Return to School and Communication from Sandy Secondary School
Dear Parent/Carer,
The staff at Sandy Secondary School have been working incredibly hard to prepare the school for full re-opening in September in line with government guidance. I want to take this opportunity to remind you of the plans that we have already communicated, and to ensure that you have all the information needed for your child to have a smooth and positive start to the new academic year. You will therefore find attached to this letter a booklet with details of the arrangements we have put in place. Please read through this carefully as it contains a lot of important information about how the school is working to ensure the safety of its students and staff during this difficult time.
To support your child in their return to school, we have also put in place the following arrangements for September:
Year 7: Will start school on Monday 7th September at 8.35am. Your child should make their way to the tennis courts at the back of the school, where they will be informed of their temporary tutor group, before being led into school by their form tutor. For more detailed information on arrangements for this year group, please see the letter dated 14th July, 2020 on our school website.
Year 8 and 9: Will start school on Thursday 10th September at 8.35am. Your child should make their way to the tennis courts at the back of the school, where they will be informed of their temporary tutor group, before being led into school by their form tutor. For more detailed information on arrangements for these year groups, please see the letter dated 14th July, 2020 on our school website.
Year 10: Will start school on Monday 14th September at 8.35am. Your child should make their way directly to their tutor base – we have made some changes that will take effect from September due to Covid-19, and details of the changes to tutor groups will be displayed outside Student Reception as students arrive into school.
Year 11: Will start school on Monday 14th September at 8.35am. Year 11 students will no longer be in their previous tutor group. We have set up new tutor groups as of September, to help students in Year 11 to catch up with the work missed in the core subjects. Every morning, they will now have intervention time from 8.40am to 9.10am, in the five core areas of English, Maths, Science, Humanities and Modern Foreign Languages. We are also looking at additional catch-up sessions being put into the timetable, as well as period 6 sessions starting after October half term. Therefore, your child should make their way to the tennis courts at the back of the school, where they will be guided to their new tutor group, before being led into school by their form tutor.
Year 12/13: Will enroll during the first three days of the week beginning Monday 7th September, and will then take part in a two-day induction programme on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th September from 9.00am-12.30pm. Normal lessons will commence for 6th-Form on Wednesday 16th September. More information will follow shortly with the appointment time for enrollment.
We believe that regular communication between the school and home is critically important for ensuring that our students have a positive experience of school and are supported to reach their full potential. We have been made aware that some of the communication sent from the school prior to the summer break has not been reaching some of our parents/carers. We are determined to ensure that the cause of any problem is identified, and a solution found to rectify this as soon as possible.
We are aware that in some instances, parents/carers are continuing to use our old e-mail domain name (@sandyupper.net). If you are making contact with the school please could we ask that you check to ensure that you use the @sandysecondaryschool.com domain name. We would also ask that if you e-mail the school for general inquiries you send your message to parentcontact@sandysecondaryschool.com. This is overseen by main reception, who can then direct your inquiry to the most suitable place. If you have been in direct correspondence with a member of staff we ask that you continue to 'CC' parentcontact@sandysecondaryschool.com so that we can monitor lines of communication, and ensure that all e-mails are responded to promptly. We would also ask that you ensure we have an e-mail address for you on our system, and that this is fully up-to-date. Sometimes our e-mails do also arrive in the 'junk' folder, so please do check to see if this is happening to you. If so, you can alter your settings to ensure that future correspondence remains in your inbox.
If you believe that you are not receiving communication from the school, or that your e-mails are not reaching us, please do give us a call so that we can investigate the cause and identify a suitable solution. Our office will re-open following the summer break on Thursday 3rd September for any questions, concerns or issues in relation to this. In the meantime, please continue to check our school website as we regularly upload all correspondence sent out via the school. We also continue to update our Facebook page, and share links to key pieces of information that we have shared through e-mail.
We look forward to working closely with you to support your child in September.