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12 November 2021 Dear Parents/Carers As mentioned last week, we made a few amendments to our Remembrance Day this year; Mr Houghton produced an assembly for all year groups on the history of Armistice Day. Students then watched a short video, containing the Last Post and a two minutes’ silence on Thursday morning. A small delegation, representing the school, attended the service at the war memorial in Backwell village laying a cross on behalf of all staff and students. Despite not being able to gather as a school, it was still a solemn moment of reflection, thought and remembrance across the school community. COVID-19 Update As a school we continue to review and update our COVID-19 risk assessment. I am pleased to say that cases within the school community do appear to be falling, but we cannot afford to become complacent, especially as we head further into the winter months. We have also been monitoring C02 levels in classrooms over the past week to see if ventilation can be improved in any areas of the school. We will continue with the following mitigations over the next few weeks and I will update you if/when they are changed:

Staff and students are required to wear a face coverings in all indoor communal spaces including: canteens (except when immediately eating or drinking), common rooms, corridors, toilets, the Library, Reception, PE changing rooms etc. and during assembly.

o At the moment masks are not required in classrooms, but students and staff are welcome to wear a mask if this makes them feel more comfortable.

Ventilation of classrooms. This means that windows and doors will be open to encourage through-flow of air.

Parents will be aware that we have had Sirona Care and Health on the site this week offering COVID- 19 and flu vaccines to students. Sirona will contact those parents who signed up for their children to have flu vaccines, but who missed them this week, so these can be reorganised. Parents are able to book COVID-19 jabs for their children (over 12) via the NHS should they so wish. Thank you to all the sixth form students who helped fetch and direct pupils for the vaccines this week – your help ensure a smooth running of this large programme. A reminder regarding piercings as part of our school uniform expectations As outlined in our uniform expectations students are permitted to wear a maximum of one pair of earrings in the ear and/or one stud in the nose to school and these must be removed for PE/sporting activities due to Health and Safety reasons.

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Therefore, if a student is considering a new piercing, then this needs to be timed (for example at the start of the summer holidays) so that it can be removed without causing pain/healing over. I recommend checking how long the healing process will take before having the piercing done. If your child has recently had a new piercing PE staff will still expect them to take part in PE lessons, and so they should come prepared with the correct PE kit. This includes bringing tape or a plaster to cover the new piercing. Should some elements of the PE lessons be unsuitable (e.g. they may contain contact) then your child will undertake referee, score recording duties etc. instead. This will apply to a wide range of sports including netball, rugby and hockey. Students with piercings are not able to use these as a reason to request different PE activities or to opt out of PE all together. Failure to comply with these expectations will result in the school’s Behaviour Policy being followed. Thank you for your support on this matter. Mr J Nunes Headteacher * * * * *

MESSAGES Sixth Form Open Evening A reminder that our Virtual Sixth Form Open Evening ‘went live’ on the school website yesterday evening at so parents/carers of Year 11 students and who are considering staying on into the Sixth Form, are now able to view a welcome from the Headteacher, a talk from our Head of Sixth Form, as well as videos outlining the various subjects we have on offer. This will help students to find out more about all of the options at Backwell School as well as check out some frequently asked questions. You will also find an electronic copy of the Sixth Form Courses Booklet 2022-24 detailing the courses on offer. All Year 11 students were issued with a paper copy of the booklet during the course of this week. We were very disappointed that we were not able welcome students and parents to our Sixth Form in person, but we hope our online materials will give you plenty of information about post-16 study at Backwell School. Enrichment Week 2022 Students in Years 7 and 9 : A reminder that the second deposit for Years 7 and 9 Enrichment Week trips is due to be paid by Monday 15 November. Also, if you haven’t already done so, please could we ask you to return the completed Student Behaviour Agreement forms (yellow sheets for Year 7 and pink sheets for Year 9s) that were included in the Enrichment Week information packs given to students in Years 7 and 9 last month. Should you need a replacement form please contact Student Services by emailing studentservices@backwellschool.net To pay your deposit for Enrichment Week, please click on the link to ParentPay. If you have any problems accessing the ParentPay service, or you wish to discuss payments or financial difficulties, then please contact the Finance Team on 01275 465941.

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Students in Year 8 : Enrichment Week packs for students in Year 8 will start to be distributed in tutor time towards the end of next week. Please keep an eye out for this in your child’s bag. Children in Need: Friday 19 November A reminder that Friday 19 November is a non-school uniform day in aid of Children in Need and

students are asked to donate a minimum of £1.00 to take part. As always, we would ask that clothing is appropriate to wear in a school setting and that no hair dye is worn. Thank you. Sirona School Health Nurse Webinars Sirona School Health team are offering a series of webinars in December which they have asked us to publicise to parents and carers. They cover a wide variety of topics including:

o Keeping your child happy and healthy o Your child’s dental health o Healthy eating o Continence in children and young people o Understanding your child’s wellbeing o Eating disorder awareness o Helping your child with sleep

The attached poster gives further details about the dates and times, as well as links to click so that you can book yourself onto the webinars you wish to attend. A reminder about masks Please could we ask parents to remind their child(ren) to bring a face covering to school each day. They are required to wear one in all indoor communal spaces, including canteens (except when actually eating or drinking), common rooms, corridors, toilets, library, reception etc and during assembly. This week has seen a high demand from students for disposable masks and we have now run out. So now, in the event a student has forgotten their mask, we are issuing reusable/washable black masks and have had to re-introduce a charge of £2.00 per mask. This charge will be added to parents’ ParentPay accounts. Careers Bulletin Please find below a link to the Careers Bulletin on our school website. This includes a section on careers resources, events and support, including the school's careers platform, Unifrog. Current careers events and opportunities - 12 November 2021 If you have any queries regarding future plans Mrs Ball can be contacted on her school email cball@backwellschool.net.

Upcoming Events

Thursday 11 November Sixth Form Virtual Open Evening – information available on the school website

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Friday 19 November Non-school uniform day in aid of ‘Children in Need’ (please note this was wrongly advertised as Friday 11 November)

Wednesday 24 November

Inset Day

Thursday 2 December

Year 12 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 9 December Year 10 Parents’ Evening

8 – 10 December Sixth Form production ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Tuesday 14 December

Christmas Concert

Friday 17 December Last day of term LETTERS HOME … Sixth Form Bulletin for week commencing 15 November – Parents/Carers of Sixth Form students Year 10 GCSE Food and Nutrition: Contribution for materials 2021/22 – 2022/23 – Parents/Carers of Year 10 Food and Nutrition students Year 11 GCSE PE Revision Flash Cards – Parents/Carers of Year 11 GCSE PE students

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