I hope that you and your families remain safe and well.
Today marks the end of yet another challenging half-term, it has been a really tough one for our staff and students. However, I can say with all sincerity that I am truly proud of the way they have coped with it. Every day our students continue to amaze me with their seemingly endless resilience and their sheer determination to keep on going no matter what. Furthermore, our staff have been fabulous too, they have overcome the additional workload and pressures that have been thrown at teachers nationally with utter professionalism. They are an incredible team that I am very lucky to have the pleasure to work with every day. They absolutely deserve a well earned week of rest and relaxation.
Over the last week or so, we have said a lovely farewell to our Year 13 students, and today we do the same with our Year 11 students. Both year groups have endured the ongoing stress and anxiety of cancelled exams and the replacement with centre assessed grades. They have coped admirably with the pressure and the strain this has caused them. I am sure that if you are a parent of one or more of these students then you will have lived and breathed that stress with them. Hopefully, you can now all look forward to a long summer, hopefully with a ray of sunshine or two. To reward the students for their efforts we bid them goodbye, hopefully with one or two celebratory memories made along the way. They have had leavers’ events with burgers, ice-creams, awards, fancy dress, shirt signing, marquee and even an inflatable assault course! We hope this goes some way to make up for the things they have not been able to do as a result of the Covid restrictions.
Additionally, for Year 11 & 13 parents and students we will continue to put information on our website on the CAGs section.
https://plantsbrookschool.co.uk/cags/
Our students in the other year groups have also been preparing or sitting their exams in recent weeks, with some exams due to continue after the half-term break. This will give teachers the opportunity to make assessments on the impact of lockdown and remote learning. If individual students require additional intervention and support then we will be able to diagnose this and do something positive about addressing it. We will be in touch about some of our plans on this in future posts.
Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have been given a stark reminder that Covid is still in the midst of our community. I have been in touch with Public Health England to ensure that our school is kept as safe as possible and they have assured me that we are following the necessary guidance robustly. However, I would ask all of our families to continue with the lateral flow testing twice a week, on a Wednesday and a Sunday and to inform us on the enquiry@plantsbrookschool.co.uk email address should there be any sign of a positive test result. Similarly, may I remind our parents that if your child demonstrates any of the Covid associated symptoms that you do not send them into school. You should book a PCR test and only send them back if they receive a negative result and are symptom free. I would also like to thank you for your support in ensuring our students are wearing face coverings in communal spaces, we will continue with this after half-term and will be in touch if this policy changes.
We are planning on hosting a summer school for our transition students joining us in September from our primary feeder schools. We have been in touch with parents and will be sharing further details in due course. It remains to be seen whether there will be a face-to-face induction for our new intake but we await information from Birmingham City Council.
Finally, I wish you all a very calm, relaxing and sunny whit week.
Stay safe and take care.
Mr Farr
Headteacher
