Dear Parents and Carers,

We are continuously reviewing our remote learning provision for our students and will be making some changes to how it is delivered until all of our students are back on site. Essentially, it will follow the same model and principles as KS4, with a mixture of ‘live’ and ‘on demand’ lessons. It will also follow a student’s 6 x 50 minute periods a day Monday-Friday, so the normal school timetable for Y7-9. We endeavour to keep on demand lessons simple to follow, and realistic in terms of completion time as we implement these changes. There are designated live lessons each day (mainly English, Maths and Sci) and all other subjects timetabled for that day will be provided via an on demand lesson on SMHW uploaded each morning.

These changes have been implemented in response to parent, student and teacher feedback, and in order to ensure that our KS3 remote education is as strong as KS4 & 5. Please click here to see the new remote learning timetable. on our website.

Xīnnián kuàilè - Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the Year of the Ox, so everyone born in 2009 turning 12 this year is also an Ox and can look forward to a year of good fortune and prosperity, and I think we could all do with a bit of that right now! Mr Bensley has created a fun assembly and Ms Patla has pulled together some interesting online activities that students might like to have a look at over the weekend, scroll down the page to see them.

This week also marked Safer Internet Day, which couldn't be more appropriate given the amount of time that all of us are spending online. The internet plays an integral part of our daily lives now more than ever, providing a source of education, entertainment and companionship during the lockdowns. Because of this, it's also essential that we are all aware of the potential risks that both adults and young people might be exposed to whilst living increasingly connected lives. We've pulled together a selection of useful resources for parents and carers to help with online safety discussions at home below, but here are our top tips:

• Monitor your child’s internet use and keep a track of their browser history.

• Make sure you choose strong passwords for your secure information and do not share them with anyone.

• Keep your privacy settings high to ensure your security.

• Ensure you're up to date with all the latest security software.

• Remember to be as vigilant on your mobile as your desktop or laptop.

• Don't click on links you don't trust.

Keeping young people busy during half term is tricky enough, but the addition of the lockdown means that next week could be even more tricky, so we have also pulled together a few ideas for you below. We do hope that students and families are able to enjoy the half term break, despite the restrictions, and we are looking forward to the day when we can welcome all of our students back in to school.

Warm regards

Clare Borrill