NEU Industrial Action – School will be closed for pupils in years 9 and 10 on Wednesday 16th March

Dear Parents and Carers

Plans for Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023 – NEU (National Education Union)
This is an early communication to share with you the plans to manage the industrial action being taken by the National Education Union on the 15th and 16th March 2023, having reviewed the likely staffing position on that date. I will update you next Monday of any changes but wanted to give you advance warning so that you can plan accordingly.

School will be closed for pupils in years 7 and 8 on Wednesday 15th March
School will be closed for pupils in years 9 and 10 on Thursday 16th March

We will be offering places in school for our vulnerable children and children of critical workers, who will be able to complete online learning tasks. To book a place please email CriticalKeyWorker@corbetschool.net with the pupil’s name and form by 8.30am on Monday 13th March. We aim to minimise the impact on learning, as much as possible, teachers who are in school will be setting work on Satchel:One for pupils to complete. Pupils who are at home will need to check Satchel at the start of each lesson to see if they have any work to complete. Staff not taking industrial action will be able to respond to messages on Satchel during their timetabled lesson.

When the pupils are in school, they will follow their normal timetable. We may need to make adjustments, on the day, due to unexpected staff absences but will aim to run the timetable as normal. As a contingency, could all pupils please bring their PE kit into school and ensure that they have a book with them to read.
School transport will run as normal.

Thank you for your understanding and support; we will do our very best to make sure that the 15th and 16th runs as smoothly as possible.

Yours sincerely
Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

 

Dear Parent / Carer

Thank you for your support today in getting all the pupils home safely, it was very much appreciated.

I have taken the early decision that The Corbet School will be closed tomorrow and that remote learning will be put in place for the pupils to be accessed through Satchel:One.

The reasons I have decided to make an early decision on this, is based on the weather forecast for tomorrow that would indicate even trickier conditions on the journey to school tomorrow:

• There is an amber weather warning in place across Oswestry, Wrexham, Welshpool and North Wales; a significant number of staff live in those areas, some of whom have not been able to get to school today and more staff are likely to be affected tomorrow. There could be significant staffing issues tomorrow, meaning that we would be unable to open the school safely as we would not have enough staff.
• The Met Office forecast for Baschurch between 5 – 10am tomorrow is for heavy snow, that would indicate that it would be the same situation as today and we have had to close as a result of site safety. The paths that had been cleared and gritted around the site became covered with snow and there was a risk of injury to pupils and staff.
• Our buses may not be able to leave the depot as they are within the area covered by the amber weather warning.
• An early decision for a planned closure means that we can deliver remote education to the pupils (see below).

Pupils will have learning activities set on satchel:one for all lessons by their teachers.  The tasks will be set as ‘Classwork’ and should be accessed at normal lesson times.  Tasks can be accessed via the pupils’ ‘To Do List’ or their ‘Timetable’ on satchel:one.  As is typical with remote learning, activities may not take a full hour to complete due to there not being any normal teaching taking place.  Pupils may wish to take a break for their screens and carry out wellbeing activities if they find they have spare time during the school day.  Teachers will be available to be messaged on satchel:one should pupils require any support during their normal timetabled lesson slot.  There will be no Form Time activity set for pupils; therefore, the school day should begin at 9.10am for Period 1.

It is always a very difficult decision to make but, on balance, the evidence as I have it, would suggest that if we have had to close today it is more than likely it would be the case tomorrow. I am hoping that giving you notice of this enables you to plan yourselves rather than making a late call in the morning or the worse case scenario, as we had today of closing during the day.

Best wishes

Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

Due to the adverse weather condition and site safety – school will be closing – Thurs, 09.03.23

In light of the deteriorating road conditions and site safety we have made the difficult decision to close.  Pupils who came by bus will return by bus, please do not try to make arrangements to collect students. We will make an early decision this afternoon on arrangements for tomorrow to avoid this happening again.  Due to the snow currently the site has become unsafe.  We will text parents when each bus leaves site and when we send the students who are walking home.

Dear Parents and Carers

Plans for Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023 – NEU (National Education Union)

This is an early communication to share with you the plans to manage the industrial action being taken by the National Education Union on the 15th and 16th March 2023, having reviewed the likely staffing position on that date. I will update you next Monday of any changes but wanted to give you advance warning so that you can plan accordingly.

School will be closed for pupils in years 7 and 8 on Wednesday 15th March
School will be closed for pupils in years 9 and 10 on Thursday 16th March

We will be offering places in school for our vulnerable children and children of critical workers, who will be able to complete online learning tasks. To book a place please email CriticalKeyWorker@corbetschool.net with the pupil’s name and form by 8.30am on Monday 13th March. We aim to minimise the impact on learning, as much as possible, teachers who are in school will be setting work on Satchel:One for pupils to complete. Pupils who are at home will need to check Satchel at the start of each lesson to see if they have any work to complete. Staff not taking industrial action will be able to respond to messages on Satchel during their timetabled lesson.

When the pupils are in school, they will follow their normal timetable. We may need to make adjustments, on the day, due to unexpected staff absences but will aim to run the timetable as normal. As a contingency, could all pupils please bring their PE kit into school and ensure that they have a book with them to read.

School transport will run as normal.

Thank you for your understanding and support; we will do our very best to make sure that the 15th and 16th runs as smoothly as possible.

Yours sincerely
Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

We have been made aware of a new app called Sendit that carries a 17+ age requirement.

Users can ask questions to their followers and get anonymous messages in return. However, if you’d like to find out who sent the response, you can choose to do so by paying a fee. We are concerned about the inappropriate content that our young people could be exposed to.

This link has some good information if that could be attached.

https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is-sendit/

Dear parents / carers,

I just wanted to end the half term with a quick update for you on the schools fundraising this week.
CFA Chocolate Bingo: it was lovely to see the school community coming together again after our periods of isolation and cancellation. We had a lovely evening which was very well supported by pupils and parents and raised over £500.

Provisional plans for a CFA quiz in the summer term, further details to follow.

DEC Turkey Syria Earthquake Appeal: The hot chocolate and biscuits has been as popular as ever with the students and very well supported with donations from parents; this has raised £539.54. We have some supplies of hot chocolate which we will use to support the Red Nose (non uniform) Day on Friday 17th March.

7R also carried out a bake sale in aid of the Turkey/Syria Earthquake Appeal and raised a total of £65.58 for the charity.

Project Sunflower, Seeds for Ukraine: we have a good sized box of donated flower and vegetable seeds which will be leaving for Ukraine on Saturday.

Hope House: the Valentine Hamper Raffle raised £40 for Hope House.

I think the overwhelming support for our fundraising activities just highlights what a kind and caring school community we have and I thank you for your support with this.

I wish you and your families a happy and restful half term break and look forward to welcoming the students back on Monday 27th February.

Yours sincerely
Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher