Good afternoon,
I am sure that there have been many conversations this week that have started with the phrase ‘do you remember this time last year’, all relating to days preceding the first lockdown. This week the Cheltenham Festival was a virtual event and for schools this time last year, we had just been told that all exams were cancelled and as of Friday 20th March, schools would only be open for children of key workers. What a year it has been and of course, we mustn’t forget perhaps the most important issue of supermarkets running out of pasta and toilet rolls.
The uptake of home testing kits has been really good. A reminder that these are an additional strategy in helping to reduce the spread of the virus. A negative result still requires us to socially distance and follow all national guidance to protect ourselves and those around us. Details of what to do following taking the tests will be sent out today. Our students have continued to show a real understanding of what it means to be part of a caring community by wearing masks in all indoor spaces. Cases in Cheshire East remain low and it is great to read that approximately 155,000 people in our area have had the first dose of the vaccine.
Students in Y11 and Y13 have made a good start to assessments as part of the teacher assessed grade process. The following 6 weeks will be quite intensive but there is light at the end of the assessment tunnel. As part of our support for students in y11 and Y13, we are offering twice weekly revision sessions, with the bribe of being able to get a muffin and a drink. It seems to work. It is usually at this time of the year that we talk about the run up to exams as being a marathon and not a sprint, although this year it is perhaps more apt to say it’s more like wading through treacle. However, in the words of Barack Obama we need to remember that at Alsager School: “We don’t turn back. We leave no one behind. We pull each other up.”
I have lots of lovely conversations with our students this week, some reminiscing about holidays and a lengthy chat with a pupil in Year 7 about rivers and his favourite being the Amazon. How many of us had actually forgotten that it is indeed a river.
As always, thank you for your continued support. Enjoy reminiscing about the year and have a lovely weekend.
“Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect.”
(Brooks Atkinson)
