Autumn Term
4th JANUARY 2021 Issue 1 : 4th September 2020
Dear Parents, Well, we've completed our first week of the newest iteration of lockdown, with the vast majority of girls moving to online learning. We have a small number of key worker children, scribbling away in the library, as well as a number of our international boarders who are still in residence. This means that the school has a much greater sense of life than in March; Gary and his team are still cooking morning noon and night, a small, rotating number of teachers are in to assist with the girls who come to school, and our boarding staff are looking after the girls 'upstairs' (who, even though they are few in number, still manage to make enough noise above my office when the school day is over - in these times, it is a pleasure to hear). It is a point of immense pride that, although ultimately it will be mothballed until we reopen, we were set up, ready for mass testing on January 5th. This is thanks to the tireless efforts of our outstanding medical team and logistics guru, Mrs Low. A batch of our wonderful parent volunteers came in to help us test our key worker children, staff and boarders on Tuesday, and the system worked beautifully. Our nurses will continue to weekly test our boarders and key worker children. I wish to take this opportunity to reassure all pupils in Year 11 and 13. The announcement this week that GCSE and A Level examinations will not go ahead this year at least gives us clarity, and we are awaiting further detail from the Department for Education as to our next steps. However, it is clear that teacher assessed grades will be used - but not the dreaded algorithm! - to apportion grades, and this, if anything should give some reassurance: we know these girls inside out. I know that they will weather the storm, and my message is: keep working, don't panic, and let us do the rest. My sincere good wishes to Year 11 who will start their mock examinations next week - albeit online. We have invested in a website so ensure robustness and fairness, and my sincere thanks to Mr O'Farrell, Miss Nelson and all the teaching staff for pirouetting, yet again, with such speed and grace. Over the next two Saturdays, I have the pleasure of interviewing online our external prospective Year 7 candidates. The lockdown meant entrance exams could not go ahead as normal, and Mrs Charles has been heroic in adapting things so quickly. I will hugely enjoy meeting over 100 girls via Zoom, all hoping to join the Senior School in September. Interviews with our 44 Prep girls will take place next week! I wish you a very pleasant weekend. Best wishes, Dr Claire McShane