesday 4 September. The school’s term dates for 2024-2025 can be seen here.
The first day at school will see a normal start time of 8.40am.
All students will initially join their tutor group to receive all the information they need for the year ahead before setting off to the Period 2 lesson.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “Lastly, may I take this opportunity to thank you for your support this school year and we all hope you have a fantastic (and after our Sizzler hopefully dry) Summer.”
