Charlton School

Dear Parents and Carers, 

I hope you are well and have enjoyed the lovely weather we have had in June; we all needed some sunshine! 

Following the PMs announcements this week on extending the current restrictions for another four weeks, this will bring us to the end of term before any relaxation of measures is introduced. This means we have made no changes to our Covid systems and procedures, and we will continue to operate as we have with this term, ensuring bubbles remain in place and staff follow our risk assessments and operational plans until the summer break. 

We have had to make the difficult decision this week, following DfE guidance to cancel Y6 Transition Days, as it breaks all our Covid measures and risks increased spread of infections in schools and the community. Transition will happen “virtually” which we had to do last year. There are summer school places available to all our Y6 children transferring to one of our secondary schools and I do encourage parents to take up this offer, you will have received information about these from your child’s new school. We will just have Y7 and Y11 in secondary on the first day of term (7th September) to give Y7 a day to find their feet before the other year groups arrive on the 8th September. I know we were all desperate to have Y6 in school for transition, but we have to follow the guidance we have been given. 

It is a very different picture in our Special Schools, Queensway and Severndale will do transitions with individual children and students with Covid measures in place. Our Primary schools are meeting our new reception children and parents individually to help them get ready to start school in September, again this is not what we would normally do. 

We have had some LCT sports competitions over the last couple of weeks and all schools are planning events and activities, within bubbles, so we do as much as we can to provide some fun and different days for the children between now and the end of term. 

The main focus for us is planning for the start of the new academic year and assuming we will be able to operate normally. We want to have all the enrichment and trips we would normally have; we are being very cautious about overseas trips and will wait further information on what we can and cannot do. 

We are delighted that we continue to see really high attendance in all our schools, and we are so focused on making sure we address gaps in learning. The majority of our children have made real progress this term and we will continue with intervention and support next term. 

It is that time of year when we say goodbye and good luck to our Y11 students, they have had such a challenging two years and the disruption they have had to endure has been unprecedented. Having said that they have really worked hard over their assessments for their Teacher Assessment Grades which we are about to submit to the exam boards. I would like to thank Y11 for all they have done in their schools, I am so sorry your last two years have not been what we all wanted them to be for you. We wish you every success in the future, remember we are still here to help in September if you need support and guidance. 

Thank you for your continued support and my best wishes to you and your family. 

Kind Regards, 

Dr. Gill Eatough 

CEO LCT