Charlton School

18.10.21 LCT Update to Parents and Carers

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this letter finds you and your family well. I thought I would send you an update as we approach half-term, and our schools break up on Friday for a week. We all return on the 1^st November for the second half of the Autumn Term and we continue to operate as normally as possible. We have had to step up measures and re-introduce masks for secondary students where we have seen an increase in cases.

Update on Covid - It has been a really busy half-term and unfortunately we are still experiencing quite a lot of disruption with Covid, mainly in our secondary schools. The knock-on effect has been to staffing and we have had some very tight staffing levels as staff have been unwell or their own children have Covid or are isolating so childcare has been a real issue. This is on top of the normal coughs and colds you get in the autumn term. We are alerting parents if their child had been a close contact of a confirmed case and I urge you all to take them for a PCR test and then do daily LFTs if school contacts you – it really helps reduce infection rates if we identify cases quickly. Secondary age students still need to be doing the twice weekly LFTs as are all our staff. I know I keep making the same point but I am desperate to keep our staff and children safe and well as we go into the winter months.

We are seeing the Covid vaccination programme roll out and hopefully by late November all secondary students will have had the opportunity to have the vaccine in school. We are also involved in a massive NHS programme of immunisation against the flu for children and you will have, or will be, notified of this when schools have confirmation of the dates.

Governors – have you ever considered becoming a governor in one of our schools? We will have vacancies from the spring of 2022, and you do not have to be involved in education to make a great contribution as a Governor. If you would like further information please contact my PA, Veronica Croft on the following email veronica.croft@lct.education to organise an informal chat.

Virtual Open Evenings 2022 – these are live on Charlton, Ercall Wood and HLC Secondary Websites.

LCT Careers Festival 2022 – again this is currently live and is accessed through the Charlton, Ercall Wood, HLC Secondary and Queensway websites. It is a brilliant forum for all year groups to look at possible careers and destinations, and is especially important for Y11 students who will be considering their applications to college, school based sixth forms or apprenticeships.

Congratulations to Dr. Wilson at HLC Secondary and to our Science leaders across the Trust for being accepted into the prestigious Ogden Trust as a Partnership Hub – this is all about raising the profile of Physics and the Ogden Trust vision of “making Physics matter”. This is a fantastic achievement and will provide students with great opportunities to really embrace Physics – which as a science teacher I can say is a wonderful subject!!

Ercall Wood Academy has just collected a staggering 36,000 bottle tops to help raise funds for Mencap – a truly remarkable achievement. Well done Mrs Jennings and all the staff and students for all their commitment to this amazing cause.

Wrekin View have just received a cheque for £800 to promote Active Kids and Sophie in HLC Primary won 1^st Prize in the Denso Road Safety Competition, which goes on display on the DENSO Roundabout today!

Severndale students are back enjoying the great outdoors at Tickwood Farm on Wenlock Edge which I visited two weeks ago, and we hope to get more children accessing this amazing place.

Just a few examples of the amazing things happening in our schools over the last week!

My best wishes to you and your family,

Kind Regards,

Dr. Gill Eatough

CEO LCT