Return to specialist classrooms

Dear parents and carers,
On Friday 28th May we will conclude our half term by celebrating the final day of daily attendance with our Year 13 cohort. We are very proud of our Year 13 students and we look forward to celebrating with them on this momentous day. Year 11 will have a similar event on Monday 28th June. We are well underway with planning some new traditions for these two cohorts. These traditions will be done annually for years to come with these students being those who set the way for the future of George Spencer Academy – our aim is for them to ‘leave a legacy’.

When we return after the half term break on Monday 7th June both Year 11 and Year 13 will not be in daily attendance and therefore additional classrooms and space are freed up on our site. We have carefully reviewed our risk assessments against the importance of students accessing a full and rich curriculum by returning to specialist classrooms. From Monday 7th June students will move around our site to attend specialist classrooms, for example Science labs, ICT rooms, Art and Technology rooms.

To maximise the safety of our site all year groups will remain in year group bubbles and their zones will remain in place for: unstructured time when they arrive to school, form time, break and lunch time. Students will
continue to only be able to socialise with students in their year group bubble, within their zone and will continue to eat at allocated times, having no contact with other bubbles. The only change we are making to our systems is to allow students to walk around our site, at lesson change over to access specialist classrooms and in turn, students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will no longer need to wear their PE kit to school on the days they have PE.

The students’ movement will be primarily outside. All students will line up outside and our teachers will ensure students are wearing a face mask as they enter and leave buildings because the current government guidance states they should be worn in corridors.

For this change to happen successfully the leadership team will spend the week beginning Monday 24th May delivering presentations that will ensure our students have clarity over the expectations and have the opportunity to digest and discuss the changes. This will be a bigger change for our Year 7 cohort who have never had the opportunity to visit classrooms outside of the block they are based in. We will be putting in additional support for Year 7 and students with additional needs to ensure the transition is smooth for them.

If you have any questions regarding the return to specialist classrooms, please contact us at the school via our main reception.

We very much look forward to seeing our students thrive as the return to classrooms will allow them to experience the full breadth of our curriculum offer.

Yours sincerely,
Mrs H Corbett
Principal