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- April 21, 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
I write to you with several updates but most significantly an update on the completion of the new school building and the initial plans for moving in. In this letter I need to be completely transparent with you over some of the logistical issues we will need to overcome and how this will impact on the running of the school during this period of transition.
Hand-Over of the New Building and Moving In
We have now had confirmation from the DFE and the Contractor that the school will be completed and handed over to us in October 2023. This is slightly later than originally planned due to delays around diverting a main sewer and resolving a legal issue to locate a substation on the site.
To facilitate the move, the school will have to close to students at 3pm on Thursday 12th October and remain closed until Tuesday 31st October 2023. This will extend the October half term holiday for students. Parents need to understand that this is an enforced closure of the school by the DFE which is necessary to complete the move. Schools are allowed to reduce the school year by up to 28 days in exceptional circumstances, which these clearly are. The DFE and Contractor will take ownership of the old school building on Friday 13th October and will require two full weeks to decant all the furniture, equipment, servers and other infrastructure into the new school building. Services including electricity, gas, water and data will also need to be disconnected and reconnected to the new and retained buildings. During this time, teachers will not be able to access either the old or new school and our IT and communications will be offline because the servers which power our IT systems will be removed and decanted to the new school.
There may be some capacity for Year 10 and Year 11 students to still attend school on Friday 13th October to be educated in the Maths and Humanities block, but this will depend on what services are still available at this time. This will be confirmed nearer the time.
Once the decant process is complete, the new school building will be officially handed over to Fred Longworth High School on Friday 27th October and from Tuesday 31st October we will begin a phased induction of students into the new school building.
Phased Opening for Students
Bringing 1300 students into a new school is a significant logistical challenge. Students will be completely unfamiliar with the layout of the building and in order to maintain a calm, safe and orderly environment new routines will need to be established and modelled. To ensure that this is done effectively, we will be bringing the students in one year group at a time, keeping the total numbers on site to a minimum. This will give staff time to work with each Year Group to induct the students properly and drill them in our new routines.
Whilst these plans are not completely finalised and these arrangements are subject to change, this will at least give you some idea of how we are planning to phase students back into school. We will prioritise attendance for the full week in school for Year 7 and Year 11. Whilst other year groups are at home, faculties will provide work packs for students to complete. On-line learning is not an option during this time because staff will be involved in the induction process.
- Day 1. Tuesday 31st October. Year 7 and Year 11 only attend school from 8:35. Following their induction day, Year 7 and Year 11 will remain in school for the remainder of the week.
- Day 2. Wednesday 1st November. Year 7, Year 11 and Year 10 only attend school from 8:35. Following their induction day, Year 10 will be sent home for the rest of the week to keep numbers low in the school whilst we complete the induction of Year 9.
- Day 3. Thursday 2nd November. Year 7, Year 11 and Year 9 only attend school from 8:35. Following their induction day, Year 9 will be sent home for the rest of the week to keep numbers low in the school whilst we complete the induction of Year 8.
- Day 4. Friday 3rd November. Year 11, Year 7 and Year 8 only attend school.
Once the induction days have been completed, school will open as normal for all year groups on Monday 6th November.
We fully appreciate the disruption this phased induction into the new school will cause but I ask you to please bear with us. If we do not complete it in this way, students will not understand the systems and routines needed to navigate the building and this could lead to Health and Safety risks as well as the potential for behavioural issues, which in the long term will be even more disruptive to their education. To coin a phrase, this is short term pain for long term gain.
To compensate for some of the time that will be lost due to lost learning over this period, the December and June Teacher Training Days will be cancelled.
Changes to the School Day - Consultation
I will also take this opportunity to notify you of our intent to extend the school day by 5 minutes from September 2023. This slight change is to increase the time that students have in form period to access our daily pastoral curriculum. The table below illustrates how the school day will look from September 2023.
| Session | Time | Session Time | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Form |
08:35 – 09:00 (25 minutes) |
|
Form |
08:35 – 09:00 (25 minutes) |
|
Period 1 |
09:00 – 10:00 (1 hour) |
|
Period 1 |
09:00 – 10:00 (1 hour) |
|
Period 2 |
10:00 – 11:00 (1 hour) |
|
Period 2 |
10:00 – 11:00 (1 hour) |
|
BREAK |
11:00 – 11:20 (20 minutes) |
|
BREAK |
11:00 – 11:20 (20 minutes) |
|
Period 3 |
11:20 – 12:20 (1 hour) |
|
Period 3 |
11:20 – 12:20 (1 hour) |
|
Period 4 |
12:20 – 13:20 (1 hour) |
|
LUNCH |
12:20 – 13:05 (45 minutes) |
|
LUNCH |
13:20 – 14:05 (45 minutes) |
|
Period 4 |
13:05 – 14:05 (1 hour) |
|
Period 5 |
14:05 – 15:05 (1 hour) |
Should you have any objections to this alteration please contact us.
Potential Further Changes to the School Day
Once we have moved into the new school, it will be necessary for us to keep under constant review the timings of the school day. At this stage, we do not fully know if there will be sufficient time for students to transition between lessons. This is because the new school site will be larger than the existing site and students will also have to negotiate more stairwells. Once we have moved in and assessed how the building functions with 1,300 students using it, we will then be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not we will need to lengthen the school day to facilitate transition times. If we do need to change the school day, we would do so as soon as possible, and it could be as early as January 2024.
Mobile Phone Policy
The final item I need to make you aware of is a reminder about our mobile policy. The full policy can be found here. Students are not allowed to use their phones on site. If we see a student with their phone, it will automatically be confiscated until the end of the week. This policy has worked successfully for us for a number of years; however, we have made one slight tweak. If a student phone is confiscated, you will now receive a message informing you of what has happened. This will allow you to make arrangements for you to come and collect your child’s phone if you need to do so.
I’d like to thank-you for your continued support and for your understanding as we navigate the complexities of moving school.
Yours sincerely
Mr P Davies
Headteacher