The school has taken great care to put in place additional measures to prevent infection and avoid anyone catching Coronavirus. We have

• Carried out comprehensive risk assessments;
• Introduced robust hand and respiratory hygiene measures;
• Enhanced our cleaning routines;
• Introduced measures to support social distancing in school and improve ventilation;
• Reorganised our school day and changed our timetable to keep year groups separate.

All pupils will be expected to abide by our school standards and observe the protective measures we have put in place including good respiratory and hand hygiene, appropriate social distancing and staying within their year group ‘bubble’ and designated areas.

All pupils should:

• Wash their hands thoroughly on arrival and at intervals during the school day (we have invested in external hand washing stations for this purpose);
• Use hand sanitiser on entry to their classrooms;
• Wipe down any equipment and the area in which they have worked using the wipes provided;
• Comply with instructions, such as seating plans, and ensure they face the front at all times;
• Maintain appropriate social distancing between themselves outside the classroom (1m) and with all adults in the school (2m);
• Follow the clearly marked routes and designated one-way systems around the school;
• Report any potential COVID-19 related symptoms immediately.

Parents have a vital role to play in helping the school re-establish the routines of being back at school and re-focusing on learning, whilst reinforcing messages to pupils about minimising the risk of infection.

To help us, please:

• Ensure your child comes to school with everything he/she will need for the day including a supply of tissues, their own hand sanitiser for their personal use and a clean face covering if he/she travels to and from school by bus;
• Go over your child’s timetable and ensure he/she has the books and equipment he/she needs for the day in school. Pupils will not be able to access their school lockers initially. We will advise them when we are able to make them available;
• Review homework requirements with your child in Show My Homework. Teachers are likely to set longer pieces of homework with less frequency to reduce the amount of book handling;
• Keep yourself up to date with the latest government advice and guidance and discuss this with your child where appropriate so they are aware of it too. We will endeavour to advise you of any changes that directly impact on our pupils.

You may find this article - Psychologists' tips: preparing children for return to school - helpful in preparing your child for his/her return to school .

All pupils are expected to wear their normal school uniform correctly - see our Uniform Dos and Don'ts.

Uniforms do not need to be cleaned any more often than usual.

As the more autumnal weather begins, we will expect all pupils to wear their navy blue V-necked school jumpers in school as classroom windows and doors will be left open to ensure all learning spaces are well ventilated. 

Pupils will need to bring their normal PE kit into school with them when required for lessons. There will be limited use of the changing rooms and they may get changed in large areas with pupils of their own gender.

The current government advice is that face coverings are not mandatory for pupils and staff in schools and unless this guidance changes, we will not be requiring them to wear one.   However, we have no objection to pupils and staff wearing face masks if they feel more comfortable doing so as long as the face covering is appropriate. The school will not supply face coverings to pupils, so you will need to provide these for your child if he/she would like to wear them. Pupils will be responsible for their own face coverings during the day and should follow the guidance regarding how they should be applied, removed and stored. BBC News: How should I wear a face covering? 

If your child is considered clinically vulnerable or clinically extremely vulnerable, he/she is now able to return to school, but you may wish to contact your GP to discuss whether additional safety measures need to be put in place to ensure it is safe for him/her to attend school. If, after speaking with your GP, you decide that your child will need additional support in place to attend school safely, please contact the appropriate Year Leader to discuss this.

We are slightly staggering the start and end of the school day.

Pupils in Year 7 should arrive for an 8:45am start each day and their day will finish at 3:10pm. Those travelling home by bus will be supervised until 3:25pm.

Pupils in Years 8-11 should arrive for a prompt start at 9:00am and their school day will finish at 3:25pm.

Pupils are expected to arrive promptly and, ideally, not more than 15 minutes before their school day starts. 

If coming to school by car, you can drop your child off at the rear of the school. Please remember that if you drop off or collect your child by car you are expected to remain in your vehicle and not socialise with other parents.

We appreciate that if your child travels by bus he/she may arrive a little earlier than his/her peers. If your child arrives early he/she should go directly to his/her year group’s home base.

The PLC will not be open at the end of school and all pupils should go directly home at the end of school. Pupils are not permitted to remain on the school site after 4:00pm. Unfortunately, in the short term, there will be no after school clubs or sports activities.

If your child travels to and/or from school by bus he/she will be expected to follow the procedures set out by Gloucestershire County Council for public transport - read more. The general guidance on bus travel is that all pupils should wear a face covering and sit with pupils from their own Year group ‘bubble’.

Before going anywhere your child should wash his/her hands at one of our new external sinks on arrival at school and at intervals during the school day.

Pupils in each year group will be allocated a designated space or home base and will predominantly be taught by their teachers within these ‘bubbles’.

Your child will be expected to stay together with the rest of his/her year group throughout the school day.

Each ‘bubble’ has been given a designated area or home base and this will be separate from other year group ‘bubbles’. Your child will also have a designated eating space, social space and toilets as follows:

We will be operating an interim timetable. All pupils will have 5 lessons a day.  These are of varied length to help us accommodate staggered breaks and lunch times which will be shorter in length than they used to be.  However, we have also temporarily allowed 5 minutes movement time between lessons where appropriate.

A summary of the timetable structure for each year group is set out below:

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

Each year group has been allocated an eating area. The Canteen will be offering a selection of hot and cold food in both the Main hall and Atrium. Owing to the changes we have had to make, there will initially be less choice than we are used to seeing on the menu.

Please remember all transactions are now cashless and you will need to ensure your child has a reasonable level of credit on his/her canteen smart card at all times.

Pupils entitled to Free School Meals will be able to access these in the Canteen as normal and no further Edenred vouchers are being issued.

You should avoid coming into the school unless it is absolutely essential. Owing to the protective measures we have put in place, parents are discouraged from coming into school unless they have an appointment and you are strongly advised to make contact via telephone or email with the appropriate members of staff who will be able to advise you. Staff email addresses are published on our Staff page.

We are here to support you so please do contact your child’s Year Leader in the first instance if you have a question or an issue that we can help you with.

If your child is feeling unwell or if they are self-isolating, as a close family member has a confirmed case of COVID-19, they must not attend school.

Please contact us on 01285 653447 to report any absences and let us know specifically if you think this is COVID-related.

If your child exhibits any symptoms of COVID-19 (high temperature, new cough or loss of sense of taste or smell) please get them tested as quickly as you can and keep them off school and isolated until the test result is known. If the test is positive please engage with the NHS ‘Test and Trace’ service to help minimise the risk of further infection and let the school know about the positive test.

If your child feels unwell during the day he/she should go directly to our Welfare Office where he/she will be checked by our Welfare Assistant. If they have any symptoms of COVID-19 (high temperature, dry cough, loss of taste and smell) they will be isolated until you are able to collect them from school.

In the event of a pupil or member of staff testing positive we will be following NHS ‘Test and Trace’ guidance and, if requested by them, we will pass on contact details for parents of pupils who may be required to self-isolate. Please let the school know if you object to your details being passed on for this purpose.

If your child needs to self-isolate for 14 days because he/she has had symptoms of coronavirus or a positive test result or because he/she is a close contact of someone who has a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) we will ensure he/she can continue to engage in learning by logging into Show My Homework regularly to access class resources and work. In the event of a wider lockdown the school will revert back to online lessons in MS Teams. 

We are currently working on our remote learning plan. However, now that all pupils will be back in school, this will be different to the provision that was made for our pupils during the national lockdown. Your child will be expected to take responsibility for his/her own learning.

We are aware that pupils may have made less academic progress during the period from March – July 2020 and we will be putting a programme in place to establish and address learning deficits. This will include baseline and diagnostic tests. These will be used to inform teachers’ planning and we may reorganise pupils’ groups.

Initially we will be concentrating on getting pupils back into the routine of school life and the new ways of learning.

We will continue to offer support to pupils with special educational needs although there may be practical limitations to what we can safely do in the current circumstances. If you have any concerns, please contact Mrs Crew, the School’s SENDCO. Our Inclusion Centre will also be operating to support pupils with re-integration or other learning needs.

We expect all of our pupils to adhere to our school standards, cooperate with the preventative measures we have put in place and to behave well. We will endeavour to let you know if we have any concerns.

If a pupil behaves inappropriately, disrupts others, ignores the preventative measures and puts other members of our school community at risk there will be sanctions. These will be in line with our Behaviour for Success Policy. A pupil may be asked to stop what he/she is doing, given a warning, removed from the classroom or parked in another teaching space. If a pupil persists in behaving inappropriately he/she may be detained or will be referred to his/her Year Leader who may isolate him/her in our Inclusion Centre.

We are reviewing our school calendar. We will be trying to work as normally as possible in school, but inevitably there are restrictions on what we can and cannot do. In the short term we will not be offering any extra-curricular clubs or activities, but we intend to keep this under review and hope to reinstate them once we feel confident we can do so safely.

Unfortunately, we do not anticipate being able to offer any school trips this academic year and our annual Enrichment Week will not take place in 2021. This will now be a normal school week.

At present we do not intend to hold any events which will require parents’ presence or mass gatherings in school. Events such as our Learning Conferences will take place virtually.

We will confirm how we will provide feedback to parents in place of parents’ evenings.