Parent Update: 27th November 2020

27th November 2020

Dear Parent,

 

We are looking forward to welcoming back pupils from years 7, 9, 11 and sixth form on Monday. We know that this will have been a difficult two weeks for you. It was a hard decision to make, and I want to personally thank all those parents who took the time to contact me to say they felt we had made the right one. We were informed by parents that there were a few more mild cases in those year groups in the first few days after we sent pupils home, which vindicates the decision, but pleasingly we are not aware of any more symptoms starting after the first few days of self-isolation. We have also had no cases in years 8 and 10 in the following two weeks. However, it remains the case that:

 

If ANYONE in your household has ANY coronavirus symptoms, however mild, please do not send your daughter or son into school, but stay at home and get a test for the person with symptoms.

 

I cannot stress enough how important this is. The symptoms are a new continuous cough, a high temperature or a loss of taste or smell. The World Health Organisation has also published a number of other less common symptoms that may accompany an asymptomatic or very mild case, which I am telling you about only to help us all remain vigilant and potentially catch a case quicker, they are attached to this email and include sore throat, headache, aches and pains, diarrhea, a rash on the skin or discoloration of fingers or toes or irritated eyes. You may not be able to get a test with these symptoms alone, but I include them here in case they appear first as an early-warning sign.

 

We appreciate the feedback on how remote learning has been going. Please do continue to send that through:  email consultation@st-annes.uk.com and put the heading "remote education".

 

Post-lockdown

We now know that the region will move into Tier 2 from the 5th November after the national lockdown. We have looked at the guidance for schools within tier 2 areas and there are no substantive changes to our current working. Face coverings are expected in communal areas in this tier, and we will continue to go beyond that alongside other schools and colleges in the city and expect them to be worn in classrooms too.

 

Year 11 Sixth Form College Taster Day postponed

We were originally planning to host Sixth Form College Taster Days for the Year 11 students next week. Whilst these are no longer going ahead, we are looking at hosting them in the Spring, when we hope that the pandemic has eased. We'll provide further information as we head into 2021. In the meantime please do take a look at our website https://www.stannes6th.uk/ for more information about the sixth form college and the subjects we provide. We have had a pleasing number of applications so far (around double the number we received by this time last year) and look forward to receiving even more before our deadline of the 31st January 2021. Our year 12 has representation from 11 secondary schools other than St Anne's in it this year; a sure sign that the outstanding nature of our 16-19 provision is being noticed around the city and beyond.

 

Message from Southampton's police

We have had reports of a suspicious man approaching school children, both boys and girls, at the start and end of the school day throughout Southampton and towards Eastleigh.  Please do take this opportunity to discuss safety on the journey to and from school with your children.  As we enter December, it is a good opportunity to remind students about keeping safe if their journey involves walking in the dark.  The biggest unsafe practices young people are involved with in this context these days involve their phones - either being 'plugged in' and unaware of their surroundings or looking down at their phones and either not knowing who is around them or walking onto roads.  If your children have any safety concerns, please do consider reporting them to the police (call 101 or search online for Hampshire Report a Crime).  If anything happens on the way to school, they can tell their head of year who will pass the information on to Mr Waterfield.

 

God Bless

James Rouse

Headteacher

Telephone: 023 80328200 Email: info@st-annes.uk.com