1 July 2020

Dear Parent/Carer

Years 10 and 12 Students Returning to College this Week

It was lovely to see some of our students returning this week to receive some additional support and guidance from staff.  We do hope that these sessions will help students to work with teachers to engage in their subject-specific tasks and, in some cases, help them to review their study skills to ensure future completion of work.

Risk Assessment

My thanks to all those of you that sent us feedback on our Risk Assessment.  We are grateful to you for taking the time to respond and we have used your constructive comments to further improve our procedures.

Wellbeing and Engagement Calls

I know from the feedback received that students and parents valued the recent ‘face-to-face’ calls from staff and we were encouraged by the fact that over 90% of students were contacted on the three days.  I would like to thank you for your support with these calls which were a really good opportunity for us to check on wellbeing, academic work and IT issues as well as giving you the opportunity to ask questions.  Although never as good as meeting people in person we do feel that this contact was a good replacement process given the circumstances.

September

The guidance from the government about what is happening in September is expected to be published tomorrow. You may have seen media coverage of leaked documents regarding these plans.  Rather than expend energy speculating on what might be in the final document I think it is best to wait and see the actual details tomorrow.  My update to you next week will focus, in the light of this guidance, on how we intend to reopen the College for all students in September.

Provision for Key Workers/Vulnerable Students

The Government has confirmed that there is no expectation that schools will remain open for key workers/vulnerable children over the summer holiday and therefore our last day of this provision will be on Friday 17 July.

Year 11 Collingwood Couriers

I do hope that Year 11 students enjoyed receiving their hoodies by our ‘home delivery’ service last week. I am very grateful to Mr Ruffles and colleagues for spending the day delivering over 200 hoodies with the last delivery occurring just after 8.00pm - a very long day on the road for them!  I know this generated considerable social media interest and turned the natural disappointment of the postponement of the Celebration Assembly/Prom into a more positive and memorable experience.

Crawley Ridge Executive Headteacher Retiring

I have been asked to circulate the following to any past pupils of Crawley Ridge Infant School:

Crawley Ridge Infant School PTA are writing to you about the intention of Mrs Hope to retire from the post as Executive Headteacher at the end of this academic year.  Having served the school for twenty-one years and in such a difficult time at present, we are looking for a way to celebrate the dedication she has given to the school and want to invite past pupils to help.

We are creating a photobook of memories and would like to invite any pupils from your establishments who have been pupils at CRIS, during Mrs Hope’s time as Headteacher, to contribute to this scrapbook of memories. They could write a short message, draw a picture or write notes of their best memories of her - whatever they wish - making sure that they also write their first name and surname on their work and period they were at the school.

If the pupils could then take a photo of their message and send it to the CRIS PTA at MrsHopeisRetiring@gmail.com by Friday 3 July, we will make sure it is included in the photobook.

Understandably this is short notice, as due to the current situation we are having to reformat a traditional form of farewell, but if you would be able to forward this request to your pupils, we would be extremely grateful.

Thank you for your continued support and many positive emails and phone calls; these are very much appreciated.  I hope you and your family have a good week.