Dear Parents and Guardians

We hope you have had a good week.  It is really great to see how well your daughters and sons are engaging with lessons at home – Heads of Year have only got good things to say about their year groups.

Here is a summary of our key updates for this week.

Year 9 Options Evening

Thanks to Mr Adams for orgnaising this virtual event last Thursday for Year 9 students and parents.  The link to the presentations is still on the website on the front page.  If your daughters have any questions, particularly about new subjects, they are welcome to contact the Head of Department. Miss Herron who will forward your query.  Otherwise the next step in the option process is the student/SLT one to one interviews on TEAMS, which will start the week beginning 8th February.  These will be during the school day and students will be sent an invite.

Parents’ Evenings

Following on from our successful ‘dipping our toes’ into remote parents’ evening for Year 11 and Year 13, we are all ready to meet our Year 10 students and parents remotely this Thursday.  It is Year 7 on 28th January, Year 9 on Thursday 4th February and Year 12 on 11th February.  Separate letters will be sent out to parents nearer the time.  If you have any queries about parents’ evening, please contact your daughter/son’s Head of Year.

Reviews and Exams

Due to the postponement of our Year 11 and 12 PPE exams as a result of school closure, we have decided to also delay issuing review grades at the end of half term.  Once we have had confirmation of when school will reopen, we will confirm PPEs and review dates.

You may be aware that Ofqual are consulting on several proposals on the grading of GCSE, A Level and BTEC exams and we will be back in touch to confirm the final plans once they have been decided.  Ofqual are looking for feedback from parents and students on these proposals.  Here is the link to the consultation if you wish to read it and/or take part in the consultation.

Consultation on how GCSE, AS and A level grades should be awarded in summer 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Holt@home half dozen

Miss Harris, our extra-curricular and charities coordinator has set up an exciting challenge competition with the Heads of House and House prefects.  This competition is open to all Year groups and there are house points up for grabs in each year. Students are encouraged to be creative and discover new hobbies and interests.  The challenges for this half term are PE, languages, computing, technology, food and nutrition and art. The students have been emailed information so do encourage your daughter/sons to get involved!

We wish you another good lockdown week with your families.

Best wishes

Anne Kennedy and Katie Pearce