Headteachers Letter – 24th September 2021

Dear Parents and carers,

We have enjoyed another week of learning at Wollaston School, for the most part in glorious sunshine!

Coronavirus Update

As parents will aware, from September 1st 2021, our role as a school has changed significantly from the previous academic year in terms of managing positive coronavirus cases.

As per government guidance, our focus is on providing high quality face to face education without many of the restrictions imposed by the bubble system.

We are also no longer responsible for contact tracing or issuing self-isolation advice. This is the preserve of the NHS, and they will contact students and staff directly if a positive case has identified individuals as close contacts.

Nevertheless, we do work to ensure that Wollaston School is as safe an environment as possible, and would remind parents and carers of the following;

  • If students have covid symptoms they should not attend school and book a PCR test at the earliest opportunity.
  • Students should continue testing twice weekly (we suggest on a Sunday and Wednesday evening) and if a positive result is received, a confirmatory PCR test should be booked.
  • We will be continuing to promote good hand and respiratory hygiene. All hand sanitiser stations remain in operation and all those who attend school should use these regularly.
  • We are also seeing an increase in non-covid 19 absence as other illness circulate – as a general part of hygiene, we encourage all individuals to use tissues if they cough or sneeze and immediately dispose of the tissue.
  • Although face coverings are not currently advised in schools – at Wollaston we fully support any students, members of staff or visitors who choose to wear a face covering. This can be an effective means of reducing transmission

Although cases at Wollaston are relatively high, we have not yet hit one of the ‘triggers’ for actioning elements of the National Contingency Framework, which means that additional safety measures are not currently advised.

Some parents have asked as to why other schools are already adopting additional measures, and the answer is that they have already met some of the contingency framework triggers, whereas Wollaston School has not.

We do of course monitor all information daily and if we were to meet the contingency framework criteria, we would of course action all measures as advised by Public Health.

Finally, we would ask that parents and students do not use absence as a proxy measure to judge the number of coronavirus cases. We are experiencing high levels of non-Covid-19 absence, in addition to the positive Covid-19 cases. As other colds and viruses circulate, it is probably worth noting that not everyone who is unwell has Covid-19, we do of course encourage PCR testing for any individual with symptoms in order that they can secure a definitive test result.

 

Open Evening: Wollaston School – 30th September 2021

Thank you in advance to the many incredible students who will be supporting our excellent staff in delivering our open evening to prospective 2022 Year 7 students on Thursday of next week. Those involved will be issued with letters by the relevant members of staff, and we must have parental consent for students to participate.

As an incredibly popular event and in order that the site is not overwhelmed, we are running a strict booking system for entry itself. Tickets can be booked on Eventbrite HERE

 

Bozeat Primary School Open Evening

We are also delighted to publicise the Open Evening of a founding member of our Nene Valley Partnership. The date is Friday 15th October and details can be found on the attached flyer. In addition to admissions for Reception Bozeat primary school also have a small number of places available to other year groups. If you would like to find out more please email Gareth Rust , Head of School RustG@bozeat-school.net for further information.

As parents may be aware, we amended our admissions criteria for 2022 onwards to ensure that all children who attend a Nene Valley Partnership school (currently Irchester Primary School & Bozeat Primary School) will have priority admission to Wollaston School in Year 7.

 

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Alex Parsons in year 10 who performed at the National Entertainment Awards last week. Alex also crowned this achievement by picking up the award for Peoples Choice Young Dancer of the Year! Well done to Alex on such an incredible achievement, and as always if you have details of student achievements which you would like us to share, please contact Ms Fitzhugh FitzhughJ@wollaston-school.net

 

Year 7 and 12 Tutor Evenings

Thank you to pupils and students for attending the tutor evenings on Thursday. Members of staff appreciated the opportunity to meet and celebrate how well our new year 7 and 12 cohort have settled in to Wollaston School life students are already achieving wonderful things in their academic and personal development.

If you do have any further questions or concerns please contact

Head of Year 7 – Harry Atherton – AthertonH@wollaston-school.net

Head of Sixthform and Assistant Headteacher – Tony Mills MillsT@wollaston-school.net

 

PE Report: Wollaston Sports leaders organise a Year 3 and 4 Primary Football tournament

On September 22nd, both years 3 and 4 participated in a cluster football tournament at Wollaston School. It had been almost 18 months since pupils from local primary schools had been competing against each other. It was great to see 7 teams competing and so many parents coming to support the year3/4 pupils. The schools included in this event were: Yardley Hastings, Little Houghton, Irchester, Cogenhoe, Bozeat and Denton. Bozeat had so many pupils wanting to play that they had 2 teams. Each team played each other once playing in 6 games in total! The matches were played with a good team spirit and pupils displayed great sportsmanship.  This was also shown by all the children that took part.  There was also some great football played by all teams involved. Each team had a sports leader from Wollaston Year 9 helping with the team and refereeing the games. The children played so well in their teams, and even when losing showed a great attitude and positivity; overall it was a great festival.  The PE department would also just like to say a great big thank you to the Year 9 sports leaders for hosting, coaching, timing, managing and refereeing the festival.

Year 9 Sports Leaders

Shuli Willmott, Arlo Bamford, Ollie Wilson, Ruby Roberts, Hayden Catlin, Charlie Rothwell-Smith & Solomon Be Goodwin

  Points Position
Irchester 15 1st
Cogenhoe 15 1st
Denton 14 3rd
Bozeat B 12 4th
Little Houghton 12 4th
Yardley Hastings 12 4th
Bozeat A 9 7th

 

The next exciting year 5&6 primary football competition is on Wednesday 29th September 2021

 

Mr James Birkett

Headteacher