Rossett News Update - 16 October 2020

Changes to 2020/2021 Examination Schedule for all Year 11 and Sixth Form Students

Following the announcement from the DfE on Monday 12th October this week, the dates for the examinations at AS, A' Level and GCSE have been confirmed for three weeks later than usual. 

 

Please note these dates in your diary and keep the table above as a reminder of these important changes, which have been made in response to the current pandemic.  One Mathematics and one English GCSE examination will be held just before the May half term giving any Year 11 student affected by Covid-19 the best possible chance of still sitting a paper in these core subjects.  If you would like further clarification please contact our Exams Team at exams@rossettschool.co.uk.

We would ask parents to also be aware of these dates when planning any travel/holidays, next year.  With more changes possible, we will keep you updated - but these dates are now in the public domain and all schools and universities, employers and apprenticeship coordinators will be referencing them in their advice.

Year 7 Settling In Evening

Last week we held the first of our remote Parents' Evenings where parents/carers of  our Year 7 students had the opportunity to discuss their child's progress with their  Form Tutor.  We are using our current parents' evening booking system which has been designed  to facilitate these meetings which consisted of a five minute audio or video call. Parents/carers were pleased to hear how well the students had settled into their new routines and were enjoying making new friends.

For all future parents' evenings, parents/carers will be requested to log on to the booking system website to initially book and then subsequently access these meetings via the booking system portal. We are currently in the process of compiling a comprehensive guide to ensure this process is as clear as possible.  Further details will be sent to parents/carers well in advance of their child's parents' evening.

Year 11 'Supporting Your Child' Evening 2020

Next Thursday 22nd October, we invite the parents/carers of students in Year 11 to our virtual 'Supporting Your Child'  evening which is taking place between  6.00pm and 8.00pm. Mr Royles (Associate Deputy Headteacher: Upper School) will provide the introduction and welcome, followed by Mr Bulmer (Director of Learning: Year 11) who will give guidance on how best to support your child in the run-up to the examinations next year.  Our Head of Sixth Form, Dr Reed, will guide you through the options for post-16 study and there  will be subject specific advice on how to best prepare for the examinations in the form of a five minute video from each faculty. The evening  will also offer practical advice,  useful revision tips and techniques and information about support material. You can also hear advice on how to  prepare a revision plan and details of where to source revision guides and past papers.

Following  this event on Thursday, the advice and guidance will remain on our website for parents/carers to access or revisit at a time convenient to them.

UCAS Applications

With a deadline of 15 October, Rossett Sixth Form has just pressed send on UCAS applications for seven of its Year 13 Oxbridge applicants and three who are applying for Medicine. Whilst the pressure of completing their personal statements and entrance examinations is now over for these students, they are still working hard and now eagerly await responses from their strong applications via UCAS Track.

We wish Karthik Krishnan, Sam Gilmartin, Sam Cliff, Katie Merckel, Sean Winston, Max Davies, Rebecca Hall, Megan Davies and Evelyn Richards every success in their aspiration to be accepted by the very top education institutions in both this country and overseas.

All of these students see this moment as the culmination of their seven years hard work and dedication to their studies at Rossett . We will be following their progress closely. All of our Year 13 students have been working on their 'next steps' and this has involved much preparatory work for the completion of their UCAS applications, to meet their later deadline; this year we expect everyone to have completed their UCAS applications by 9 December 2020.

For students who are not considering university as their first option, there are lots of links to great opportunities for apprenticeships and directly to employment. To find out more, students are encouraged to keep up-to-date with our regular 'Progression Bulletin' and to ask members of the Sixth Form Team for further advice and guidance.

Student Rewards and ClassCharts

We have been delighted to see the engagement of our students in the ClassChart rewards system over recent weeks -  some students are even chasing  our pastoral leaders  for an update of how many positive points they have achieved.  Certificates and rewards will be issued to those students who have achieved the highest amount of points so far this term  as follows:

Bronze Certificate	100 Points
Silver Certificate	200 Points
Gold Certificate	300 Points
Platinum Certificate	400 Points
Headteacher’s Commendation	500 Points

To keep track of your child's progress, we strongly encourage all parents and carers to have the ClassCharts App enabled on your phone or device so that you can benefit from the real time updates it provides about your child's progress in school. All parents and carers were emailed a sign-in code three weeks ago.  If you have not yet accessed your account, please use this code to sign up here: https://www.classcharts.com/parent/login and select 'I don't have an account yet'.  If you have not got access to this code, please email studentIThelp@rossettschool.co.uk and we will send you a new access code.

GCSE and A Level Revision Guides

The school is able to acquire revision guides and workbooks at a discounted price for students/parents/carers to purchase.  These are available  to buy through our online payments system, SCOPAY. Please contact the Finance Office if you need a link code for SCOPAY or email finance@rossettschool.co.uk

If you are unsure which revision guide your child needs, please contact the individual subject tutor.  In order to view the available guides and their prices please click here.

 

Calling all Mathematicians (or even those who just quite like Maths)

In the absence of our usual co-curricular clubs, the Maths Department are setting up a ‘Virtual’ Maths Club from the start of next term.

Weekly puzzles and challenges will be set giving students the opportunity to achieve ClassChart points.

There will be  three levels; Key Stage 3 Years 7-9, Key Stage 4 Years 10-11, and problems suitable for A Level Maths students. If your child is interested in joining please ask them to email TProtheroe@rossettschool.co.uk with the subject ‘Virtual Maths Club’, and we will add them to the Teams group to access the mathematics problems. 

Virtual Careers Fair

On Wednesday 14th October many of our students in Years 11, 12 and 13 accessed the UK University & Apprenticeship Search – Virtual Careers Fair. The event had 'live' information sessions from different universities and apprenticeship providers. However, if students didn’t manage to register and log in to this event, they can still do this and access all of the information and videos of the live events and presentations that took place. This is a really useful information resource for both students and parents.

 Please follow this link to register:  https://ukunisearch-east.vfairs.com/

BBC Bake-Off: An Extra Slice Success

We were delighted last week when, for the second time, our talented Technology Teacher, Mrs Young appeared on the popular television programme 'Bake-Off: An Extra Slice'.  As well as being an inspiring and dedicated teacher, Mrs Young is a keen baker and cook and always excels in our annual staff 'Bake-Off' event. She has now had national acclaim for her creations of the Eiffel Tower, made out of gingerbread biscuit, and previously her Tiffany lamp cake.

University of Leeds Linguists into School Workshop

The love of languages is being fostered at Rossett School even though, for the time being, our cultural school trips to France and Spain are not going ahead at present.  Mr Bruce-Halliwell, our Director of Learning for Modern Foreign Languages, has been helping the University of Leeds, via their 'Linguists into Schools Workshop', to inspire a new generation of language teachers.  Mr Bruce-Halliwell delivered an interative lesson planning workshop to students who are hoping to volunteer in schools with a view to gaining a place on a teacher training course in the future.

Coronavirus: Attendance

If your child has any of the symptoms described in the attached parental letter from Public Health England here, they must stay at home and arrangements need to be made to have a test.    You must call the school absence line (01423 564 444) and leave a voicemail informing us about the situation and the reason your child is not in school.

We would remind you that you should only book a test if your child has any of these three coronavirus symptoms:

• A high temperature: any new high temperature where your child feels hot to touch on their chest or back (you do not need to measure the temperature);
• A new continuous cough: coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours;
• A loss of, or change in, sense of smell or taste: a noticeable loss of smell or taste or things smell and taste different to normal.

If your child has been off school for a reason related to Covid-19, it is vital that you contact us  before they return and give us the reason they are returning e.g. a negative test result. 

• Public Health England has asked us to emphasise with parents/carers that the NHS Track and Trace App is not applicable to students under the age of 16, and therefore should not be installed on phones of students who are under 16.

Holidays: October 26th-30th October 2020

As a further reminder we would also ask Parents/Carers to be mindful of the quarantine regulations when booking holiday destinations for the half-term break and beyond.  We realise that the ever-changing quarantine rules present great frustration however, we are sure that you wish to avoid quarantine on return from your holiday abroad and any interruption to your child's education.  Any quarantine period as the result of a pre-booked holiday will be marked as an unauthorised absence.

Welcome to Rossett School PTA

Rossett School PTA has been in existence for many years and has successfully organised a number of events and activities for the school on an annual basis and helps raise funds for purchases to provide a richer learning environment for our students.  The support for the PTA has been excellent and now the new term is well underway, we would like to ask the parent community for some additional support to continue to move the organisation forward.  Do you have the skills to fill the current vacancy of Treasurer or could you spare a small amount of time to help the current committee in any way? If you would like to get involved we would love to hear from you.  Contact us via our Facebook page or email to find out more.  Email: info@rossettpta.co.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/rossettschoolpta

Mental Health and Wellbeing

To further support our students' mental health,  the pastoral teams  continue to provide a high level of daily support, enhanced by the updated additional staff training they  receive.  The following links may be helpful in signposting your child to further support should they need it. 

The Go-To – www.thegoto.org.uk – is a portal or ‘single point of information’ for the wide range of mental health support services available to help children and young people in North Yorkshire to address their social and emotional health needs.

https://www.kooth.com/        https://www.minded.org.uk/

Important Diary Dates

Thursday 22nd October

• Year 11 Support Your Child Evening, 6.00pm-8.00pm - meetings will be held remotely and further information will be issued to parents/carers nearer the time;

Monday 26th October - Friday 30th October

• Half Term (please refer to guidance above regarding booking holidays).

Monday 2nd November

• Christmas term begins.

Thursday 5th November

• Year 11 Parents' Evening (1), 5.00pm-8.00pm - meetings will be held remotely and further information will be issued to parents/carers nearer the time.

Thursday 12th November

• Year 12 and Year 13 Parents' Evening (1), 5.00pm-8.00pm - meetings will be held remotely and further information will be issued to parents/carers near the time.

Thursday 19th November

• Year 10 Parents' Evening, 5.00pm-8.00pm - meetings will be held remotely and further information will be issued to parents/carers nearer the time.

Monday 23rd November

• Staff Training Day - school closed to all students.

Thursday 26th November

• Presentation Evening - details to be confirmed.

Thursday 3rd December

• Sixth Form Information Evening, 7.00pm-8.30pm - further details to be confirmed in due course.

Friday 18th December

• School closes for the Christmas Holidays.

Monday 4th January 2021

• School re-opens for all students.

H Woodcock

Headteacher