Blog w/c 11/01/21 #16

Hi Everyone,

So another week in lockdown draws to a close.

As you know, school remains open to a limited number of students and the children of key workers. However, most students are required to access their learning via Google Classroom and we are all too aware of the problems and practicalities that many of you face in trying to achieve this effectively, especially if you have several children at home and they have to share devices. We appreciate how difficult it is for you and will continue to do our best to offer support when and where we can. Let’s hope that the lockdown starts to bring down the rate of infection quickly and the vaccination process gains pace soon so that we can all get back into school; we know that it’s the best place to be for our students to make the most of their learning.

Thank you once again for your ongoing support and the really positive comments we have received in school over the last two weeks about the quality of online learning and the increase in live lessons. Please continue to bear with us and understand that we also have several teachers who are working from home while trying to juggle childcare at the same time. We are very conscious that the current situation is far from ideal, but our commitment to providing the best possible education to the young people of the community of Blacon and beyond remains unchanged.

New Build

Well, the last time I shared an image of our new build was in December and here you can see the huge amount of progress that has happened over the last few weeks. You will note that the building is almost fully enclosed now. The framework is almost entirely hidden and the new brickwork of the outer skin is visible. It won’t be long until the windows go in and the building will become watertight. At that point, it will really move forwards quickly. Thankfully, so far, this is one thing that Covid hasn’t managed to affect and is something for us both to celebrate and look forward to.

Parental Engagement

We are mindful that, under normal circumstances, we would have welcomed you into school on a number of occasions in the school calendar that, unfortunately, we have been unable to host since March 2020 including: Rewards Assemblies; Progress Evenings; Whole School Celebration Evening; Drama productions and musical performances amongst others. We are determined to keep in contact with you as much as possible and hope that you keep up to date with our website, read our weekly Blog and follow us on social media. In a further effort to talk to you directly, we will be inviting parents and carers to an online Zoom meeting on Thursday 21/01/2021 at 6.30pm. At this time, and amongst other things, we will offer you some advice on how to get the best from remote learning. If time allows, we hope to be able to answer any questions and resolve any issues you may have; we are aware that some things are not appropriate for discussion in an open forum but please be assured that we will respond to all of these questions in the most timely fashion following the meeting.

STEM Club Launch Competition

Miss Alderman is delighted to announce that Cai Horobin (Yr8) is the winner for the Stop Motion Film Competition launched in December, with his film 'The Chase'. Cai will be receiving a £10 Amazon voucher as the winning prize. The judges were really pleased with his creativity and wide use of materials to bring his story to life.

Well done Cai; fantastic work!

Support

We fully acknowledge that everyone is doing their best to maintain a level of something that resembles ‘normality’ in their day to day lives, but we have all been affected by the spread of Covid 19. As always, if we can offer any help, advice or support as we struggle to deliver the best possible educational offer, given the current circumstances and restrictions, please contact us at school.

Stay Safe