College Closure and Coronavirus Update: 21st April 2020

College Closure and Coronavirus

 Update 21^st April 2020

1. Summary of Main Points: MINOR CHANGES

•  Clyst Vale site is closed, except our Emergency Childcare Provision (ECP) for children of key workers and vulnerable children (and deliveries, essential contractors, etc) ·
• Parents and carers can contact us as normal, although we recommend e-mail
• ECP will run daily Monday to Friday 08.30 – 17.00.
• ECP has moved to a booking system. Places for the next day can be booked until 9.00 p.m. the night before (including Sunday, for Monday). Or phone the number which has been provided to ECP parents.
• Teachers are working from home to set work on the day your child would have their lesson. This should take 2-3 hours in Year 7 rising to 3-4 in Year 10
• We are on the Government voucher scheme for Free School Meals and after considerable delays the e-codes were issued on Friday 17^th April, backdated to Tuesday 7^th
• School Transport is suspended. If you are a key worker and would like school transport, please contact on the day before you require transport.
• If you have any concerns, please contact the school and ask to speak to a Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mr Sutton, Mrs Albutt, Miss McConnachie or Mr A Pearce). If this is not possible please contact MASH, The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub: 0345 155 1071.

2. Free School Meals: NEW

•  I am very pleased that despite the complete shambles of the introduction of the Edenred/Government scheme, Clyst Vale families receiving FSM will have had vouchers covering every week since the College closed on 20^th March, plus two weeks’ extra. I must single out Mrs Racheal Long for praise for her persistence in sorting this out, gathering information and coordinating the schemes.
• No point in repeating the tale of woe. This is where we are up to:
• For weeks beginning 23^rd March (£12), 30^th March (£12), 6^th April (£12) and 13^th April (£15) parents will have received vouchers from Voucher Express for Tesco only. We believe that Voucher Express have changed the rules so that these can now only be used in store, not on-line.
• For weeks beginning 6^th April (£15), 13^th April (£15), 20^th April (£15) and 27^th April (£15) parents are receiving e-codes to their e-mails from Edenred (the Government scheme), weekly. There have been two weeks of overlap between the two schemes, but no-one will be asking for the money back !
• On the Government scheme, parents can choose one of six supermarkets. Of the six supermarkets, Asda and Waitrose will accept the codes for on-line ordering and home delivery. Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons and M&S are in store only. (Aldi, Lidl and the Co-op are NOT unfortunately in the scheme)
• The e-codes can be downloaded and forwarded or printed for someone else to use if a family is in self-isolation or cannot get to the supermarket for any reason. Clearly, parents will know who they can trust !
• If you need or require e-codes to be posted and haven’t already told her, please contact Racheal Long on . The first time this can happen is from week beginning Monday 4^th May (because we need to order in 4-week blocks).

3. Emergency Childcare Provision: NEW

•  We are fully committed to maintaining our offer to look after the children of key workers (secondary age group) and vulnerable students
• Separate e-mails went to key worker and vulnerable children’s parents on 2^nd April and 14^th April with information about the booking system
• ECP will run daily Monday to Friday 08.30 – 17.00. If no children attend, the College will close at 12.00.
• Please contact us if you wish to discuss varying these hours (within reason) for individual children.
• There is now an expectation that vulnerable students should really be in school unless there are health issues or (in the case of SEND students) they would be safer at home. New guidance 19th April:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people

4. Public Examinations: NEW

• Exam Results Days have been confirmed as the original dates of Thursday 13^th August for A-Level and AS (and presumably vocational Level 3 courses, but we don’t know this); Thursday 20^th August for GCSE (and vocational Level 1 & 2 courses ?).
• Detailed guidance was published on 3^rd April, although there are a number of loose ends and details still to be confirmed
• There are 2 documents:

1. For students:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878854/Letter_to_students_-_Summer_2020_grading.pdf

2. For everyone (ie general guidance)

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/how-gcses-as-a-levels-will-be-awarded-in-summer-2020

• On 9^th April, Ofqual produced further guidance: http://www.clystvale.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Summer_2020_grades_for_GCSE_AS_A_level_EPQ_AEA_in_maths_-_guidance_for_teachers_students_parents_UPDATED_09APR2020.pdf

(Ignore the “maths”: it’s for all subjects).

• The Exam Boards are also producing even further guidance. We still await information from the Department of Education or Exam Boards as to how vocational qualifications will be assessed, and also the mechanics of how we send results to the Exam Boards.

• Until the end of April, it is still worth Year 11 students completing NEAs (coursework) and other work to complete the syllabus. Teachers are still taking into account attitude and the likely trajectory of a student’s progress !

• We cannot discuss predicted grades with students, parents or carers at any stage. This is prohibited in the guidance.

5. Trips and Visits

• Very sadly, but very much the right thing to do and no surprise to anyone, neither of the visits to Bude or the Belgian battlefields will be going ahead. Please do not make any more payments.
• Parents WILL be refunded in full for payments made for these visits, but it is not clear exactly when this happen, because we are in discussions with the companies and our insurers. Clearly, this is your money, so this is a priority for us and we will keep you posted.

LINKS AND FURTHER INFORMATION

This is the Government’s guidance to parents:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

The following link is the government’s advice to schools:

Guidance to Educational Settings About Covid-19

The next link is Devon County Council’s dedicated website for parents for Coronavirus advice

https://www.devon.gov.uk/document/schools-and-families/

Department for Education Coronavirus helpline:

Phone: 0800 046 8687  Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

Email:

There are hundreds of support agencies’ links I could list for mental health and on-line issues. Here are just four, but all are tried and tested.

• kooth.com has a load of information and on-line counselling; mainly mental health
• childline.org.uk 0800 1111 has been around for ages, but is still one of the best helplines
• thinkuknow.org.uk focusses on on-line issues including bullying, or messages that make you uncomfortable
• Young Devon (Google it) is web-based, and points you to a wide range of possible services

Should you have any specific queries regarding Covid-19 and Clyst Vale, please e-mail Mrs Ann Hopkins (College Manager) on .

Kevin Bawn, Principal