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Our Manor 5-9 July 2021

Message from the Vice Principal

As you will be aware, yet again COVID-19 and its related restrictions have meant that we have had to forgo another key event in our diary. Two positive cases of COVID-19 amongst our staff team have resulted in a small number of colleagues having to self-isolate and work from home. As a result, we have had to cancel our REACH event planned for Friday this week. It is important that we continue to maintain the systems and processes in place in the school as defined in our risk assessment. Please can I ask you to ensure that you are continuing to encourage your child or children to keep testing twice per week and that you notify us of a positive result.

We have become quite accustomed in the last 12-18 months of reshaping plans, reshaping them further and then having to cancel them – all at short notice. Transition of Year 6 into 7 is one obvious example that springs to mind. Those of you with children in Year 6 coming to Manor School will know that our ambitious plans for a one-week transition programme was cancelled due to our ability to facilitate and comply with the guidance for schools on managing transition.

There is light at the end of the tunnel - new guidance released this week gives clear indications that schools will return to a greater sense of normality come September. We know that testing will feature and there is more information later on in this newsletter about that. We continue to ensure contingency plans are in place for September in case we are directed to escalate restrictions once again, but we remain optimistic of a return to systems and routines that we were used to prior to COVID-19.

With lots of activity on the horizon, we will be writing to all families next week (outside of the newsletter) to share details about the start of next term and other such information. Please look out for that as it will contain essential information. You will find information on start dates for September in this week’s newsletter.

Enjoy the weekend and the football on Sunday!

Lee Towers, Vice Principal

Testing in September

Many of you may well have seen in recently published guidance from the Department for Education that schools are required to carry lateral flow testing of students on two occasions upon their return to school.

It is our intention to test Year 12 and 13 students on Thursday 2 September and to test Year 7-11 students on Friday 3 September. Students will then be taken from lessons on their first day back at school. This may cause some minor disruption to lessons on the first three days of the first school week.

Students will be required to test twice weekly from home (as they should be currently doing) once our in-school process is complete in early September.

In advance of the process, we would like to extend our thanks once again to Tom Hatton for his continued leadership and support in carrying out in-school testing.

September start dates

A staggered start will help to ensure we can carry our the second of two lateral flow tests we are required to offer to all students at the start of next term.

  • Thursday 2 September – Training Day
  • Friday 3 September – Training Day
  • Monday 6 September – Years 7, 8 and 13 return
  • Tuesday 7 September – Years 10 and 11 return
  • Wednesday 8 September – Years 9 and 12 return (all students in school)

More information will follow next week in our letter to families.

REACH Fest

It is with regret that we had to take the unfortunate decision to suspend the REACH rewards day planned for Friday 9 July. We are sure you will agree with us that safety must continue to be our number one priority. We believe that it would have been unsafe to run this event and maintain an adequate level of supervision across the rest of the school with a number of colleagues following self-isolation restrictions.

We are disappointed and frustrated that another event has succumbed to COVID-19 but are committed to ensuring that we recognise the winners of the House Cup and those achieving REACH rewards.

Year 7 bug refuges

The bug refuges that Year 7 students made on Curriculum Day last week have been put together to produce this bumper bug hotel at the bird feeding area of Stanwick Lakes. If you're visiting during the summer holiday, why not stop by to see what our students had a part in creating.

School transport

A survey will be sent out to Route 1 and Route 4 users today (Friday 9) regarding the transport trials that have been taking place this week. We would appreciate as many parents providing feedback as possible. Route 1 and Route 4 will revert back to the original times for the final week of term.

Transport arrangements for the academic year 2021/2022 will be confirmed with parents next week. Please ensure that any outstanding instalments for this term are brought up to date by Monday 12 July.

Year 11 leavers hoodies

Leavers hoodies are now available from main reception between the hours of 9am and 4:30pm until Friday 16 July. They will need to be signed for upon collection.

Manor Maths Challenges

Three mathematical magic tricks await in this week's blog. Can you figure out how they all work?

Work placement scheme

Howdens, the UK's leading trade kitchen supplier who have a depot in Raunds, are offering work placements as part of the government's Kickstart Scheme. These placements are for a 6-month period for young people aged between 18-24 years old who are currently receiving Universal Credit.

There are a wide variety of job opportunities available from working in the depots, IT, Digital Solutions, Operations, Supply Chain and E-commerce teams.

Raunds Mayor, Cllr Sylvia Hughes, has spoken to Howdens about the scheme:

More general information about this scheme can be found on the Kickstart Scheme website.

PE notices

Sports days

Students need to come to school in their Manor school PE kit on the following dates:

  • Year 7 - Thursday 15 July
  • Year 9 - Tuesday 13 July
  • Year 10 - Monday 12 July

Survey

We have been selected at random by Sport England to take part in the national Active Lives survey during the summer term. The year groups that have been selected to take part in the survey are Year 7, Year 9 and Year 10. Students in any of these year groups need to click the relevant link below that matches their year group, and once opened enter the School URN which is 137613.

One of the benefits of completing the Active Lives survey is that we get a Healthy Schools rating award. The survey will be used to determine a school’s healthy rating scheme award – you may have seen this rating scheme in the Government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy (originally published in 2017). This will be the only way schools can access this national rating scheme.

The deadline to complete the survey is Friday 16 July 2021.

Thank you to everyone in advance for your time in completing this survey.

Exam certificates

Weekly REACH Champions