Charlton School

Friday 26^th March

Dear Parents/Carers,

As we move towards the end of the spring term next week, I would like to thank you all for your outstanding efforts in becoming home teachers again in January, something I am sure you do not want to have to repeat ever again!

It has been wonderful being able to pick up the reigns from you again and having all our students back in school.  Attendance has been excellent and there has been a lovely buzz in the building, with students enjoying getting back into the learning routines and seeing their friends.

The DfE have asked us to share the message below to all our school community:

Testing at home throughout the Easter holidays for schools and colleges

Following the success of the asymptomatic testing programme on the return to school and college, it is vital to keep testing at home throughout the Easter holidays and into the summer term. Please pass on this message to all of your staff, students and parents:

• Test twice a week at home from now on
• Report results online as positive, negative or void. This information is critical in helping us to understand the prevalence of the virus across the country
• Continue to test twice weekly over the Easter holidays
• Test before returning to school or college for the summer term, either the night before, or morning of, the first day back, to find and isolate any positive cases

To allow testing to continue over the Easter holiday, and prior to returning to school, students will be issued with a further two boxes (six tests) on Wednesday, or they can be collected from student reception on Thursday, if absent.

In addition to reporting results through the NHS link above please remember, we are unable to access the results from the Government website and need you to report them to us directly at the following link, it is a very quick and simple form:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2s8TOK9SpUy44yMVeXcKukUVAPHX4pVNshvCJ8oFcsFURDIzVEQzM0pFNlBTR1VZUVBNMkE5QVRPQi4u

Should the outcome of the test be positive, in addition to the above, please call the school at your earliest convenience (01952 386800) and send an email to covid@charlton.uk.com, this email will be checked periodically out of school hours.

On our return to school in April, we are making a slight change to the timings of the day for Year 11, to help support a quicker start to lesson 1 for any assessments taking place.  All other Year groups will remain the same timings for the start and end of the school day.

Year 11 will need to arrive and enter school via the back gates at 8.40am and go to their tutor period.  Their school day will finish at 2.50pm.

Following our return from lockdown, we have shown a degree of leniency towards our rules on uniform, hair styles and colours, and jewellery.  After Easter, we expect all students to return in full school uniform, including shoes or Charlton PE kit only, on the days they have PE.  There should be no other items of clothing, for example hoodies or sweatshirts, except for an outdoor coat being worn to school.

Nonessential retail, including clothes shops are scheduled to reopen from 12^th April, until then all our uniform can be purchased online at https://www.bakerandsonschoolwear.co.uk/product-category/your-school/charlton-school/.  We also have a good stock of high-quality uniform available through our school clothes bank.  Please contact reception to access this.

We would also like to remind parents and students about our jewellery, hairstyle and make-up policies:

• Jewellery is not permitted except for one pair of small gold or silver studs earrings worn in the ear lobe. Other piercings are not allowed
• Cosmetics, other than a discreet amount, should not be worn. Eyebrows should be natural and not tinted
• Nail varnish and nail extensions are not allowed in school
• Excessive hairstyles, hair extensions or hair wraps, shaved patterns, panels or lines, non-natural hair colour and false eyelashes are not permitted

Please find further details about uniform and our expectations on our school website, http://charlton.uk.com/parent-student-information/uniform.  Please do consider the above in preparation for our return to school.

We have also seen an increase in the use of earphones in school, in particular, the airpod wireless type.  If earphones are seen being used in school, these will be treated the same as a mobile device and they will be confiscated. The first time, the student will be able to collect at the end of the day, if confiscated again, parents will need to collect.

And a final reminder and request to the parents who collect children by car after school.  If you use the car park, please park in a bay whilst waiting for your child, not down the centre of the one-way loop, we have had a few complaints from parents about this since our return.  If you use community roads local to school to pick up your child, please remain respectful to residents and their properties.

Term ends on Thursday 1^st April, we will be finishing at our usual times, except Year 10 and 11 who will be released at 3.00pm, instead of 3.10pm.  It will be a normal school day with lessons 1 to 4 as timetabled, followed by tutor period lesson 5, for a whole school assembly.

We return to school on Monday 19^th April, please remember the change above to Year 11 arrival and departure times.  We wish you all a relaxing Easter break, you have all deserved it!  Please continue to abide by the coronavirus restrictions in place and test twice weekly to continue lowering the rates in our community.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A McNaughton

Principal