Parent Bulletin: 23.07.2021
23rd July 2021
This week's parent bulletin is available here:
Dear Parents and Carers
As we reach the end of term, I’d like to thank you for the support you have shown to the school throughout this extremely challenging past year. We’re so grateful to all of you who have sent messages of thanks and good will to teaching and support staff; these have helped to sustain us through this period of exceptionally intense work.
As a staff, we are proud of the way the College has worked through the pandemic. Very high standards of teaching and learning have been maintained, and our strong preventative measures have meant that until this last week, we have been able to contain the virus and drive down the absences caused by ‘bubble’ closures (a word we can’t forget too soon…) For a round-up of the last term, please see the summer edition of News@Cam.
Enrichment Week
Over the past week we’ve had a wonderful return to enrichment activities. All year groups have finally had a sports day; pupil participation was fantastic, despite the heat, and thanks are due to the PE Dept for their typically hard work and impeccable organisation. In addition, Year 10 have spent time on their Core RPE and Careers curriculum; Year 9 have been making a wonderful art installation whilst also catching up on some important learning in PSHE. Year 8 have made films in Spanish and had a brilliant time on trips to Wimpole, with the Wimpole staff congratulating us on the pupils’ impeccable behaviour. Year 7 have done workshops in archaeology, and Maths activities. Today, Year 9 are celebrating their cultural diversity with a wonderful array of different foods brought in to share; celebration assemblies have recognised pupils’ hard work and achievements, and we’ve been privileged to hear our talented pupils perform for us again. It’s been a great reminder of all the events we very much hope we can look forward to again next year.
Virtual Concert
Despite losing large numbers of performers and cast due to isolations this week, once again, the Music Department have produced us a wonderful, virtual end of term celebration which can be found on this LINK
Staffing
We are saying sadly saying goodbye to number of people who are moving on to new posts elsewhere: Mr Stephens is leaving the Maths Department and Mrs Jones leaves Computer Science, while Mrs McWherter is moving on from the English Department and Mr Henderson is leaving PE.
Mrs Noble, our Educational Visits Coordinator and Mr Al-Radaideh, our senior IT technician are both taking up new positions elsewhere, as are a number of teaching assistants – parents have already been informed of changes to their children’s SEN support. Mr Rignall and Mrs Agg who have been cover supervisors, and Mr Pereira, Foreign Language Assistant are also leaving us – we are grateful to all these staff members and thank them for their contribution to the College. We have been able to recruit strong, specialist replacements for our teachers and the timetable is fully staffed for next year. We do however, have a number of vacancies in support staff positions; please see the Vacancies section of our website if you might be interested.
Testing
Please ensure you have read the letter sent home by School Post yesterday which explains the testing arrangements for each year group as we return in September, and the places in Cambourne where you can pick up home test kits. This week, 69% of our families tested their children - thank you! - and a significant number of positive cases were identified via these lateral flow tests. Please do continue to test at home over the summer break: we have recorded 19 positive cases amongst our pupils since Sunday.
School Uniform
If you are replacing uniform, please check the school uniform rules on the website, and ensure that you are buying acceptable items for September. Please note that skirts must be worn to the knee, and shoes must be completely plain, black and without logos.
We are looking forward to the start of the new school year, and hopefully, a return to pupil circulation around the specialist teaching areas and a full programme of extra-curricular activities and visits.
In the meantime, we wish you all a happy, safe and restful summer holiday.
Yours sincerely
Claire Coates
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