Dear parent/carer,
I hope this letter finds you and your families well. I hope that you are all having a wonderful and safe summer break. We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again at the start of the new academic year and welcoming our new year 7’s and 12’s into the academy.
Prior to the summer term, the requirement for students to conduct two lateral flow tests (LFT) per week was removed, as the start of term schools and academies will reestablish our testing centres in order to test each student twice in the first few days of term. We are ready once more to do just that. If you have provided consent to testing before, there will be no need to do so again.
For our new year 7 and new year 12 students (new students only) please complete the consent form by clicking on the link below:
Consent for years 7 and 12 (new students)
As a reminder, for all other year groups, consent can be provided by clicking the link below, if you have already done so, there is no need complete this form again.
Consent for Years 8,9,10 Consent for Years 11, 13
No student will be tested without the consent of parents/carers or the student themselves if they are over 16. This therefore leaves parents/carers and students fully informed, aware and in control of their own child’s position. We ran an incredibly successful testing centre earlier this year with over 100 tests conducted per hour. All testing is conducted by fully trained staff, students are able to conduct all testing out of view of other students and we are more than supported with a fantastic team of Health Care Assistants on hand throughout. Your son/daughter will be fully supported and guided through every step of the way by fully trained staff members. Following the test manufacturers guidance we prioritise the nasal swab for students unless they are confident self administering the throat swab as well. This worked incredibly well in reducing concerns as the throat swab can be rather tricky!
The return of students
In July I wrote to you regarding the return of students in September being staggered, this is largely in order to facilitate a full transition for our new Year 7 students and also to ensure testing onsite can be fully implemented, as you can appreciate processing 2400 tests over a few days is a significant task requiring multiple staff. As a reminder the return dates are:
- Wednesday 1st September 2021 – Year 7, 12 and 13
- Thursday 2nd September 2021 – Year 8 and 11 (Year 7, 12 and 13)
- Friday 3rd September 2021 – Year 9 and 10 (Whole school return)
- Monday 6th September 2021 – Whole academy return and second COVID test round begins
To help us with testing
The most cumbersome part of the testing is the registration process on the NHS site, to ensure a speedy process, parents/carers can help by ensuring your son/daughter can memorise key information for the registration process so that it can be repeated from memory or have it written down for reference. Most is already obvious but there are one or two pieces of information that may not be. Such information can be looked up but to do so for each student for every registration can significantly slow the process down. The details required for registration are:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Whether they have any current symptoms
- Whether they have had the vaccine (and if yes, when)
- First Line of their address
- Post Code
- Mobile Contact (either theirs or a parent’s/carer’s if easier to recall)
click here to register for a coronavrius test
Please ensure that your son/daughter knows the username and password should you create an account for them. We will however create one for each test if you are unable to do so.
Finally, enjoy the last few days of the summer holidays, relax and prepare. It is going to be a fantastic year with lots of achievements to be proud of throughout and we can’t wait to get started again!
Yours sincerely
Mr W Monk | Principal
