Welcome Back!

I think I can safely say that the return to school of all our students is something that is welcomed by staff, students and parents alike. The enforced closure led to the premature transition into ‘Virtual School’, something that was only originally intended for this Monday, October 19th. Of course that will now be a normal school day as we look to get the school year back on track.

The last three weeks have proved to be a very steep learning curve for all concerned. It is hoped that through the surveys currently being circulated and through verbal feedback with students and parents at our Parent Teacher Conferences we can gain an accurate evaluation of the success of the Virtual School Programme. We appreciate there have been difficulties ranging from poor internet access to issues where families having two or more children have found computer use to be a balancing act in terms of time allocation. As a school we have tried to help in this process as much as we can as the weeks have proceeded, certainly the number of concerns raised through lines of communication reduced dramatically as everyone became more familiar with the whole process.

One of the positive outcomes to emerge from Virtual School is the use of NESA Blackboard as a communication tool, many parents have already commented on the positive interaction that took place between student and teacher whilst assignments were being completed. I know we feel that the whole communication aspect of this process is something we can build on as we move towards the second half of this term.

We have a number of events scheduled for the remainder of this term and details of these will be communicated to you through the usual channels. Please keep referring to the school Blog on the website for the latest information on a variety of school issues and photographs of school events. I look forward to chatting with you at some of these events.

Many thanks for your patience and cooperation through what has been a difficult time, we all look forward to a smooth remainder of the term.

Best regards

Ian Jones
Headteacher