18 June 2020

Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s),

I hope this letter finds you and your family well. It has been good to meet so many of you at the various forums. Thank you for your continued support, it really means a lot both to me personally and to all the staff. I mentioned in last week’s communication home that some parents who have been attending the recent virtual forums have helped to design a survey to better understand your concerns and questions as we plan our return to school in September. Please find the link to the survey here, could you kindly complete by Monday 29 June we would really value your input.

Presently, there is no government guidance on what September looks like, however, what we can say is that we anticipate that not all the students will be at the school at the same time. Present guidance on social distancing and class sizes of no more than 15 means that we may need to incorporate a rota system upon our return. We are actively working on our plans for the new academic year and I will confirm these as soon as I am able, the intention is to do this before the summer holidays.

From next week the Year 10 and Year 12 supplementary sessions begin. We are all looking forward to seeing the students. Allocated time slots have been communicated by post and email. If your child is in Year 10 or Year 12 and you have not received these please contact admin@sns.hackney.sch.uk

SNS Parent Forums

Next week we have the following parent events. As usual please contact Sophie Preedy, my PA, on sop.pre@sns.hackney.sch.uk if you would like to attend these virtual sessions.

Wednesday 24 June

  • PTFA – 6pm – a letter with further information on this to follow.
  • BAME Parents Forum – 7pm – following on from this week’s valuable forum, we are holding another one.

Thursday 25 June

  • Year 10 parent/carers – 5pm – this forum is targeted at Year 10 parents only. An agenda will be sent in advance. Thank you to the parents who have written in with a number of ideas and suggestions. We are looking forward to discussing these with you further.
  • SEND Forum – 7pm – in response to feedback, this forum is for parents with children who have additional needs.

Minutes our previous forums are available below:

SNS Home Learning

The online programme is constantly evolving, and starting next week we are delighted to say that there will be live lessons across all year groups. Please find the timetable below. Initially, when school closure began, the feedback from several parents was that there was too much work, now that we have all become more accustomed to this way of working, we are able to raise our expectations of the work that our students must be completing. Teams tutor sessions are all underway and we expect students to join in with these on a weekly basis. As always if you have any curriculum-related questions please contact the named person on the curriculum map.

Online timetable

GCSE and A level results days

Though external summer examinations are cancelled, results days remain the same. A Level Results Day will be on Thursday 13 August and GCSE Results Day will be on Thursday 20 August. As you would expect, the organisation of these days will be different from usual, to ensure we adhere to social distancing guidelines. We are however planning for students to come on to the school site and to collect their results in person at an allocated time on those days. More information on this to follow for Y11 and Y13 parents and students.

Lastly, this week we have witnessed great leadership from one of our finest football players, Marcus Rashford. His open personal letter to the government asking them to reverse the decision to end the food voucher scheme and forcing the government to commit up to a £120 million in a Covid Summer Food Fund has been nothing short of inspirational. It really fills us with hope when we see selfless acts like these. On that note, our theme this week is the topic of change:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

I wish you all the very best. Keep well.

Zehra Jaffer