30.03.21 LCT Update to Parents and Carers

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you and your families are enjoying this lovely weather and been able to meet up with loved ones following the relaxation of some of the lockdown measures. It does feel as if we are emerging from this awful situation and that with the improving situation nationally and locally with infection and death rates, we will be able to get back to doing the things we are all desperate to do which we took for granted 12 months ago.

The challenges of this term cannot be under-estimated. We had to respond overnight to the lockdown and school closures, implementing Home and Remote Learning to 1000’s of children and students as well as supporting high numbers in school each day. We know how hard this has been for parents and thank you for all the support and encouragement you have given your child during that time. We also had to understand the demands of Lateral Flow Testing; this seemed an impossible task in January, but we did it and the staff involved did a fantastic job testing staff and then all our secondary students as they returned to school. It is so important that you continue with the Home Testing over the holiday period and as secondary students return for the start of the summer term, so we keep any positive cases out of school. This allows us to keep as many young people in school as possible. We are still having a few positive cases in schools which has led to some bubbles being closed. In most of our schools we have not had any bubble closures and parents are doing a great job ensuring they stay at home if they are unwell and get a test. I am sure we will still be on high alert for cases after Easter.

Attendance at all our schools since reopening has been really high, above the national, and it is great to have everyone back and staff are working really hard to support children and help them catch them up. For some young people the return has been very challenging, but they are in school and doing well.

We are now very focused on Y11 and ensuring we have all the evidence from assessments and class work to award them their GCSE grades. This work is ongoing and will continue next half-term. Our Y11’s have risen to the challenge and are working really hard to complete the work we need them to do.
We are delighted to be welcoming back staff and children who have been shielding this week, even for a day! They will fully return after Easter and it will be great to have our staffing levels back up to normal.

Many of our staff have been vaccinated and many more will receive the vaccine over the next few weeks, which is really helping and giving staff a great sense of relief after many months of feeling anxious about their health and their families.
I hope that has given you an update of where we are. The summer term will start as normal on the 19th April and we hope to start up lots of activities during the term that the children have missed out on over the last year.
Enjoy Easter, stay safe and well.

Kind Regards,

Dr. Gill Eatough
CEO LCT