Dear Families,
I hope this update finds you all in good health and enjoying the summer sunshine. There are a few brief updates for you this week.
Science workshops
This Wednesday, students from Year 8 attended various workshops organised by Tomorrow’s Engineer. This included a variety of seminars involving the design of new products and also controlling robots to carry out tasks. The visit helped students gain an insight into part of the engineering sector and provided an opportunity for students to discover how Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) are used to grow the local engineering talent required by businesses.
Meanwhile, Year 10 and 12 students welcomed back former student Aruba Farooq with her Professor, David Bates from the University of Nottingham. They visited Derby Moor to talk about breakthrough technology and their research in the field of cancer treatments. Aruba is an outstanding student who has won a summer school laboratory position, bridging Cancer research with medicine for a new pathway to novel treatments. The talks have inspired our pupils to think creatively and have provided a benchmark for many of our scientists to aspire towards.
End/Start of term
All families will have received a letter via email this week detailing our arrangements for the end and start of term. School will end at 12.00 on Thursday with a staggered dismissal of students. Please do arrange transport as necessary to accommodate this earlier finish. There will be a staggered start to the term to allow for pre-testing ahead of each student’s first day back in school. Again, this is detailed in the letter. If you have not received the email, please do contact school to check your details. There is also a copy on our website here.
Derby Summer Promise
Derby City Council has, this week, announced a city-wide programme providing an exciting summer of enriching and learning activities for children and financial support for families and households. The Summer Promise, aims to provide activities, ranging from sports, to cooking and performing, to thousands of children in Derby who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals and has approved dozens of local and national organisations to run free holiday activity clubs for young people across the city. The scheme will also offer financial support, providing a £60 voucher for each child eligible for a benefit related free school meals, and a second £25 voucher to help towards the cost of school uniforms for children moving from year 6 to year 7. More information can be found here.
Volunteers for C19 test centre
We will be looking again for volunteers to help with our onsite testing centre in September. If you have helped out previously or would like to get involved, please contact the school who will take your details and arrange a call back.
Duke of Edinburgh
We have received a number of applications for students to start their DofE journey and, due to popular demand, have extended the date that these need to be completed to Monday 19th July. Following this deadline, potentially in September, a letter will be sent out with further details to confirm your child’s place on the award. All DofE activities are due to start on Thursday 9th September, 3:15 to 4:15pm in HO1 and HO2 – this is for all new and current DofE students.
Y10 Bronze students – can all equipment be returned to school as soon as possible please – It should be returned to the Spirit Staff Hub clearly marked with your name on an attached paper.
Results days
Results days this summer are August 10th for Sixth Form and August 12th for Year 11. We will be distributing a letter next week with details about how students can collect results and how the days will be organised. There will, of course, be support on site to help students make choices about the next stage of their education.
Final thoughts
We are aware that national restrictions across the country are being relaxed from Monday. In school we make local decisions based upon the information we have and, as always, by adopting a safety first approach. As such, we will continue with all the Covid security measures that we have had in place throughout the year. This includes the year bubbles, distancing, sanitising and the enhanced cleaning regimen. We will also be advising students to wear face coverings in corridors and when moving around. Our rationale behind this is based on the incidence of C19 cases within our catchment, other schools experiencing outbreaks and the rising numbers of cases across the city and beyond. Whilst the number of cases within our community remains comparatively low, we remain cautious and feel that a further 4 days of restrictions in school is a small sacrifice to protect our students and their families in the final few days of term.
Finally, we wish Eid Mubarak to all families celebrating next week and hope that all of our community are able to enjoy some quality time with those closest to them over the next few days.
Best wishes,
Scott Doyle
Principal
