Dear Parents and Carers,

There are some important things to share with you as we near the end of this half term. It is unfortunate that Suffolk CC have not managed to align holidays this year with the other surrounding counties. For a number of members of staff, that means their own children are on holiday next week while they are on holiday themselves the week after. I hope that hasn’t had too much of a negative impact on you. Students at SWA have continued to impress me during this sometimes challenging half term. They have had a lot of supply cover, but they have made those supply teachers welcome and continued to try their best. I hope that next term half term will be less disrupted as we continue to find out way out of the pandemic.

Year 11 Exams

I’d like to start by congratulating Year 11 on their approach to the mock exams they are currently sitting. They have been calm, business like and determined. They deserve to do well. I hope they enjoy a well-earned rest over the half term break.

Covid

Our covid numbers are reducing again now very encouragingly. It seems likely that all the restrictions will be removed sooner than we expected, meaning that staff and students who test positive are likely to only need to take time off if they feel ill. We will wait to see exactly what the government guidance changes to before we make any decisions. For the time being, students are choosing whether to wear masks or not and it seems to be working well.

We currently have the following numbers of students and staff off school due to covid:

Current number of known positive cases and absent from schools

Staff

4

Children

42

 Year Group

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Number

6

5

10

6

12

2

1

Vaccinations

The covid 19 vaccination team will be in school again on Friday next week to vaccinate students ages 12-15. They will provide us with a list of students with consent and we’ll work from that.

If your child has already had a second vaccine or had their first vaccine after the 25th of November outside of school, please let Mrs Efford know as soon as possible so we can remove them from the list - SEfford@samuelward.co.uk

Similarly, if your child has had covid in the last 12 weeks, (since the 25th of November) they should not have the vaccine just yet.  Again, please let Mrs Efford know before next Thursday.

We won’t be given the consent list until Thursday afternoon, so we won’t have much chance to prepare. If a student appears on the consent list but thinks they shouldn’t, we will be happy to call home or for a student to opt out there and then.

Isolation work

This information appeared in my last bulletin and has not changed since. Where students are isolating, we will set work for them to do. That work will be available on Go 4 Schools by 5.00pm on the first day of absence. For practical reasons, subjects which teach a very large number of students such as RE, PSHE, music and drama will set work once a fortnight on Go 4 Schools labelled “Isolation Work”. That work will be visible to all students but need only be completed by students who are completing their lessons remotely. If you need any help with work for isolating students, please contact Mr Sumner - ssumner@samuelward.co.uk

Uniform

Over the winter we have allowed students to wear coats in lessons because we’ve been opening the windows to increase ventilation. As the weather warms up, we won’t need to do that anymore.  Teachers will open the windows periodically to allow a change of air when the air quality meter suggests they should. Even on colder days, rooms will be warmer.

After half term, students will no longer be allowed to wear coats in lessons as a matter of course. There might be times when we make a specific allowance, but the default rule is that students should come to school in their full uniform, including their blazer, and take off their coats when they are in a classroom. Full uniform includes black shoes, not trainers. Students who wear trainers to school should expect to be given black plimsolls to wear for the day instead.

Uniform can be ordered online through: https://www.schoolcoloursdirect.co.uk/

If there are problems in sourcing any of the uniform in a particular size please let us know. 

Equipment

We are more or less half way through the school year, so now might be a good time to check your child’s equipment and make sure they have everything they need to enable them to access their curriculum fully. 

As a minimum this includes:

• A school bag large enough to hold all the necessary equipment

• All the necessary exercise and work books needed for the specific lessons of the day

• At least 2 blue/black pens

• At least 2 pencils and a rubber

• A ruler

• Full school PE kit in a separate bag on days where PE is timetabled

• Their student planner

Great things that happen outside of school

Please continue to share your good news with us. If your children do something outside of school that makes you and them proud we would like to hear about it too so we can join you in celebrating it. Please email either me or Mr Sumner.

Have a good weekend and a good half term break when it arrives,

Andy Hunter

Headteacher