When our pupils returned to school on Tuesday 8 June 2021 after the half term break, the differences were immediately apparent. Not only had our year groups been promoted, but for the first time in 15 months, our pupils were on the move again!

This decision has not been taken lightly. We annually roll our timetable forward at this point in the academic year and we did not want to postpone this, because of the impact it has on our pupils and their learning.

We carefully considered the DfE’s guidance for schools and reviewed our risk assessment in the context of the Government’s and our own road map out of lockdown. While we have been able to make continuous provision for our pupils throughout the pandemic during periods of lockdown and face-to-face in school, we now need to look to the future.

While we have made our best endeavours to keep our pupils and staff safe over the last 15 months, some of the measures put in place have put additional strain on our teachers, compromised our curriculum and restricted our ability to offer enrichment activities.

I am immensely proud of how our staff have adapted their practice and, impressively, their skills have ensured the majority of our pupils have been able to stay on track. However, we are determined to support their recovery and re-establish the breadth and depth of our curriculum.

Ms Henson, Headteacher

This term we are maintaining our year group bubbles during our staggered breaks and lunch times and designated social spaces. Furthermore, to enable us to manage movement around the school and minimise contacts we have retained the five minutes movement time and introduced a new one-way system in our main building.

Aside from our new timetable, the most significant difference is our teachers’ return to their specialist faculty areas. They will no longer be peripatetic.

On our in-service training day on Monday 7 June, teachers spent some time in the afternoon preparing their own classrooms and on Tuesday morning they were ready to welcome our pupils back.

Pupils previously in Year 7, quickly located their new tutor group bases and picked up their new Year 8 timetables first thing in the morning. There was a lot of excitement as this was the first time pupils who joined us in September 2020 had had the opportunity to move around the school fully. While familiar with specialist facilities in Expressive Arts, Design, Art and PE, they all enjoyed discovering new learning spaces.

Pupils moving from Year 8 into Year 9 were also a little apprehensive as they needed to re-familiarise themselves with the school site having been ‘isolated’ for much of the time over the last 15 months in their home base Monkscroft towards the rear of our school site.

Similarly, many pupils in other year groups were also curious, not least those in our new Year 10 who had their first lessons in their chosen GCSE subjects. Those on our new Year 11 experienced a greater sense of freedom having been released from their previous home base on our top floor!

It was evident that many of our pupils were a little disorientated as they had become accustomed to being in their home bases for most of the school day. Some complained about being very tired at the end of the day because of all the movement around the school! We are confident that they will soon get used to the changes.

Our new timetable has offered everyone the opportunity for a fresh start and this positive feeling has definitely been complemented by the summer sunshine!

‘It has been a strange few days returning to teaching Maths in the Maths Faculty, with other colleagues from the same department, teaching Maths all at the same time. It is almost surreal to hear Mr Carmichael or Mrs Pennington in full flow again, and echoing my own teaching points at different times. I admit my step count has dropped but the amount of materials used in a lesson has increased and my ‘toolbox’ has found its new home, with tools, in its retirement.  

It has felt like reclaiming a space frozen in time, as resources that were put away 15 months ago have reappeared from cupboards and storage and over the next few weeks my classroom will steadily undergo an update and refresh to make it a vibrant mathematical teaching space again.  

Knowing that my classroom is designated for all things numerical, I think has re-focused our pupil’s mindset and allowed us to reset our expectations and make school feel like it is more ‘normal’ as we have moved into the new academic year. My tutor group has reminisced about their time from the middle of Year 7 when they were last in this room, and for others it has been the first time they ever been into a Maths classroom if they are in new Year 8.  

I think it will take a few more days to remember which stairs to use, but we are getting there, things do feel more normal and with the recent good weather it has been good to be reminded of the beautiful grounds that my classroom overlooks and to look across the green resplendence from my eyrie.’ Mr Ellen, Assistant Head of Maths.