Principal Update: March 16th 2020

Letter from the Principal – Before Remote Learning Starts

16th March 2020

Dear Parents,

We are writing to reassure you that everything is in place and ready for remote learning to begin next week.

We would like to draw your attention to these important points below:

1. Contact details – Please refer to the email which will be sent from the school in reference to your contact details. It is imperative that we have correct contact details for all parents at this time.

This form will also confirm:
• Availability of parental support.
• Student access to a device.

Please respond to this by Thursday, 19th March.

2. Online Safeguarding – to ensure our students’ safety during this period, please read and digitally sign this parental agreement: Remote Learning Parent Safeguarding Agreement and Screen Time Policy.

3. Registration, Student Engagement and Progress – students are expected to be active in daily online learning. Teachers or pastoral staff will be in touch with you if a child is not engaging or a concern arises.

4. Preparation for Online Learning – Online learning pages will be made available to you on Friday, 20th March. Please check your access to learning resources, activities and platforms. If you face any significant difficulties, tutors, subject and class teachers will be available to respond via email between 15:00 and 17:00 on both Friday, 20th and Saturday, 21st March to answer any questions you might have.

5. Online Training for parents – please see these links for videos on how to access the VLE and Remote Learning. Pre-Prep, Prep Year 3-6 & Prep Year 7-8. Online virtual sessions will be running for those parents who would like training on the following areas:

Friday 20th

Saturday 21st

6. Cultural sensitivity – We will do our best to filter out any cultural insensitivities but if you do notice anything then please bring it to our attention via the end of day feedback form (see point 8 below). Please bear in mind some of the content is intrinsically bound by the UK exam board syllabi.

7. Communication – if there is a subject specific problem, please contact the class or subject teacher in the first instance. The contact details of each teacher are here or are also on each task set on theVirtual Learning Environment (VLE).

8. End of day feedback survey – we have created a Prep and Senior School Daily Feedback Survey, in order for us to monitor how things are going for Prep and Senior students. Pre-Prep, have a link for each day on the Pre-Prep area of the VLE.

9. Working hours – from Sunday, 22nd March, staff will be available, via email, between 08:00 and 15:00. If you have any queries regarding a lesson, please contact the subject teacher/class teacher directly. If your issue is of a technical nature, the teacher will refer you to [email protected]

10. Trips & Events – additional correspondence will be sent out this week outlining the procedure for refunds.

11. Calendar – we have provisionally rescheduled events but please keep up to date with the calendar on SOCS as these parameters are likely to shift again.

Further advice on creating the right learning environment, structure for the day and support for the parents will follow in the correspondence from the individual heads of school. This will be sent on Wednesday, 18th March.

Best wishes,
Michael Wilson | School Principal

Click here for video message from Principal Michael Wilson