Year 10 Parent/Pupil Meetings

09 Jun 2020

Dear Parent / Carer, 

Following advice from Lancashire County Council that schools should not admit Year 10 pupils from 22 June at the earliest, we have unfortunately had to postpone our planned meetings with parents and pupils. In the first instance, we will reschedule meetings by moving them all back by one week. If this causes a problem, please contact school to rearrange a new time year10@lsmchs.com

Many thanks for your patience and understanding.

Mr P Thompson

Headteacher

Year 10 Pastoral Awards 01/06/20

08 Jun 2020

Year 8 Pastoral Awards 01/06/20

08 Jun 2020

Year 9 Pastoral Awards w/c 01/06/20

08 Jun 2020

Year 7 Pastoral Awards w/c 01/06/20

08 Jun 2020

My Half Term Newsletter

21 May 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that this letter finds you and all your family as well as can be in the current situation. There doesn’t look to be a return to normality any time soon, and we all continue to adapt to the new expectations being placed upon us in all walks of life. Of course, many of you will no doubt be asking ‘When will schools reopen?’ and the simple answer is, we don’t know. However, we all wish that it is sooner rather than later.

School reopening

Ever since lockdown, we have opened school for a very small number of children e.g. children of key workers, children who have contact with Social Care and those with EHCP’s (Education Health Care Plans). This provision has continued throughout the Easter holiday and we will be open during the half-term holiday next week as well.

At the time of writing, there are no plans to widen this provision. As ever, we will be guided by the government and scientific advice we receive before making any changes. I will be writing to the parents of Year 10 pupils soon to outline how we propose to approach the government’s recent announcement that schools ‘offer some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 children who are due to take GCSEs next year.’

Year 11

Although this wasn’t the way that anybody would have liked their time at St Mary’s to end, we say goodbye to Year 11. They have been a fabulous set of pupils, contributing in so many ways to the success of the school and we hope that they leave with many happy memories of their time at high school. I’m sure you will join me in wishing each and every one of them all the very best for the future, whichever path they choose to follow.

The staff have put together various messages to share with the Year 11’s and these will be with the pupils very soon. Unfortunately, although understandably, the Year 11 Prom has been officially postponed, but we dearly hope to meet-up with all the leaver’s in the near future.

As we know, GCSE’s and other exams have been cancelled this summer. Teachers are busy finalising their predicted grades for the exam boards. I will remind all Year 11 pupils that schools are not allowed to discuss any grade awarded, and that results day will be as originally planned on Thursday 20 August.

ClassCharts

ClassCharts will continue to be the method by which we will issue work for pupils. Although there have been one or two minor glitches with the system, which have affected all users across the country, it has worked very well in helping us communicate which work needs to be completed.

Whilst we don’t pretend that remote learning is in any way a replacement for the classroom, we continue to be delighted with the level of engagement of so many of our pupils. The teachers are working very hard to ensure that appropriate work is set and monitored, and I am full of admiration for the way they have set about this task. I know many parents appreciate the work which is set, but I would ask that if any family is experiencing any difficulties to get in touch and we will try our best to resolve the issue.

Next week marks the May half-term holiday which means that there will be no work set after Friday 22 May. Teachers will resume uploading work from Monday 1 June.

Free School Meals

Free school meal vouchers will continue to be delivered to all eligible families during half-term.

If any family has been affected by the lockdown and feel they would benefit from free school meals, then in the first instance, I would advise looking at the following webpage to see if you are eligible;

https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/children-education-families/schools/free-school-meals

School Trips

The latest government advice on school trips is that all domestic trips should be cancelled. Therefore, we will not be running events such as the Year 8 retreat to Liverpool, or the end of year rewards trip to Blackpool.

In relation to trips abroad, the government advice is applicable up to 31 May. They say they will update the advice before 1 June. In reality, we must accept that it is highly unlikely the current advice (which is that foreign school trips should not take place) will change. Therefore, it is very likely that the Madrid trip in June will not go ahead.

However, until we get confirmation that this trip is cancelled and refunded, we are not in a position to return any money back to parents. As soon as we hear any more, we will be in contact with families.

Many thanks for your continuing support during this difficult period. I hope and pray that you all remain safe and that we will be together again as a school community as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Mr P Thompson

Headteacher

Year 11 Update

06 May 2020

Good morning to all our Year 11 pupils, parents and carers. Unfortunately due to the ongoing social distancing restrictions we have had to make the decision to postpone the Year 11 Prom originally scheduled for Friday 19th June 2020. We are aware that many of you will be disappointed by this update and we share this feeling with you all, however everyone's health and safety must be our key priority during these difficult times. We shall endeavor to try and reschedule a celebration when restrictions are lifted and it is safe to do so, we are already looking forward to seeing you all once again. We hope you are all keeping well and continue to hold you all in our thoughts and prayers.

Y11 Next Steps

27 Apr 2020

Dear Pupils and Parents of Year 11,

The Local Authority have put together the three documents (English, Maths and Science) to support you in the preparation for the  next phase of your education. They will be available through ClassCharts and on the school website.

Remember that teachers are still setting work for you. Your brain is a giant muscle – keep using it to exercise it.

Good luck, stay safe.

Mr Meldrum – Deputy Headteacher

Y11_Preparation_for_continued_study_English.pdf

Y11_Preparation_for_continued_study_Maths.pdf

Y11_Preparation_for_continued_study_Science.pdf

Online Live Webinar - CYP Mental Health

22 Apr 2020

Dear Parents / Carers, 

With ‘wellbeing’ being a concern for everyone during these anxious times, Lancashire Mind have informed of us the following webinars which may be useful for our families. 

Sam Tyrer, the founder of Change Talks, a Children and Young People's organisation, and his colleague, Dave, are hosting live webinars called ‘Mental Health Family Hour’ every Tuesday at 10am. A pre-recorded session on YouTube - https://youtu.be/wZKO4sb9BAk has been tested and received a great response. 

Each of the live sessions will also be uploaded to YouTube. They can be watched at any time and they will be useful for everybody at this time. These sessions will especially create a great opportunity for families to discuss their mental well-being and hopefully lead to some positive discussions.  

All you have to do is click the link www.twitch.tv/mindsetbydave every Tuesday morning at 10am and you will immediately tune in to the live streaming. They have opted for this platform as it enables them to run their PowerPoint alongside their discussion. There will also be an opportunity at the end of each session to ask questions.  

We hope you find this useful. 

Best wishes,

Mrs Pilling

Easter News

08 Apr 2020

Today we reach the end of our Spring term and it is an ending none of us could have predicted when it began back in January.

I would like to thank all parents and carers for your support, patience and understanding over the last few weeks as we have collectively dealt with the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. It has undoubtedly presented us all with challenges as we adapt to a new, albeit temporary, way of living and working.

To the pupils, I would like to say well done to everyone who has attempted to complete the work which has been set. We know it is strange getting work through ClassCharts and being unable to interact in the usual way with teachers and friends, but staff have been very impressed with your efforts – keep it up!

We have attempted to retain a sense of normality in the work that we are setting and I would like to pay tribute to all the staff who have gone above and beyond in their response to this crisis. They are a fabulous group of colleagues who have shown, now more than ever, that they have your child’s interests very much at the heart of everything they do.

Easter Holidays

Thursday 9 April marks the start of the Easter holidays for St Mary’s. This will clearly not be the break that any of us were planning for, but it should be a rest all the same. For that reason, there will be no work uploaded for pupils on ClassCharts for the duration of the holidays. We return to work on Monday 27 April from which time work will again be uploaded 5 times a day, following your child’s timetable. However, we are staying open for a very small number of pupils whose families are key workers during the break. In addition, the government vouchers for Free School Meals will also be distributed by staff on a weekly basis.  

Donations

We were very happy to help earlier in the week when we donated our Science goggles to the Royal Preston Hospital. It is a shocking state of affairs that those on the frontline of this crisis are having to ask, but we hope our little contribution is of some use. In addition, we were obviously unable to host our annual Easter community bingo event. We appreciated very much your kind donations of Easter eggs, in exchange for participating in a non-uniform day. However, the eggs would have gone to waste so it was decided they would be donated to the food bank at St Mary’s RC Church.

We would be happy to help out in any other way we can and if you know of a way in which we can help the wider community then please contact school and we will see how we can be of assistance.

Educational Visits/School Trips

We are currently working with school trip providers to ensure that you are properly refunded for any activities you have paid for which do not go ahead. As soon as we get confirmation that a trip is cancelled and refunded, we will start getting money back to parents. It may be that we have to make final payments before we can claim full refunds so please stick to payment schedules and deadlines until we advise you otherwise.

Year 11

It was a sad but ultimately inevitable conclusion to the coronavirus outbreak that end of year exams for Year 11 had to be cancelled. The exam boards have issued guidance to schools on how final grades will be awarded. In essence, this will come down to teacher predictions, using their professional judgement to assess what was the most likely result for pupils in their class. The finer details of this process are still being ironed out, but this much we do know already;

• GCSE results will come out in the summer, possibly sooner than the expected date of 20 August
• Pupils cannot submit any work now which will go towards any final predicted grade
• Schools (and individual teachers) will not be allowed to tell parents or pupils what predicted grades they have given

Ofqual, the body in charge of all public examinations, have written to pupils and parents. You can view this letter here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877830/Letter_to_students_-_Summer_2020_grading.pdf

Easter

Easter is the most special time of the church year, when we remember the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made on Good Friday, only to be raised to life on Easter Sunday. In these times we should not lose sight of the hope of the Easter message. With churches shut, you may wish to visit one of these websites in order to access Easter services during Holy Week both within the Archdiocese of Liverpool and beyond;

http://www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk/index.php?p=2111

https://www.churchservices.tv/timetable/

It is unclear when schools will reopen again. For the time being, we look forward with hope to a time when we can come together again as a school community. In the meantime, on behalf of all the Governors and staff at St Mary’s, I wish you a happy and Holy Easter.