The school is receiving a number of queries from parents and families understandably anxious to have their children return to school and also to find out more about the provision for September, what is happening with exams next year, what the catch up fund from the government will be used for etc...

I have not sent updates on these matters to you because schools have yet to receive any information about them beyond the public announcements made.  Much like you, we as a school are looking forward to receiving the information we need to plan and to meet the needs of our pupils and students moving into next academic year.

As soon as we have that information it will be shared with you, as will our plans to address the requirements.  

Parents are keen to know if we can increase numbers and year groups onsite now.  This is not permissible at present as the government have restricted the year groups allowed on site in a secondary school to years 10 and 12 and the total number of students from those year groups to be 1/4 of the combined population of those two years.  At The Minster School that is around 100 students.  The government guidance can be accessed using the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools

Regardless of the lack of guidance for next year, we are still busy planning, including for additional catch-up provision for targeted pupils following benchmarking activities early in September.  We will be tailoring our curriculum offer for examination cohorts to the exam requirements when we receive them but would impress upon those in years 10 and 12 to keep going now so they are in the best possible position for September.

We know that the government has said all students will return to full time education in September but we also know there will likely be some restrictions associated with this which may mean restructuring the daily school experience.  We don't yet know what these restrictions might be and are therefore having to speculatively plan at present. 

I truly appreciate the difficulties faced by families and students at home after such a long period of time and would remind all that we are here to help pastorally too.  Call the school or email the pastoral team and we will see what we can do.

I am hopeful for more information soon and to give you a clearer picture.  In the meantime please accept my best wishes and prayers to you all.

Matthew Parris

Head Teacher