Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you to all the parents who have been writing in, offering support and sharing ideas of how we can work towards having all our students in school. We really value these letters and share your kind comments with our staff which they appreciate. We have spoken to many people to see if suitable spaces can be found, and we will continue to do so and let you know plans for week beginning 25 September as soon as possible. Obviously being stuck at home learning remotely is pretty rotten but it is at least the right teacher with the right students so, whatever else we offer, it must have greater benefit – I’ll let you know.
Next week is as advertised; Years 7, 9, 10, 11 and 13 all on site with Years 8 and 12 working from home. We look forward to seeing our 9s and 10s for the first time and I’m sorry for all the 12 and 8 students who will be at home. Just a reminder please to our 9 and 10 students – if you arrive from the Leamington side, please use the new bus park entrance and from the Warwick side it’s the main entrance. Then all students either go to the back of the site via the road behind the gym or enter through main reception.
We have a big meeting today where I really hope we get some certainty. In my many conversations with the DfE I always tell them it is the uncertainty that none of us can deal with. We must get some solid dates in the diary and then at least we know what is happening. It seems to have taken an age to get to the point where we are actually meeting with the company who are providing the temporary classrooms and that is what we are promised today. We have been told we can have 24 temporary rooms (we have lost over 30 but I’ll cover that in a future rant, we can work with 24), which is about the same number of classrooms as a 3-form entry primary school e.g. Coten End, so this will be a significant structure to fit on the site. Everything is crossed in the hope that by the end of today I will have some certainty I can share with you all next week.
My experiences of talking to our caseworker and project manager have been very positive, my experience of being trapped in a process they have been told to stick to has been like having teeth pulled out slowly and without anaesthetic. However, we have seen the early signs that the DfE instinct to control everything is easing up a bit. Nevertheless, we need to keep pushing. To that end, Sir Geoff Barton, Secretary General of ASCL, has been fighting our corner about process and exam adjustments for affected students and I’m very grateful to him. Also, we have the BBC back on-site next Tuesday (provisionally) to film part two of this particular saga which we hope keeps this uppermost in key people’s minds.
As ever, thank you for your patience. A big day today and I hope to have some news early next week.
Best wishes
Andy Perry
Head Teacher
