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Principal's update Friday 18th December

Published on 18/12/20

Dear parents and carers,

I hope you and yours are well and looking forward to a break over Christmas. I know this will be different for us all this year but hopefully we can make the most of the time we have with the people we love.

2020 has been extremely challenging and it seems that we will need to continue to meet these challenges for a large part of 2021.  Despite the difficulties of 2020, our students and staff have adjusted to the new school routines, safety measures, ‘bubbles’ and managing positive cases of Covid-19 in our school community.  I want to thank each and every young person at Hope Valley College for the way they have continued to come to school and to do their best. They are credit to our school and to you as parents and carers. I also want to thank parents and carers for their support – your many emails and messages of thanks have been much appreciated.

 

Inclusion Team - Update

As we look forward to 2021, I wanted to outline some key roles and responsibilities in our Inclusion Team (Pastoral system and support for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).  The Inclusion Team is led by Mrs Petts (Vice Principal) and is located in the heart of school with much improved facilities. 

We have restructured our Pastoral team and have appointed two Pastoral Managers from January 2021 to support our two Key Stages (Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4).  The Pastoral staff will be familiar to you as they are already working in school. Mrs E Scorer will now be working across Year Seven, Eight and Nine where she can build on the excellent work she has been doing with Year Seven. Mrs Daniels and Ms Taylor will share the role across Year Ten and Year Eleven.  As experienced support staff, the Pastoral Managers are available to support young people in school every day. They will also play a key role in monitoring student attendance and behaviour as well keeping an eye on attitudes to learning.  Mr Robinson leads the Pastoral team and also has responsibility for safeguarding on a daily basis.

Mr Fitton (Y8 & Y9) and Mr Jenkinson (Y10 & Y11) continue to be our teaching Senior House Tutors and are currently overseeing two-year groups each. This will continue until we have a clear idea of how school might be able to operate post-Covid-19. Mrs Petts will be there to support all year groups but especially Y7 alongside Mrs E Scorer.

Mr Griffin continues to be our teaching SEND Coordinator (SENCO) and leads the team of Teaching Assistants.  The SEND team will continue to support our young people as always and continue to build student autonomy.  Like many schools, we have used the work of Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/making-best-use-of-teaching-assistants/ to inform our provision. This means that our Teaching Assistants will provide support, planned intervention strategies and monitoring of progress for groups of students as well as in lessons.  Our school continues to have a strong team of TAs who have a wealth of experience and knowledge to support our young people.

 

Safety Measures – January 2021

You will have read my previous email explaining the changes to the week commencing 4th January 2020.  As we return to school in January, we will be operating the same level of safety measures and the current arrangements for year group ‘bubbles’.  Thank you for your support with hygiene and mask wearing and also notifying us of any potential COVID-19 cases.  As per my previous emails, we will be available to provide contact tracing for any confirmed cases who had/have developed symptoms before 3.30pm on 19th December. The number to call is 07912259118 – we will be able to take calls and messages in the mornings until 23rd December after this time please call the NHS test and trace.

 

I wish you all the best for Christmas and a really Happy New Year. Here’s to a brighter 2021.

Kind regards,

Gaynor Jones
Principal of Hope Valley College