Dear parents,

Happy new year! 

In light of the current situation with COVID-19, the school will be following the protocols set out by the Department for Education, and learning will be delivered remotely for the first few weeks in January. Whilst it could change depending on guidance from the government, at present, the plan for the coming two weeks is set out in the table below. We will write to you again should this schedule change.

Week commencing Tuesday 5th January	Students in all year groups will be remote learning from home. Testing of students will commence.
Current planning for week commencing Monday 11th January. Current plans may be subject to change.	Sixth Form students will return to school and will have their rescheduled mock exams this week. Students in Years 7-11 will continue remotely learning from home. Testing of students will continue.
Current planning for week commencing Monday 18th January. Current plans may be subject to change.	All students will return to school for face to face teaching.

Whilst students are remote learning from home, our teachers will deliver a full curriculum of online lessons and/or activities for them to access. Some subjects may have to adapt their offer and this will likely affect practical subjects for example PE and DT.  Students will be expected to log on for PREP each morning with their tutor, and then virtually attend their 4 timetabled lessons each day. Find attached to this letter a copy of the timetable for easy reference. Lessons will begin at the following times. It will be important that they attend promptly.

 

	Year 7-9 and Sixth Form	Year 10-11
PREP/am reg	8.50-9.20	9.10-9.20
Period 1	9.20-10.30	9.20-10.30
Period 2	11.00-12.10	11.00-12.10
Period 3	12.10-1.20	12.10-1.20
Period 4	1.50-3.00	1.50-3.00
PREP/pm reg/	3.00-3.10	Year 10 – 3.00-3.30 Year 11 – 3.00-3.10
Champion lesson (Year 11 only)	Not applicable	3.10-3.50 Monday-Thursday

 

The students will join their online lessons through Google Classroom. Whilst the online lessons work best when accessed via a laptop or desktop computer, they can also be joined using a tablet or mobile phone. It is important the students join with their cameras turned off and their microphones muted, and only unmute themselves if expressly given permission to do so by their class teacher. 

Students will also need to regularly check their school email, at least once at the start and once at the end of each day, as this is how their teachers will stay in touch with them. Some staff may be unwell and if this is the case the school will do its best to set students an activity to do, students should monitor their emails in addition to checking their Google classroom.

I attach to this letter a help guide to support parents and students with accessing online lessons. 

• If for any reason your child cannot access their school emails, please contact our IT technician by emailing support@tricomputers.org. They will reset the password for you.
• If for any reason your child cannot access or see a Google Classroom for one of their subjects, then please email their subject teacher. As we start a new term it may take a little time for our system to update so please be patient. 
• For any general or pastoral enquiries, please contact your child’s tutor in the first instance, and then if required, their Head of Year.

We expect all students to participate fully in their online lessons. Attendance registers will be maintained as they normally would be, and positive points will be awarded to students who show excellent effort in their online learning through ClassCharts. If your child is unable to attend online lessons because they are ill, please follow our normal student absence protocols, notifying our Attendance Officer, Robert Fenton, each day – attendance@epschool.org

Students who are either vulnerable or the children of key workers, who are attending school in person, will be supervised whilst they use the school’s IT facilities to access these online lessons. They will need to remain in their allocated seat for the duration of the provision. There is limited capacity in school to host students (as we are using support staff to support testing and teachers are delivering remotely following their normal schedules). A priority order will be applied to provision for each year group, and we thank you for your understanding of this. Students will have limited access to the dining hall (we will need to rotate year groups through one facility) and payments will be made using parent pay as normal. Students will need to bring a mask, sanitiser, and tissues as well as a full pencil case and their independent reading book. They will be expected to attend in full uniform. If you have any questions regarding provision for key worker/vulnerable children, please email attendance@epschool.org.

I appreciate the move to online learning again is frustrating and thank you for doing everything you can to support your child and the school with ensuring meaningful learning continues at this challenging time. We are here to support you and your child – if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Mr M Hall

Deputy Headteacher

Live lesson Timetable wc 5.01.2021

January 2021 – Year Group start times and timetables

Live Lesson Guide for Parents wc 5.01.2021