Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to my weekly round-up of key messages

It has been another eventful week both nationally and locally with the Prime Minister confirming that schools will not return until 8 March at the earliest. As soon as we have a confirmed date, we will be in touch. Meanwhile, please see the key updates below:

1) Mental Health

I am mindful that the longer lockdown goes on, the harder it becomes for all of us, particularly our children whose normal lives have been stuck in a strange cycle of start, pause, re-start and pause again for a long time now. Next week in tutor time, we will be exploring Children’s Mental Health Week and will be supporting this through teaching time by setting one lesson per subject per week that is not screen focused! We will also be supporting children through tutor time to reflect on their wellbeing and how we can all support ourselves and one another.

I’ve attached some information for your consideration that may be of interest and Dorset Mind Your Head’s website is also very useful https://dorsetmindyourhead.co.uk/schools-and-families/resources-for-parents/

Please remember, that we are here to support you and your child so do not hesitate to contact us if you need to

2) Remote Learning

We have surveyed parents, pupils teachers this week and I’m very pleased to say that the vast majority of respondents say that we have improved out remote provision since the first lockdown. It also seems that we are getting the balance about right in terms of volume, but I do appreciate that there have been some instances of setting too much or not quite enough work. Thank you for contacting us if this is the case for you and your child.

When we have the final results, I will publish them to you formally, but thank you for taking part. If you indicated that you would like us to contact you, we will do so next week.

Finally on remote learning, please remember:

If a pupil is struggling then they must tell their teacher (if it is a particular subject), tutor or head of year so that we can help.

If any family is still struggling to access online learning at home please tell us, so that we can help.

3) National Prayer

Although the pressure in the media for headlines has, as ever, been intense this week, you may have missed a call from the Church of England to pray for the nation. You can find more information here: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/prayer-nation but I believe that this is an entirely appropriate response to the pandemic.

We will be exploring this with students next week and helping them pray or simply reflect in their own way about recent events

4) Staffing updates

I will address this formally in my newsletter in the next week or so, but I am informing you that Mr Sparrowhawk will be leaving All Saints at the end of February Half Term and Mr Smith will be leaving at the end of August. Both have served the school for many years with diligent hard work and both will be hard acts to follow! I would like to thank them both for their work at the school over the years. We are, therefore, currently recruiting for new Heads of ICT and Art respectively.

Mrs Busby Wilcocks is also leaving the academy at Easter and I would like to also take this opportunity to thank her for her hard work in English over the last few years in which I know she has made a tremendous impact in the classroom and with her tutor group. Again, as soon as we have her successor in place, I will confirm with you.

5) Communication

Please do take a moment to review our website if you need to catch up on any communication – all letters are posted there and there are lots of things going on, despite the lockdown – please do take part in the online cookery lessons if you would like to!

Finally, I hope you enjoy a pleasant weekend – with the nights beginning to draw out, hopefully it will not be too much longer until we can all see spring on the horizon and with it a change to all our present circumstances.

With every blessing – do stay safe

John Cornish
Principal