Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope that this email finds you and your families well.  A few updates for you this week:

Easter Break

It is important that you build in time for your children to have a break over the Easter period.  However, although the weather will be warmer, please ensure that your children are following the social distancing guidelines.

As I informed you in a previous email, the teaching staff are taking a rotating break as some are required in school over the next few weeks to support critical worker families.  Therefore, if you contact a member of staff, please be aware that they may not respond to you straight away.  If you do have an urgent issue, please ring school as someone is on reception every day except Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Free School Meal Vouchers

As you are aware, we have provided vouchers for over the Easter period for children on Free School Meals.  On 20th April, we will start to use the Government scheme for this and next week, eligible parents will receive an email with the information about how to access these vouchers when they come directly to your email address.  As a school, we are managing the process, so again if there are any issues or concerns, please contact us.

Year 11 and Year 13 - Allocation of Grades

In the next few weeks, we will be starting to ask teachers to allocate grades for students based on the guidance we have been given by the examination regulator.  A range of different information will be used to determine a grade and we will ensure that the grades submitted are a fair reflection of each individuals attainment and progress.  Please be aware that once we have collated the grades, these are then submitted to the exam boards, who will then moderate them nationally.  Therefore, we will not be in a position to tell your child the grade that has been allocated by us as this could change during the moderation period.  We will keep you fully informed about this process when we know more about it.

Donation to the Chesterfield Royal Hospital

We made a donation last week of equipment and resources to Chesterfield Royal Hospital, which was gratefully received by them.  I am aware that a number of other schools and organisations have done the same thing.  It is important that we support the NHS during this difficult period and every little bit counts.  We will be looking at how we can raise some money for the NHS when we return to school to thank them for the work they have done.

Finally, there are a lot of rumours going round at the moment about when schools may return.  At this stage, we have not received any confirmation and I am aware that a meeting about the current restrictions that was going to be reviewed by the Government next week has been postponed.  This means that for the foreseeable future, the position remains the same.  Please inform your children that we are thinking about them and if there is anything we can do support, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Take care of yourselves and your families.

Best wishes

Dave

Mr D Williams

Headteacher

Netherthorpe School