Dear Reader,

Block 5 has been a hugely challenging time for many people in our local and wider communities, and I would like to start off by showing my gratitude for all that you have done during this unprecedented time. The support, positive feedback and kind words have been overwhelming in this time of challenge for families in our community and across the world.

I really appreciate your feedback and I pass on all positive words to staff as they work from home.

During the first 2 weeks of distance learning, we have seen an incredible amount of effort from the staff, students and the families who have helped, given their time and dedication to enable students to continue learning. The students have been highly engaged online and the quality of their work has been a joy to see. We have many examples of student work shared on our Facebook page and I am very proud of everyone involved as we have come together in this difficult time.

In the meantime, I would like to point out some of the communication sent out that might be of interest:

During this block break, it gives us time to evaluate the 2 weeks. We can now develop the strengths that the staff and students have excelled in, equally identify and work on the areas we need to improve. Like all schools, we can now standardise and focus on creating clear guidelines for online learning for the near future, using this block break and the Inset day (Monday 6thApril) to work further on the online learning and embed good practice. We have excellent feedback from students on what works well in our classes, for our students in the way in which they learn. We aim to continuously improve.

We are delighted to share their experiences on our Facebook page, our website and now in our extended versions of the newsletters. In here you have access to a range of updates, feedback and information about what the students have been learning over the past 2 weeks.

Thank you for your emails of encouragement, your messages and words of support for the school during this period. It means a lot to all staff as we are all aligned, committed and dedicated in doing our absolute best for the students in our school. The amount of effort has been amazing from everyone involved and I wanted to finish by highlighting how proud I am of everyone involved in our community.

We will continue to update families with any further information via email as the first form of communication regarding any important updates.

I hope you have a restful block break.

Kind regards,

Paul Walton

Principal