Charlton School

24^th May 2021

Dear Parents/Carers

As we move towards the end of the first half of the summer term, I would like to publicly thank and praise our Year 11 students, who have shown a huge amount of resilience to overcome everything that has been thrown at them.  They have had a lot to cope with! 

The disruption they have faced over the last 15 months - they were the year group with the most isolation, the decision to cancel their exams and the numerous in class assessments they have sat to allow us to gather enough information to award them an accurate teacher assessed grade.  I wish them a great last week in school and look forward to celebrating with them later in June at our Leavers’ assembly.  Please remember Year 11 students will leave school at 1.30pm on Friday.

With Year 11 leaving, it means Year 10 step up and become the role models for all other students to look up to, I have extremely high expectations of them.  To mark this and as is traditional at Charlton, Year 10 can wear white shirts from after half-term, obviously if this is a problem, they can wear their blue ones for the remainder of the year.  Later in the term, we also look forward to announcing our new student leadership team, who I hope will have the opportunities to make a real difference in their positions.

On our return to school on Monday 7^th June, we ask that Year 10 students now enter school at 8.40am via the bottom gates by the sports hall.  They will have tutor time at the start of the day and finish school at 2.50pm.  We will announce to students a new way of exiting the building at the end of the day, depending on where their last lesson of the day is.  This means that year groups will not always exit via the same point but will reduce the number leaving via the main doors.

Whilst like me I am sure you are delighted with the continued lifting of the coronavirus restrictions; you will be aware from the local media that we continue to see cases in Telford and Wrekin, including the new variant, albeit in very low numbers.

Due to this, it is vital that we still maintain the existing control procedures in school.  We have noted that many students have chosen to continue to wear face coverings and we fully support their decision to do this. It is imperative that students continue to be tested twice weekly and that families continue to isolate should anyone within it have symptoms and seek PCR tests at a testing centre.

Please ensure your child undertakes a lateral flow test prior to their return to school after the holiday, either on Sunday night or Monday morning.  Should you not have enough tests left to facilitate this, additional test kits can be collected by the students from reception. 

I wish you all a restful holiday, and hope for some better weather so you can enjoy it!

Yours faithfully

Mr A McNaughton

Principal