CV&CC Update: Tuesday 30th June. Awaiting the next Big Announcement on Friday

College Closure & CoronaVirus Update, 30th June 2020

SITUATION UPDATE: 

• There is to be another Big Announcement on Friday from the government about schools, with guidance as to how schools will re-open to all students in September.
• There is currently a huge amount of speculation and debate in the media and on social media about this. If it is true, then what is being proposed is largely unworkable, but I think it’s unwise to react until we have seen some of the actual guidance and not leaked documents.

1. SUMMARY OF CURRENT POSITION 

• The College is open to small groups of Year 10 and Year 12 students on a pre-agreed rota basis.
• At CVCC (as nationally) ECP remains the top priority to support the children of key workers without other childcare, and vulnerable students 
• Numbers of ECP have risen and are consistently above thirty students each day, increasingly over forty. We have opened a fifth “bubble”.
• We are “refreshing” remote learning through more video and audio material
• As part of this, Year 9 students are being taught in their Year 10 options classes
• We have introduced an Assignment Summary to help parents and carers monitor students’ work on Microsoft Teams. A separate letter was e-mailed on 29th June via In Touch.
• There is a government maximum limit of 25% of Year 10 and Year 12 students combined. This limit means that there’s no need to alter anything to do with 1 or 2 metres in school. So until the end of term we’ll keep the 2m rule in place. If we went to 1m, we couldn’t let any more students in anyway.
• In which case, there seems no sense in changing our hygiene measures or “Bubble” approach to keeping students in groups and not mixing.
• The Government have also clarified that there will be no “ECP” (as we call it) for students throughout the summer holiday.

2. College Opening and Safeguarding

• Clyst Vale site is closed to most people; but is open to our Emergency Childcare Provision (ECP) for children of key workers and vulnerable children, authorised Year 10 and 12 students, and authorised members of staff (and deliveries, essential contractors, etc).
• College opening hours are 08.00 – 17.00.
• If you have any concerns about a student at Clyst Vale, please contact the school and ask to speak to a Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mr Sutton, Mrs Albutt, Miss McConnachie or Mr A Pearce). If this is not possible please contact MASH, The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub: 0345 155 1071.

3. Emergency Childcare Provision 

• We are fully committed to maintaining our offer to look after the children of key workers (secondary age group) and vulnerable students
• ECP will run daily Monday to Friday 08.30 – 17.00. Please contact us if you wish to discuss varying these hours (within reason) for individual children.
• ECP has moved to a booking system. Places for the next day can be booked until 9.00 p.m. the night before (including Sunday, for Monday). Or phone the number which has been provided to ECP parents.
• School Transport has been reinstated, but it is almost a bespoke service ! If you are a key worker or Year 10/12 parent and would like school transport, please contact and us on the day before you require transport.

4. Remote Learning

• Teachers are working from home to set work on the day your child would have their lesson. The activities set should take 2-3 hours in Year 7 rising to 3-4 in Year 10.
• Work will be assigned on Microsoft Teams and notified on students’ College e-mail accounts.
• Remote learning will not be affected by the on-site teaching of Year 10 and Year 12 students.

5. Free School Meals

• We joined the Edenred/Government scheme in April.
• We are delighted that the Government will provide FSM vouchers through Edenred during the summer. We had decided to support this ourselves had this decision not been made.
• If you have any queries about Free School Meals, please contact Racheal Long on .

6. Public Examinations

• Grades and rank orders for all exams were uploaded to the exam boards on Friday, 12^th June
• Exam Results Days have been confirmed as Thursday 13^thAugust for A-Level and AS (and presumably vocational Level 3 courses); Thursday 20^th August for GCSE (and vocational Level 1 & 2 courses).
• We cannot discuss predicted grades with students, parents or carers at any stage. This is prohibited in the guidance.

7. Trips and Visits (Updated 4^thJune)

• My colleagues in Finance have worked hard and persistently to secure refunds from some reluctant companies; only one trip awaits refunds, which has recently been secured. This is excellent work !
• Please don’t forget to collect your child’s passport ! (Year 7 Paris trip)

LINKS AND FURTHER INFORMATION 

This is the Government’s guidance to parents:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

The following link is the government’s advice to schools:

Guidance to Educational Settings About Covid-19

The next link is Devon County Council’s dedicated website for parents for Coronavirus advice

https://www.devon.gov.uk/document/schools-and-families/

Department for Education Coronavirus helpline:

Phone: 0800 046 8687  Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

Email: 

There are hundreds of support agencies’ links I could list for mental health and on-line issues. Here are just four, but all are tried and tested.

• kooth.com has a load of information and on-line counselling; mainly mental health
• childline.org.uk 0800 1111 has been around for ages, but is still one of the best helplines
• thinkuknow.org.uk focusses on on-line issues including bullying, or messages that make you uncomfortable
• Young Devon (youngdevon.org) is web-based, and points you to a wide range of possible services

Should you have any specific queries regarding Covid-19 and Clyst Vale, please e-mail Mrs Ann Hopkins (College Manager) on 

Kevin Bawn, Principal