Rossett News - 27 March 2020
It seems surreal to be in school, looking at the sunshine and not seeing students in the corridors, classrooms or on the field. I can only imagine what the social distancing, self-isolation and possible illness looks like in your family context, but please know that we at Rossett recognise that everybody is having a different experience of this pandemic, and that we are here to support you in whatever way that we can.
Please take the time to look at the available support services and direct links listed below and remember that the Student Support Officers for each year group can be e-mailed directly with any questions or requests for support. We are operating a skeleton staff at the school and emails, not ‘phone calls, are the quickest way to get a response.
The lessons prepared and administered remotely by our teaching staff seem to be much appreciated by our students and by you - their families. Our staff are grateful for the time that you are spending in supporting the students’ learning at home.
All students entitled to Free School Meals should have been contacted by either Mr Royles or the school’s pastoral teams. Please contact your SSO here for your child’s year group if you have any queries.
This week we have been offering a collection service for all students on free meals; on Friday, we delivered to some families who requested this. Our expectation is that this service will be replaced with a national offer next week.
We have a plan drawn up for any government scheme and are waiting for confirmation of what form this will take – currently this looks likely to be the distribution of food vouchers through schools. More news to those families who are waiting, as soon as we get it
Many of you will have questions around what GCSE and A’ level grades will look like this year, and how schools will be asked to gather and submit data to arrive at final grades. Our examinations’ team are reading through all the communications from OfQual and the various boards, and Mr Stone, Mr Foley and the data team are currently gathering the information on current progress from individual faculties and class teachers, to put alongside prior attainment data. The appropriate figures will then be submitted to the board.
We are assured that no student will be disadvantaged by the awards’ process this year and Universities – whilst not confirming their exact plans as yet – seem minded to honour their offers.
Remote Learning
This week teachers have been setting work remotely for our students, following the government’s instruction for schools to close from Monday. We have been setting work, as far as possible, within the timings of a ‘normal school day. Whilst remote learning is not our normal chosen method of education, we are delighted with the response we have had from students and parents and would like to thank those families who have got in touch with their praise and thanks for our staff. Thanks also to our students who have risen to the challenge of remote learning, and the vast number of parents or carers who have had to 'become teachers' for a while.A couple of reminders below about the logistics of remote learning:
For each period of the school day teachers will:
- supply instructions of work to be completed;
- supply learning resources for students to use;
- provide feedback where possible and appropriate
We are using the ‘Assignment’ function of Microsoft Office 365 Teams as our remote learning interface between teachers and students. The ‘Student - Guide to Assignments on Teams’ found here gives step-by-step instructions on how to access this facility.
Additionally, all students will be able to contact teachers for teaching and learning advice and guidance throughout the period of school closure. We would like students to use the ‘chat’ function of Microsoft Office 365 Teams to do this. The ‘Student – Guide to Asking Your Teacher for Help’ found here explains how to do this.
Finally, should any students have technical difficulties during a period of remote learning, we would ask them to e-mail our specialist IT Support Team (studentIThelp@rossettschool.co.uk). One of our IT technicians will then respond with the necessary support.
Please note, during the Easter holidays, teachers will set some Easter work for their classes. This work will appear in Microsoft Teams during the morning of 6th April. This work is to be completed at the students own pace during the holiday period. There will not be any lesson by lesson work set during the Easter holidays.
Activities This Week
School has been open this week and we have been grappling with what the ‘new normal’ looks like for the much smaller groups of children who are at Rossett whilst their parents work to keep essential services running in this area. Many of these parents work shift patterns and we have had a slightly different cohort each day. They are completing the remote learning lessons, set by our fantastic teaching staff and, in addition, have been having P.E. lessons, practical First Aid training, art and craft sessions and all whilst observing a two-metre social distance from each other!
I am incredibly grateful to all my staff who for this week and the foreseeable future have contributed to the construction of a rota that allows us to continue this vital support, whilst still providing a remote learning service to our other students.
We would especially like to congratulate Year 9 and Year 10 students who are admirably demonstrating Rossett School's core values by being both responsible and resilient. We can tell from our records that these two year groups contain many students who are using GCSEPod to boost their learning, and they are clearly watching more videos than have been set by our teachers in assignments! Following the school closure on Friday our students have watched 1471 pods and we want to celebrate our most hard-working GCSEPodders. Well done to Amreet Nahal, Summer Pollard and Bobby Battensby in Year 10, and Leila Bueno, Raj Ghataora and Ray Arber in Year 9 - keep up the great work!
If you would like to know more about GCSEPod and how your child can use it to develop their knowledge and understanding, then please see below or visit their website https://www.gcsepod.com. To sign up students only need to enter their name and date of birth.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
We would like to remind you of the support groups, websites and text-based helplines that exist to help students combat feelings of anxiety that may result from worrying about examinations or the current national coverage of the pandemic.
- Kooth – a free, online counselling service available at www.kooth.com
- Buzz Us – run by Compass Buzz and specific to young people from North Yorkshire; this is a text messaging service that connects students to a ‘well-being’ advisor on 07520631168 https://www.compass-uk.org/buzz-us/
- Young Minds - https://youngminds.org.uk/
- NHS Every Mind Matters - https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/
- Give us a Shout - https://www.giveusashout.org/
- The Mix - https://www.themix.org.uk/
- Nightline - https://www.nightline.ac.uk/
Tips for home learning
- Where possible have a quiet space away from distractions;
- Be organised - have a routine based around the school day including break and lunchtime;
- Leave your mobile phone in another room and turn off notifications while you are home learning;
- Stay safe on-line - only use trusted websites.
- Remember you can contact your teachers with any queries via Teams and the Network Team with any IT queries. at: studentIThelp@rossettschool.co.uk
Events and Trips
Just a reminder that all planned trips and events have been cancelled. Our Finance team is working hard to establish what funds we can possibly re-coup from such cancellations; we cannot say at this moment in time either when these refunds will become available and what the percentage of return will be.
Please bear with us and understand that many of these companies and resorts are closed for business and consequently there are currently no answers to the questions that we have asked on your behalf. We will update you as soon as we have any news, but it may be some time before we are able to do so.
Thank you to all who contributed to the continuation of education this week, whether here at Rossett, remotely from various locations, or in a room in your home with Joe Wicks!
Reading Resources
To further enhance our students’ home learning, our Learning Resource Manager, Mrs Huett, has compiled a comprehensive list of links for all to access during this period to help support learning, or simply for students and parents to read for enjoyment.
You can join your local library online in both Harrogate and Leeds which will enable you to access ebooks - you simply have to live or study in the area of the library that you intend to join:
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/northyorkshire/join
https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/download-e-books-e-magazines-and-digital-audiobooks
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/joining-the-library
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/ebooks-and-eaudio
David Walliams is releasing a free audio book each day:
https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/
Tom Palmer is reading his stories each day and his website:
Audible are also making lots of content free:
https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
We have also signed up for access to the digital archive of a selection of publications that may be of interest to our Sixth Form students while the school is closed. The publications include:
BBC History
BBC Music
BBC Science Focus
The Biologist
Chemistry World
Geographica
New Internationalist
Resurgence & Ecologist
The World Today
Access to these publications is 'live' until October 2020 and instructions on how to access them are below
To log in: with your six-digit library card number to hand, please follow the steps below:
1. Visit our log in page: https://login.exacteditions.com/login.do
2. Select the “library card” option in the top right-hand corner.
3. Enter your 6 digit code into the “card number” bar and log in.
The six digit code for Rossett School is 012465.
Please be aware that as we are now closed to all students (other than those of key workers who cannot make any other childcare arrangements) the main school switchboard is closed until further notice. If you need to contact the school for any reason, please email office@rossettschool.co.uk with your query.
My very best wishes to you and your families at this unprecedented time.
Helen Woodcock
Headteacher
