News

Dear Families,

 

Welcome to the first of my latest round of lockdown weekly updates. As was the case during the previous school closure it is my intention to write to you once a week on a Friday with any important information that you need to know ahead of the following week. I will obviously write to you in between if significant bits of  information emerges that cannot wait until the weekend. I hope that the first week of remote learning has gone well for your sons and daughters, and certainly the feedback I have received this week about the live remote teaching has been really positive. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to say how pleased you have been with the remote provision this week.

 

Remote learning update

From next week we are reverting to our regular school timetable and the timings of the school day are below. Students are expected to be online and ready to work throughout the school day. Teaching will be through a combination of live lessons and project work as it has been this week. The Remote Learning guide for families which is attached to this email and which will be available on our website outlines the expectations around live teaching, and the minimum numbers of hours your child can expect to be taught ‘live’ in each subject. Please note that not every single lesson will be taught live as this is simply not practical where teachers are also having to manage their own families, but where a lesson is not live staff will still be available on line to answer questions at the timetabled time. It is also really important that during break and lunchtime your child is active as it is not ideal for students to be sitting in front of screens for the majority of each day without having the chance to move around and exercise. We are also uploading to the website a useful guide to using ‘GCSE pod’ which students in years 9-11 may find helpful to support them with their online learning.

 

Remote School day:

8:30-8:40 – morning registration

8:45-9:45 -Period 1

9:45-10:45 – Period 2

10:45-11:05 – Break

11:05-12:05 – Period 3

12:05-13:05 – Period 4

13:05 – 14:00 – Lunch

14:00-15:00 – Period 5

 

Support for families with IT issues

Given that teaching for the time being is going to be delivered remotely it is really important that families contact us if you have any issues with access to IT equipment at home, or if you have problems around broadband capability. We do not have an unlimited supply of devices to give out but we will do all that we can to support those families who may be having difficulties in accessing our remote provision. Please contact Anna Siddell, Assistant Headteacher, at asiddell@lpsb.org.uk if you have any issues around accessing the remote learning. Any Pupil Premium students, or students entitled to 16-19 bursary funding should also contact Ms Siddell if they need any additional support.

Families may also be interested in the article in the link below which shows how Xboxes and Playstations can also be used to access programmes such as Microsoft Teams which might help with access to devices.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/playstation-xbox-home-learning-web-browser-internet-b1783216.html 

 

Year 11 and 13 exams

You will be aware that the GCSE and A Level exams this year have been cancelled and instead there will be some kind of teacher assessed grade as there was last year. At present we do not know the details of how these grades are to be worked out, or the timeframe for doing so, but as I reiterated in my video message to year 11 and 13 yesterday it is really important that students in those year groups keep working. We fully expect them to be back in school at some point after February half term and it is likely that we will need to do some further assessments at that point to assess their progress. I will keep you updated as I know more.

 

Key worker / vulnerable student support

Our key worker / vulnerable student provision has been up and running this week and will continue for the foreseeable future. If you require access to this provision please contact the school to let us know using the office@lpsb.org.uk email address.

 

Free School Meals

Free School Meal vouchers are going to be provided throughout this period of lockdown by Edenred as they were during the last lockdown. We are currently waiting for the system to be up and running and we will keep you posted when we know more. There is also a national Covid Winter Grant scheme to support families who may be experiencing financial difficulties and a link to the Bromley website with further details is below.

https://www.bromley.gov.uk/info/200154/coronavirus_covid%E2%80%9119/1485/coronavirus_covid_19_-_winter_grant_scheme

 

Wellbeing

I am aware that for many students and families the last lockdown was a period of significant stress and anxiety. Throughout this lockdown period our School Counsellor, Ms Bullen, remains available to all students (and staff) who may find the pressures of lockdown difficult. Any families who are finding lockdown difficult are welcome to contact her to ask for some support. Her email address is sbullen@lpsb.org.uk. Please do let us know if things are difficult at home. I have also included below a link to the Bromley Y website which is a local organisation offering support to young people and their families in Bromley.

https://bromley-y.org/index.html

 

Covid 19 – positive cases and testing

Please can I ask all families to continue to use the covidenquiries@lpsb.org.uk email address to notify us of any positive cases of Covid 19 among students or family members so that we can keep track of the number of cases across the school. Even though students are not on site at present it is important that we have a clear picture of the situation, and we continue to report positive cases to the DFE.

Our on-site testing centre is now up and running and all of our key worker students and a number of staff have now had lateral flow tests. These will be administered to anyone who comes on site over the coming weeks. Please can I remind all families who have not already done so to complete the digital consent form, the link to which is included below to allow us to test your child and keep everyone as safe as possible.

Consent for COVID-19 testing in school - Google Forms

 

Please note that our onsite centre is not a general community testing centre and anyone who develops Covid symptoms or who has to isolate because a family member has tested positive must not come on site. In these circumstances PCR Covid tests should be booked online through the national scheme.

I am extremely grateful to Matt Hills from the LPLT central team, and Ben Jones, Assistant Headteacher, for the immense work they have done this week to get our testing centre up and running. It is something that none of us could ever have imagined we would find ourselves having to do. Thank you also to the significant number of staff / parents / carers who came forward to volunteer to assist with the running of the test centre. Around 50 volunteers have been trained so far. If there are other parents / carers who would be interested in helping out then please let us know using the office@lpsb.org.uk email address.

 

As was the case last time around it is really important that students have a break from the screen time over the weekend, so I would encourage you all now to log off and have a good weekend. There’s a lot of hard work ahead!

 

Best wishes

 

Mr S. Parsons

Headteacher

Langley Park School for Boys