Continued suspension of in-school secondary lessons

Dear Parents of Secondary DBIS students,

 

I would like to wish you all a happy New Year and I hope that you have had a very enjoyable holiday with your families.

 

I am writing to follow on from Stuart Bridge’s recent email on the back of the Education Bureau briefing which announced that school closures have been extended until Sunday the 10th of January. This will mean that Year 7 to 10 students will continue with online learning for the first week of the new term. At this time, we are expecting them to be able to return to school on the following Monday, the 11th of January. Students in Years 11, 12 and 13, who have examinations this academic year, will be allowed to return to school on Monday the 4th of January for the lessons before lunch. This is in accordance with the Education Bureau guidelines. In the same way as before the Christmas holiday, our oldest students (Year 11-13) will have periods 1 to 4 in school and then have their period 5 lessons online. If we receive further communication from the Education Bureau, we will inform you all accordingly.

 

We are all very disappointed not to be able to continue with face to face lessons for every secondary student. However, we are confident that our online learning provision is well placed to effectively support your child’s learning. I would like to reiterate our strong appreciation for the earlier guidance from parents, students and colleagues alike which has helped us to strengthen our online provision for our secondary children. We will continue to use the same approaches as before the current holiday for online learning, with students continuing to have Google Meets for each of their lessons. These Google Meets are linked to their respective subject Google Classrooms which have the resources for each of that classes’ lessons. The lessons will continue to run at their scheduled lesson time and the timetables will be accessible on their Google Calendars. This has the advantage of making it simpler for them to see which lessons they have scheduled for the day/week ahead.

 

If you would like to see the secondary phases’ guidance about our online learning provision for your child you can access this on the DBIS Hub – the link for this is below.

 

Link to Secondary Online Learning information on the DBIS Hub

 

I would like to reiterate the significant value we place on our positive relationships with you as parents. We understand and appreciate the challenges further school closure places on families, as well as the continued anxieties generated by the situation across the world with regards to COVID-19. As a school, we remain here to support all our families in any way that we are able to, therefore I ask you please reach out to myself, the Secondary Leadership Team, your child’s Head of Year or their form tutor if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.

 

On behalf of all the staff in the Secondary phase, I wish you all a very prosperous 2021. Whether your children are in school or online, we are fully committed to supporting them in achieving their full potential and look forward to seeing the children again. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Simon Oakley

Head of Secondary