Rossett News Update - 5 March 2021
Lateral Flow Testing and Return to School Arrangements
This week you will have received emailed letters and information regarding our detailed plans for commencement of Lateral Flow Testing and the phased re-opening of the school. Links to all of these emails and guidance can be found below:
Initial letter to parents with details of the reopening of School - 25 February 2021
Information to parents for Lateral Flow Testing - 25 February 2021
Detailed reopening information for parents/carers - 3 February 2021
On Wednesday 3rd March remote assemblies were held for each year group which provided further details for students about the testing programme. We would however, be grateful if you could discuss these testing arrangements with your child prior to their return to ensure they are fully aware of the testing procedure. Below is the Government guidance on how to perform a lateral flow test which is included in our information sent out to parents/carers. We would encourage your child to review this guidance prior to coming to school for their test however testing assistants will be on hand to advise and reassure students where necessary.
A very useful video demonstrating how to perform the test can be viewed here
In addition, please click on the video below for a demonstration of how the testing process will be carried out at Rossett School:
Please note: Students are not required to wear school uniform on Monday 8th, Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th March when they come to school for testing. All students are required to wear full school uniform from Thursday 11th onwards.
Important Dates
Detailed guidance is provided in the letters linked above but please make note of the important dates for your child's return to school.
Year 9 Options Process
Tuesday 16th March sees the start of the delayed Year 9 Options Process. Detailed information will be shared with students and parents during that week. A full timeline of option events can be found below:
- Tuesday 16th March – Year 9 Assembly, which explains the options process;
- Tuesday 16th March – Students and Parents receive an e-mail with links to the Options Booklet, Subject Information videos and an example Options Form;
- Tuesday 16th March – Thursday 25th March – Students will receive a GCSE Style lesson in each of their subjects to give them a flavour of what Key Stage 4 will be like;
- Tuesday 16th March – Thursday 25th March – Individual student meeting with member of SLT to give support and guidance around options process and choices;
- Wednesday 17th March – PSHE lesson with an options focus;
- Thursday 18th March – A nominal options evening giving parents time to review the options information. This is not a separate event – all information will be pre-recorded and available from Tuesday 16th March;
- Thursday 25th March – Remote Year 9 Parents' Evening – An Opportunity for parents and students to discuss their options with their subject teachers;
- Friday 26th March – The official options form will be e-mailed to students for completion;
- Wednesday 14th April – 10am – deadline for return of option choices from students;
- By 30th April – Confirmation of final options sent to students/parents.
UKMT Maths Challenge
We would like to congratulate those Year 10 and Year 11 students who participated in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge this year. As with last year's challenges, the students sat this remotely. We achieved some excellent results and would like to highlight three star performers. Patrick Fleming and Nadia Othman in Year 10 achieved Silver Certificates and Yael Braunstein achieved her highest score yet and a Gold Certificate. Yael's score also qualifies her for the Hamilton Olympiad round consisting of six challenging problems that require full written solutions. We wish her luck!
GCSEPod Parent Webinar
One of the tools that our GCSE students really value is GCSEPod; this site has proven particularly useful for schools across the country during this 'remote learning' period. If you haven’t heard of it before, GCSEPod is a platform on which you can find short videos to explain topics from GCSE specifications. All of the GCSEPod scripts have been written in conjunction with examiners and produced professionally. If students have a gap in their knowledge, if they have missed a lesson or if they would like a bit of extra help with their homework then they will be able to find a GCSEPod video to help them. It also has other features to help students to study, besides just the videos of content and explanation.
If you would like to find out more about GCSEPod, you can have access to the site through an organised a parent webinar that will take place on Wednesday 10th March at 5pm. The webinar will cover:
- How to access the Pods;
- Podbooks and how to quiz your child;
- What to expect if your child is given homework on GCSEPod;
- Check & Challenge and self-assessment;
- Hints and tips on home learning.
Fantastic Student Work
Music
Congratulations to Max Davies who recently achieved Grade 8 in his guitar examination. Our GCSE Music classes have been practising really hard at home in readiness for their return to school. Mr Durbin has received some fantastic composition work by Alannah Saphir in Year 10 and KS3 students have created some brilliant knowledge organisers on a piece of music of their choice which has been really interesting to read and find out what students like listening to. Mr Durbin has been incredibly impressed with how hard students have been working remotely and would like to congratulate all students for their resilience and the excellent levels of assignment return, this half term.
Design Technology
In Design Technology students have been looking at the Tokyo Olympics and have designed a uniform for their chosen country. The designs developed by our students included the choices of appropriate fabrics for the designs. Well done to Rawan Al Nakeeb, Anna Littlejohns and Lucia Flick Camacho for developing these fantastic designs in response to their assignments:
Art
Our Year 10 GCSE Fine Art students are working on paper sculptures inspired by the artist Richard Sweeney. They have made their own mini paper sculptures - thinking about form and the multiple different ways in which to alter a single piece of paper - to create a sculpture from very basic materials. Having photographed and edited their work, they have begun to create observational drawings in response to their 3D pieces. The creation of texture (oil pastel rubbings) on their paper has further enhanced sculptured forms.
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 future examinations or the current national coverage of the pandemic.
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 the county address their social and emotional health needs.
https://www.kooth.com/ https://www.minded.org.uk/
Covid-19: Reporting
For those students who remain in school we would like to remind you of the reporting procedures and symptom checker before attending each day:
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 our 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 the phones of students who are under 16. If any parent has to inform the school regarding a positive Covid case please email https://rossett.school/positive and complete the form.
Helen Woodcock
Headteacher
