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COVID-19 Update – 29th September 2020

Last Updated: 29th September, 15:30

We can now confirm that the student in Year 8 who we understood to have tested positive for COVID-19 does NOT have COVID-19.

We have further information from the family, and although some members of the household have tested positive, the student at Kingsway has not. This student concerned will be self-isolating for the required period and not attending school.

We are pleased to say that this means our Year 8 students will be able to attend school as normal tomorrow.

We apologise for any confusion and anxiety this may have caused.

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Headteacher’s Blog – Week 4

Fabulous first four weeks!

So we have completed the first fabulous four weeks, during which time we have sadly had three reported cases of COVID-19 (two Year 10 and one year 11). It was not so fabulous having to ask these students to isolate at home when they were just getting back into the routine of school.

We are looking forward to having them back next week (Year 10 Wednesday, Year 11 Thursday) and seeing their lovely faces - behind a mask of course! Whilst they have been isolating, they have been following their normal timetable delivered to their home via their teachers remotely. Staff in school have worked hard this week to make sure that all students are able to access our remote learning offer - providing devices and dongles where needed.

Mr Williams shared with me a beautiful piece of RE work completed by Rebecca I in Year 9 during our summer lockdown:

The first four weeks haven’t been perfect - but they have certainly had some fabulous moments. On Friday afternoon - last lesson of the day - I popped around our year bubble and captured some great learning:

7K Computing lesson with Mrs Bull.  Sam: “We are learning how to stay safe online via E-safety. Bullies can hide behind their computer screen.”

7T Maths lesson with Mr Lomax. Ashton: “We are learning how to calculate with decimals and money using a multiplication magic square.”

7I Geography lesson with Miss Horsey. Ben: “We are learning about Biomes - places with different climates and animals”.  Amaar: “There are 6 main Biomes including the Coral Reef and Rainforest”.

7H Maths lesson with Mr Singh. Harrison: “We are learning to multiply and divide by powers of ten e.g 85 x 10^2 is 8500.” Isaac: “ 85 x 10^-1 is 8.5”

7E Maths lesson with Mrs Beattie.  Kaya: “We are doing an assessment on decimals.” Raphael: “it’s about arithmetic reasoning.”

7S Art lesson with Miss Forber. Maryam: “We are doing visual drawings learning how to draw different patterns and textures so we can draw live animals.”

7W History lesson with Mr Cook. Luca:  “We are learning about significant figures from History like Julius Cesar and Cleopatra.” Heidi: “They are important because they changed the way people thought about things”.

7C ICT lesson with Miss Brennan.  Zara: “We are learning about cyber bullying. It’s not very nice. We don’t want any child to bully another because it affects them a lot.”

7Y Technology lesson with Mr Whittam. India: “We are learning about different types of wood - hardwood and soft wood” Noah: “We will be using it to make little toys or key rings”.

7A Maths lesson with Miss Burrows. Yusuf: “We are multiplying integers using different methods.“ Jayenna: “I worked out 86 x 34 is 2924.”

7G & 7N PE lesson with Miss Wildgoose and Mrs Nakielska (playing diamond cricket). Imogen: “Miss throws the ball and you have to catch it and throw at the stumps to get someone out.”

Mrs Clarke was also really impressed with Tom B in 7N who sent in this lovely photo he took during a trip to Wales. Mrs Clarke had set a Fungi challenge for the work the class are doing on Ecosystems.

Well done to all our year 7 students who have settled into the life of a Kingsway student brilliantly!

As you are well aware by now,  in order to keep our students safe and reduce the risk transmission of the virus, students are staying in their zones for their lessons and instead staff are moving from room to room, zone to zone, campus to campus so that all students are taught by their specialist teacher. This means that there are a few moments at lesson changeover where students need to patiently wait for their next teacher to arrive. During this time, we have asked students to silently read - promoting an ethos of reading for pleasure. A reading book (or optional revision material for KS4 students) is a compulsory item of school equipment for each student. Please help us by making sure your child has a reading book packed every day. Thank you.

Can I please also ask you to remind your child they will need a suitable, waterproof outdoor coat (and possibly umbrella) for when the weather deteriorates as we move into winter. This is more important than ever as students are not allowed in the building until 8:15am each morning and unless the weather is pouring down, we will be expecting them to play outside at break time.

Staff are on duty at the year group entrances every morning making sure that students have sanitised their hands and have their mask on. I was surprised and disappointed to read a social media post last week criticising some of our students for not wearing their masks on the number 11 bus. If your child catches the bus or train to school, please remind them of the rule and importance of wearing a mask to keep themselves safe.

We sincerely hope that we will have no further confirmed cases on COVID-19 in our school community. However, in the event that your child receives a positive test result, we will need to know straight away. Please can you email our dedicated email address: covid@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk 

Please include the following information in your email:

  • Name of child
  • Year group and form
  • Date on which they started to show symptoms
  • Last date that they were in school
  • Name of any siblings who attend Kingsway (and their form/s)
  • Last date when siblings attended school

You do not need to email us at this address if you are sending your child for a test. We just need to know if this test is confirmed as positive.

Public Health England have produced a letter for schools to distribute to parents, which explains when a person requires a Coronavirus test and what the symptoms of Coronavirus are. The Department have asked us to share this letter amongst parents at school. The intention of the letter is to help prevent children being taken out of school unnecessarily and answer some of the questions parents may have around testing.

Seeing our young people everyday, we are amazed at their continued resilience and their maturity with regards to the current situation.  We are also mindful that this is a very testing time for them, as such we were delighted to be approached by the BBC to be used as a location shoot for a short commissioned series for CBBC.  The series, ‘Teen Monologues’ will focus on individual young people and how the issues of lockdown and the pandemic have affected them.  We are excited that on Tuesday 29th September, a small filming team will be present on Foxland site, working with a handful of our Year 9 students as supporting actors. The BBC have very strict regulations in which to adhere to and they will also be in a contained area, not circulating with the larger school population.  Their COVID compliance team have worked closely with ourselves and Stockport LA and all precautions have been taken.  We are excited to see both our students and building on the small screen very soon!

Next week we would have held one of the highlights on our school calendar, that of our Open Evening.  This really is a fantastic event but due to the current situation, we will be going virtual for this year.  Our webpage will be released on Wednesday 7th October.

We understand that the decision that prospective families face when choosing their secondary school is not to be taken lightly, we were therefore over the moon with the response to our article in the Manchester Evening News, last week.  If you have not yet had the opportunity to have a read please find the link below:

Finally, we have received loads of really lovely emails from parents thanking teachers and staff for their efforts during what can only be described as ‘stressful’ times for us all. Here’s a few I wanted to share with you, but please keep them coming. Your words of gratitude are really appreciated and the fuel to keep our motors running!

  • “Just a note to say we and Ben have found the online live learning brilliant and working really well , many thanks.”
  • “Just wanted to say how well the on-line y10 lessons are going. Charlie is very positive about them every day when I get home and is really motivated by them. Thanks for all your hard work.”
  • “Just wanted to say how impressed I have been with the online learning provision. Harry has been engaging well and getting himself up each morning and ready to go by 8-30am.  He has been able to use the remote learning sites with ease and although it isn’t an ideal way for long term learning it seems to be successful for the duration needed. Really pleased with how well Harry has adapted to it over the last few days.”
  • “Just wanted to let you know on both a parent level and governor level how impressed I am with how staff and students have responded to the yr10 and 11 lockdowns. The online lessons and work that has been set for Georgie has been great,. I felt teachers/staff members need a massive big thank you and well done.”

Have a lovely week,


Mrs J. Lowe
Headteacher

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Parent Governor Election

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am writing to you to invite you to stand for election as a parent governor, or nominate another parent to do so. In our school we have provision for 6 parent governors and there is currently 1 vacancy.

The governing board, with the headteacher, has overall responsibility for the running of the school. Governing boards have three core strategic functions:

  • Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction;
  • Holding the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils; and
  • Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

No special qualifications are needed and the most important thing is to have a keen interest in the school and be prepared to play an active part in the work of the governing board. However, we would particularly welcome nominations from parents.  Training is available for all governors and this governing board has an expectation that those new to governance attend free induction training.

The enclosed sheet summarises the circumstances under which someone cannot serve as a governor. In addition, parents/carers who have paid employment in the school for 500 or more hours per academic year or who are elected members of the Local Authority are not eligible to stand in these elections. Nominations must be from parents or carers with children at the school on the day that nominations close.

If you would like to stand for election please complete the attached nomination form and return it to the school no later than Wednesday 30th September at noon. You may also include a short personal statement to support your nomination, which should be no longer than 250 words. Self-nominations will be accepted, but if you are nominating another parent please seek their prior consent.

If there are more nominations than vacancies the election will be by secret ballot. You will be contacted by the school with details of the ballot procedure.

Yours faithfully,

Headteacher (Returning Officer)

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Headteacher’s Blog – Week 3

“A good battle plan that you act on today can be better than a perfect one tomorrow”  - George S Patton Jr.

We are battle-plan ready at Kingsway for any eventuality in the coming weeks and months. As you will no doubt be aware, we had a confirmed case of COVID-19 amongst our student population last week. We are sending our best wishes to the student and their family for a speedy recovery.

The news, received on Wednesday, had us putting our battle plan in operation. This involved us sending all our Year 10 students home to self-isolate and getting staff ready to deliver a timetable of live lessons from Monday that follow each child’s timetable as closely as possible.

We very much hope that we have no more cases and our Year 10 bubble safely return to school on Wednesday 30th September 2020.

The measures we have taken in school mean that where we receive news of a confirmed case, we can keep all other year groups in school and give them the education they need. However, we have noticed an increase in the numbers of students across the school who are now self-isolating. The work for these students will be set on their google classroom so they can keep abreast of the learning of their peers back in school.

If you have any queries about the work that your child is completing whilst isolating at home, please get in touch with their form tutor or Raising Standards’ Leader.

What to do if someone has symptoms of COVID-19

The common symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature, a new continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of taste or smell.

If a student, or person in your household develops symptoms of COVID-19, then the student must not come to school for 10 days from the onset of symptoms. Phone the school absence line and leave the details so that we can record the absence appropriately. You should follow Public Health England’s guidance for households with a possible infection. You will need to arrange for a test and inform school immediately of the result. If the test is negative, the student can return to school when they have not displayed the symptoms for 2 days. If the test is positive, the school will follow the guidance from the DfE and local Health Protection team, and your household will have to follow the government guidance and self-isolate.

Transition Diary 2 - by Meadow King, Year 7 student

“We’ve had loads of new interesting lessons some of us have never done before. With 5 subjects a day, ranging from food tech to drama , we get loads of merits and currently I’m top of my form with 70 of them. 

I’ve met loads of new people who I talk to at break and it also feels nice when you meet someone with the same interests as you. I sit beside the same person every lesson except for  PE and I’ve learned loads of interesting things about them. 

All of my form are really nice and supportive and I’m looking forward to spending the next few years with everyone at Kingsway.”

Virtual Parent Information Evening

The beginning of the year is always a busy time, and this one has certainly been no exception. Last week would have been the annual Parent Information Evening for each year group, but like all events we had to look at innovative ways to keep you up to date and maintain effective communication with home. As such, our Raising Standards Leaders produced a year group video which includes: Ms Woodyer’s update on attendance and Free School Meals; Mr Wilson’s guide to our communication system and my own whole school message and update on our Coronavirus measures. Whilst we know that this never replaces face-to-face communication, we hope that this video, along with the year group FAQ sheet will help you as parents support both your child and the school, navigate the new systems and protocols, keeping up as up to date as possible in this ever-changing situation.

These videos are now fully available on the school website, but should you have any further questions we encourage you to contact your child’s Raising Standards Leader (RSL):

Virtual Parent Information Evening

Finally, are you interested in taking a more active role in the life of our school? We are looking for parents or members of our local community to join our governing board. If you are interested, please email Mrs Puce for an information pack.

Have a lovely week,


Mrs J. Lowe
Headteacher

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COVID-19 Update – 21st September 2020

Last Updated: 23rd September, 08:00

We have been informed that a further student at The Kingsway School has been tested positive for COVID-19. This student is in a different year group to the Year currently isolating. We are in contact with our local Health Protection Team and Local Authority and are implementing the measures which they recommend.

This is a concern that another student has tested positive. However, we would like to reassure all students and parents that we are working closely with the relevant authorities to minimise the impact.

With immediate effect Year 11 will not be in school but will need to isolate at home for 14 days. Work will be provided via Class Charts.

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