Dear Parents and Carers,

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to be with us for many more months to come. So, I wanted to let you know of our plans to ensure individual students, classes and year groups who need to self-isolate at home can continue to work and study remotely. We have been extremely fortunate as we have not had to ask any class or years to self-isolate as no student has yet had a positive test. Nonetheless, we appreciate that whilst out school remains open it is likely that isolation may affect classes and year groups in the future.

Many of you may remember that earlier this year we used a curriculum framework adopted by all Ark schools called ABC@Home to support our students unable to come to school. This will continue to form the basis of our approach although it has been further improved to ensure your child receives the best possible education and support. We will continue to use both Show my Homework and Ms Teams to deliver their learning. All students have been taught how to access these platforms.

The updated ABC@Home draws on the experiences of home learning of schools here in England and abroad, and provides accessible material and content online and in paper form. It will ensure that all students working remotely will continue to feel connected to the school throughout their absence and be able to pick up studies quickly on their return.

You can take a look at our plans for remote learning in more detail here:

While these plans are not solely dependent on your child having access to a home computer or other suitable digital device, online remote learning does provide students with more opportunities to interact and engage effectively with the school and their teachers.

We are therefore working with other Ark schools to enable those students who do not have such an appropriate device at home to be provided with a Chromebook on loan to support their remote learning. This is an important initiative, and I hope to be able to tell you more soon about how your child may be able to benefit.

Until then, please do contact me at admin@evelyngraceacadmey.org if you have any questions on remote learning arrangements or any other matter relating to the pandemic.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr Tim Dainty

Principal