XP East

‘Lockdown’ update: 24.03.20

By Jamie Portman24th March 2020

As per the Prime Minister’s announcement last night concerning ‘staying at home and staying away from others’, our schools will remain open only for the children of key workers, and those that have been identified as vulnerable.

We have strict guidelines in place regarding hand hygiene and social distancing. Our available staff are operating a rota throughout the period.

We will continue to provide you all with as much structure and support as we can during this very difficult time.

Stay safe everyone.

Jamie Portman (Principal of XP and XP East)

Parent Support Centre

By Martin Said24th March 2020

Our new ‘Parent Support Centre‘ is now online.

The video below shows how you can access advice on how we are using technology at this time. This includes:

- How students are set work
- Why we use different online technologies
- How to access these technologies
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How to contact staff

Even more content will be added to the website in the next few days.

Weekly Planner: Mon 23rd March – Fri 27th March

By Martin Said23rd March 2020

As Mr Portman has outlined, we are providing an overview for parents of activities for students to complete throughout the week.

The weekly planner can be found by by clicking on this link.

More detailed instructions for students can be found on Google Classroom.

A family’s guide to online learning at XP.

21st March 2020Jamie Portman

Dear parent / guardian,

We have created ‘A family’s guide to online learning at XP’ which can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink, or the image below.

Part of our strategy revolves around helping students and families to structure their days in order to establish routine. Where possible, we would like students to follow their normal timetable and complete the work that has been set by their teachers. A ‘weekly planner’ will be available for each year group and published on our website on a weekly basis. This will provide a very brief overview of the week in order to highlight what students should be working on.

Whilst the weekly planner will provide an overview of the week, Google Classroom will be used to provide specific details for tasks. Staff will be able to set work, provide resources, and even create videos in some instances which will go some way in ensuring that families are supported.

As mentioned, following the normal timetable is only a suggestion but establishing a routine at home may help families to ensure that students can focus on their learning.

We are also setting up a ‘Parents support centre’ which will be released as soon as possible. This will contain useful resources, a contact list for teachers and staff, and other information to support parents during this time.

Best wishes,

Jamie Portman (Principal of XP and XP East )

Contacting school when closed

By Michelle Jones20th March 2020

Over the next few weeks if you need to contact either school please email the usual office email address. If it is urgent please call on 01302 898792 option 2 for the XP East school. You will not be able to get through to XP but all enquires can be handled at East.

Update 19/03/20

By Jamie Portman19th March 2020

We will keep our schools open for as long as possible, whilst ensuring that we keep our students / children safe. This is our top priority.

* Updated on 20.03.20 due to the recently released Government guidance on key workers.

As you are aware the Government has announced the closure of all schools from the end of the day tomorrow, Friday 20th March 2020.

We will be keeping the school open for those children whose parents/carers work as key workers and those who are open to social services, support agencies or have an Education, Health and Care Plan. Key Workers that we are aware of include:

Health and social care
Education and childcare
Key public services
Local and national government
Food and other necessary goods
Public safety and national security
Transport
Utilities, communication and financial services

I am sure you will appreciate, a plan needs to be prepared urgently and therefore we would really appreciate a response to the following request:

Please contact the school offices as soon as possible should you believe you fall into one of the categories listed above. We appreciate the phone lines may be busy, therefore please also use our admin email if you need to which is [email protected]
Please state your child’s name and your reason you request your child to remain in school during these difficult times.

We are continuing to look at supporting our families who are entitled to free school meals and will provide updates as soon as we can. Please keep checking the website daily for updates.

Best wishes,

Jamie Portman (Principal of XP and XP East)

School Closure update:

By Jamie Portman19th March 2020

Please find below an update from the XP Trust on the current situation.

After the UK Government’s announcement yesterday we would like to update and clarify our plans on the Coronavirus situation, as from (today) 18th March 2020.

We confirm that we will continue to support our school community by:

From 23rd March 2020,

Keeping our schools open for the children / students whose parents work as ‘key workers’, defined by the government as NHS staff, Police and Delivery Drivers, more details to follow on this.
Opening the schools for children / students who have a Social Worker and/or Education, Health and Care Plans
Ensuring children / students who receive Free School Meals will be able to access the schools to collect a free Meal provided by the school (further details to follow from the schools themselves)

For children / students who have been asked to stay at home by the UK government, we can confirm that:

Our curriculum for XP and XP East is now online for all students to access at home.
Details on how everyone can access these resources are available here.
Every school in the Trust will have plans in place to touch base with their children / students throughout the closure period, they will communicate this to you.

For those parents whose children will continue to come to school on Monday 23rd March, please could you support the schools by ensuring:

Your children / students wash their hands before they come to school and when then get home
You keep the communication between home and schools open via email, websites and phone calls
Follow the government guidance on household self isolation

Schools will continue to send out updates where the situation changes and for your reassurance and information.

As always the usual lines of communication to schools will be open if you have any specific concerns related to your child or circumstances.

Thank you for your support at this time.

Accessing our curriculum online

By Jamie Portman18th March 2020

The video below provides parents and students with instructions on how to access our curriculum online.

All of our students are familiar with Google Docs and Google Classroom, and each of them have an email address which will contain updates on what they should / will be doing.

Please bear in mind that our staff are still teaching lessons, and some of them are in self isolation because they have symptoms of the virus.

However, you will see that our expedition and subject websites have been part of our practice for some time now and we are in a strong position to continue our work remotely.

Coronavirus update: 16/03/20

By Jamie Portman16th March 2020

After a busy day, I am able to update parents on developments.

All staff met at 8am this morning where I explained the key details surrounding the plans and procedures concerning the Coronavirus pandemic. Crew focused on the scientific importance of hand hygiene and this, along with keeping things as routine as possible, acted as the cornerstone of our strategy for the week ahead. Our staff will be meeting after school tomorrow to consolidate our work around remote learning in preparation for any unplanned school closure.

We emphasised to students the need for togetherness during this worrying time as we all need to remind, nudge, and prompt each other into good hygiene habits.

A very small number of students were sent home today because they showed symptoms of a high temperature or the onset of a cough. In addition to this, we have a number of teachers who are currently in self isolation because they too have symptoms.

The latest update from the Prime Minister comes from this afternoon’s news conference:

‘If one person in any household has a persistent cough or fever, everyone living there must stay at home for 14 days.’

We therefore request that should any member of a student’s household displays symptoms, they should not come into school for 14 days.

Best wishes,

Jamie Portman (Principal)

No PE after school clubs this week

By James Walker16th March 2020

There will be no PE clubs after school this week and the Cheerleading competition that was due to take place at EIS Sheffield on Friday has been cancelled. Some schools are taking the stance to cancel fixtures due to the COVID-19 situation – we will inform parents as and when this affects us via website posts.