Headteacher’s Update – March 27th 2020

I hope that you are well and that you are looking after yourself and your family.

Although it was only last Friday that school closures were introduced a lot has happened in a week.

I want to stay in touch and we are working hard to keep communication open between school and home.  I triggered our contingency plans on Monday and have continued to keep the school open for students with EHCPs and those who have parents who are key workers. We are getting between 8 and 15 students each day and we are offering a programme of care, learning and lots of fun. Staff have been brilliant and we have a rota in place that ensures that enough of us are in school to keep this essential offer of provision open to those that need it.

Many of you will have seen our morning fitness video on Facebook, this is proving to be extremely popular. If you’ve not yet watched, it is on at 9:00am each morning. Keeping fit and healthy at this time is so important; we have sent out wellbeing booklets offering an array of advice to students.

We have also been busy ensuring that those who are entitled to free school meals receive our support in ensuring that there is enough food at home. Staff have put together food parcels and we delivered over 150 of these this week. We have also signed up to a food voucher scheme that all those entitled to free school meals will have been contacted about (if not please email our School Business Manager Dbonner@patchamhigh.org.uk)

Patcham High prides itself on positive relationships between students and staff. This week numerous welfare check phone calls have been made and we are working hard to ensure that anyone within the school community who requires a bit of guidance or support knows how to get hold of us. We have altered our website so that key messages are prominent, please lookout for any Latest News.

Learning at home is a new experience for all of us, and although there have been a couple of teething issues, these have only been very minor and its great that our students have embraced the idea of working in a way that is a bit unusual. Many of us have been able to use computers we have at home but for those who don’t have access to IT we’ve created work booklets that staff have dropped off or sent out to students. Thank you to everyone for your perseverance … or dare I say ‘grit and determination’.

Teamwork has been of key importance and everyone is pulling together brilliantly. We will make every effort to keep in touch throughout this challenging time. We can always be reached via email, and phone calls to the school between 8:30am and 3pm will be answered by our duty receptionist.

Take care!

John McKee