Headteachers Letter – 9th July 2021

Dear parents and carers,

We have once again had a positive week at Wollaston School. We have finally been able to have a school trip and this once again has given our students the opportunity to excel when representing the school. High praise must be given to Year 10 students involved and we thank the staff who organised and facilitated the field trip to Hunstanton.

 

Covid Update

We have had one student who has tested positive for Covid-19 this week. All close contacts are self-isolating and we look forward to welcoming all students back to school next week. Thanks to all students and staff for following the social distancing guidance so carefully which does minimise disruption and the need for further close contact isolations.

We are also aware of a number of students who whilst not positive themselves, are self -isolating with household members who have tested positive. It is clear that community transmissions are increasing locally as they are nationally, so best wishes to any members of the wider community who are unwell and a reminder to us all that we must follow all restrictions and guidance carefully.

Lateral Flow Testing

A reminder that we strongly encourage all students and staff to take lateral flow tests twice weekly. Our recommended schedule is on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. We have distributed new test kits this week so if your child has not managed to pick one up please do contact the school.

Please remember to record all test results on the NHS website here: https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result

Lateral Flow tests are not to be used if students are suffering with coronavirus symptoms. If your child has a continuous cough, a change in taste or smell or a high temperature, you should self-isolate as a household and book a PCR test here: https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

Thank you for your continued support with the mass testing programme, this remains vitally important in ensuring that Wollaston School is a safe as possible.

Community

Since I have arrived at Wollaston I have been struck by the sense of community around the school. Even though times have been hard, for the vast majority of our students and staff they have been active in ensuring that, although the world has been at times somewhat unrecognisable, they have been a support to those around them. This sense of community and togetherness we would like to see demonstrated strongly in the final week of term as we move towards what we hope will be a far more normal year next year. Please do speak with your child about the importance of maintaining high standards of behaviour throughout the week so that everyone has the opportunity to end the year positively.

With community in mind, we do have an opportunity to rally round and support a member of our Year 8, Grace Dooley, who has suffered a very serious spinal injury having fallen from her horse. The injuries have left Grace with  life altering injuries and she has spent a considerable time in hospital as a consequence. We are all very thankful that she is now making progress with her rehabilitation. However, this does come at a huge cost to the family. Grace’s mother has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to assist with Grace’s rehabilitation and any donations that we as a community are able to make would go a long way to ensuring that Grace is able to continue to access the support she needs to manage her injuries.

If you are unable to donate, please do visit the gofundme page and read about Grace. If you need something uplifting and life affirming it is certainly a story that ticks those boxes as Grace has coped magnificently and has been courageous of attitude in how she has approached her injuries and rehabilitation. She is a credit to her family and the school. We are all very proud of her.

Help Grace Following Her Spinal Cord Injury, organized by Amy Dooley

 

Senior Student Team

It has also been a week to celebrate the amazing leadership we have in our student body here at Wollaston with the interview process for the senior student team being completed. These roles in the sixth form are prestigious and it has to be said that the quality of applicants has been high this year.

Congratulations to new our new senior student team:

Head Girl – Libby Garlick

Head Boy – Keelan Hone

Deputy Head Girl – Ella Pipkin

Deputy Head Boy – Finley Anderson.

Congratulations also to Charlotte Brookes in Year 12 has been selected to take part in a series of workshops with Candoco and the National Youth Dance Company.  This followed a rigorous application process through interviews and online auditions.  Charlotte is one of only 12 successful candidates out of 100s of applications and will now enjoy a week long summer residency programme at Warwick university and she is looking forward to working with a range of non-abled and able dancers from different companies.  She is hopeful that this may lead to a performance in the future once national conditions allow.  This is an excellent accomplishment.

 

Personal Development Days

On Thursday 15th July all students will be engaging in a personal development day which means they will be following a different timetable to their normal lessons.

For Year 7 the focus is on Personal Safety and Behaviour while Year 8 will be exploring Online Safety and Positive Relationships. The day for Years 7 and 8 will be a range of teacher led activities designed by their pastoral team as well as a session with Simon Aston who is the Online Safety and Wellbeing Officer for NCC.  Year 7 will also have a session with PC Phil Dobson, police liaison with schools, where they will be able to ask questions about keeping safe.

Year 9 will be taking part in a day with the Humanutopia group focusing on ‘Who Am I’ in readiness for transition to year 10 (https://www.humanutopia.com/secondary/whoami/). For Year 10 the focus will be on careers and next steps and there are a range of visitors from industry and post-16 education who students will be able to speak to as well as activities in tutor bases linked to this.

Please do take the opportunity following the day to speak to your child about what they have learned from the day and if you have any questions about your child’s day, please contact their head of year.

I wish you all a good weekend- here’s in anticipation of some good weather and an England victory!

Yours faithfully

Simon Anderson

Senior Deputy Head and Head of School