Arrangements for Asymptomatic Testing and the Staggered Return to School.

It is essential that pupils stick to the allocated time slots for each tutor group.

Lateral Flow Testing for Pupils

Parents must provide consent for their children to be tested.

You can give this by completing this form:

Lateral Flow Testing for Families

NHS Test and Trace announced earlier this week that all adults in households with school and college age children without symptoms can now access regular lateral flow testing. Test kits can either be collected or ordered online. You can find out more here.

Returning NGA Laptops

I sent a letter out yesterday explaining that pupils who were loaned a Nottingham Girls’ Academy Laptop must return it to school on the day they return. You can read the letter here for details of how to identify if you have been loaned a laptop we require back and how to return it.

Operating Procedures

You can find full details of how the site will be operating from next week to ensure pupils and adults are as safe as possible here.

Year 11 and Year 13 Grades

We know pupils and parents of Year 13 pupils are keen to hear the detail of how they will be awarded their grades this year.

We are still waiting for the final important bits of detail from the examination boards to finalise our planning and processes for these.

Therefore, teachers will continue to deliver new content (because content may be important for pupils' next steps) and revise completed content (to consolidate learning). They will continue to assess pupils, as usual, as we go. We also expect pupils will complete some more formal assessments on the course content we have been able to deliver. These are provided by examination boards and will not be available until next term.

All of this work will play some role in helping us determine final grades. It is therefore essential that Year 11 and Year 13 pupils continue to attend every day and work hard in lessons and at home as this will influence their final outcomes.

We will provide further detail as soon as we are able.

Wellbeing

As we look ahead to pupils returning to school, we know that emotions remain mixed. Although the over-riding feelings are likely to be ones of relief and positivity – a return to some normality, a chance to see friends again, a chance to learn in the usual environment face-to-face with staff – we know that there will also be feelings of apprehension. However your child (or you for that matter) may be feeling, please be assured that it is entirely valid given the challenges of the current situation.

The priority remains our pupils’ wellbeing, both in the short and longer term. For many, simply being able to see friendly faces and some normality will be enough to address the impact of the last few weeks and months. For others, the gradual opening up of society over the coming weeks and the chance to return to sporting, leisure and social activities will make the difference. For some, there will be the need for more support and we will do all we can to provide it. Once you’ve given your child time to settle back into school, please do contact us if you remain concerned about them.

Reconnecting with Learning

Our key priority in the coming days and weeks is to help pupils to settle back into school and support them in getting back into routines. However, a number of pupils and parents may well be concerned about how we recover lost learning from the various lockdowns and disruptions of the last year, particularly given the media narrative around this.

We won’t ignore this issue but we also don’t believe that bombarding pupils with ‘catch up’ as soon as they come back is in anyone’s best interests. Once things have settled down, we will begin a process of identifying how secure each pupil is with the essential knowledge and skills we would expect them to have in each subject so we can then begin a process of recovery.

It’s our view that huge gains can be achieved by reshaping the curriculum (particularly for younger children who still have a long journey left at NGA), high quality teaching and careful use of homework. Other measures such as tutoring and summer schools will of course be explored, but we need to make sure we plan carefully so that we provide the right support for the right pupils at the right time.

Making the Most of Being Back

Now pupils have returned we need to make every lesson count, to reconnect them with their learning and manage the disruption of the last year   

we are asking pupils to follow three principles: ‘be here, be engaged and behave’. If all our pupils can follow those three principles while teachers do the hard work of assessing learning and reshaping the curriculum, we will get everyone on track. 

Be here

There are well established links between good school attendance and successful learning and progress. As you will remember, our aim is for attendance to be better than 97%. Now, more than ever, it is essential that our pupils attend, on time, whenever they possibly can. 

However, please continue to follow advice on self isolation if your child or anyone in your household had symptoms.

Be engaged

The process of learning requires pupils to actively think and remember. In turn, this requires pupils to concentrate, get involved in activities and discussions, work hard and produce the work that allows them and us to check their understanding. We call this engagement.

Being back in classrooms makes these things much easier than when we were online.  Pupils can more easily seek help and teachers can more easily assess for misunderstandings or gaps in knowledge. They now need to take advantage of this.  

Behave

Our pupils have endured enough disruption to their learning over the last year. Hopefully we are nearly at the end of it.

Pupils that don’t engage as described above will damage their own chances of learning success. Those that misbehave, will also damage the chances for other pupils in the class. This is unacceptable. 

We will always give pupils warnings and a chance to remedy disruptive behaviour, but if it continues pupils will be sanctioned, including by being removed from lessons so others can learn. If it is persistent, we will contact parents for support and to examine how we might help identify and address the root causes.

Our website contains more information about our behaviour policy.