Welcome to Littleover Community School

Update from Mr Wilding - 5th March 2021

Posted 5th March 2021

Mr Wilding has sent out an update to parents/carers.

To all parents and carers.

Thank you for the messages of support since my appointment as permanent Headteacher was announced this morning. My promise to all parents and carers and to the wider school community is that I will always do everything I can to make LCS the best school it can possibly be and that my most important priority at all times will be the safety and wellbeing of our young people.

Now, back to business!

Covid-19 testing in school begins of Monday 8th March and all consenting students will be tested the day before their Year Group returns for face-to-face lessons. Please double-check the time and date of your child's test by referring to the information on our website at https://www.littleover.derby.sch.uk/covid.php

As previously stated, there will be no access for parents and carers onto school premises during Covid-19 testing and anyone bringing students by car should park on Pastures Hill or Fresco Drive and allow students to walk onto site. We would encourage as many students as possible to walk to school for their test, especially students in Year 10 upwards. If parking on Fresco Drive, please respect local residents and do not park on verges or block drives.

For the parents and carers enquiring about home-testing kits for students, these will begin to arrive in school next week and will be given to students once they have been tested in school 3 times. Students who have been attending since January in the vulnerable/critical workers groups will receive their home-testing kits first and, as they have already had more than 3 tests in school, can begin home-testing immediately. For all other students, home-testing kits will be issued after their 3rd school test, which will be after 15th March at the earliest.

To assist students in preparing for school-based testing, I have re-attached a link to a short film by the University of Durham, which shows how to conduct a LFT Covid-19 test.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZhSPnnXyPo

Schools have been advised not to order additional home-testing kits for wider use by families of school-age children. This most recent government announcement is separate to our school-based testing and kits will be available from numerous sources. Additional information on this is contained in the document below:

•  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rapid-lateral-flow-testing-for-households-and-bubbles-of-school-pupils-and-staff

A couple of additional reminders for parents, carers and students ahead of return to lessons next week:

• Students are now required to wear face coverings in lessons, after changes to national guidance. Our rules on acceptable face masks are as they were before the Christmas holiday and can be found on our website. Face masks should be a plain colour, fabric or disposable, and fit behind the ear. Students who need to wear a different style of mask for medical reasons are permitted to do so.
• Any money on student food accounts on Wisepay will still be there from last term. Please check your child's Wisepay account before they return to school and ensure there are sufficient funds available, as we still cannot accept cash due to Covid-19 restrictions.
• As previously stated, when students return to face-to-face lessons they should wear full school uniform and arrive at the same gate and at the same time as they did before Christmas. All of this information can be found on our website.

Finally, I need to alert all parents, carers and students to a change in the school Diary for the start of the Summer Term. We have a staff INSET Day scheduled for Monday 19th April which we now need to move to later in the year, with the recent announcement from Ofqual on how GCSE and A Level assessments will be carried out. The date of 19th April was decided on the basis of existing GCSE and A level examination schedules, which have now been cancelled. The scheduled INSET Day on 19th April will now, therefore, be moved to later in the Summer Term and a date will be confirmed as soon as possible. Monday 19th April will revert to being a normal teaching day.

I apologise for any inconvenience this will cause, as I clearly did not want to have to change school calendars which were agreed and published some time ago. As a school, we have not taken additional INSET Days through the Covid-19 pandemic, which schools have been offered the chance to take and some have done, but the date of this final INSET Day of the academic year was no longer viable for us given changes to the GCSE and A Level assessment schedule. As soon as we have a new date for the INSET Day, I will let you know, but it is likely to be at the beginning of the final half-term of this year, after the May holiday.

We now rest over the weekend and prepare for what promises to be a challenging few weeks ahead. Over the next 3 weeks we will be conducting thousands of Covid-19 tests for students and staff and there will inevitably be issues with this. We are doing what we can and trying our best in very difficult circumstances and I apologise in advance if things don't go quite to plan; we have foreseen most of the problems we may face, but the last 12 months has shown us that nothing is ever certain!

Enjoy your weekend.
Keep safe

J. Wilding

Headteacher

Update from Mr Wilding - 2nd March 2021

Posted 2nd March 2021

Mr Wilding has sent out an update to parents/carers.

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

I am now in the position to confirm dates and times for students' first Covid-19 test in school, ahead of their return to face-to-face lessons. As my email of last Friday explained, students will test in school the day before returning to lessons. All students where consent for the test has been obtained should test at the times and dates indicated on the testing timetable, which is available on the school website. We have also produced a short instructional video to explain the process once students arrive for their test. The timetable for student testing and the instructional video are both available at the following link:

https://www.littleover.derby.sch.uk/covid.php#mar2021-reopening

This information will be emailed to all students, posted on our social media accounts and also on Go4Schools, but I would appreciate it if you would ensure your child has read all of the necessary information, ahead of their Covid-19 test and return to lessons. Students will receive their Covid-19 tests in Tutor Groups and should arrive for their test at the time shown.

Where consent has not been obtained for students to be tested in school, these students should return the day after consenting students have been tested, so the whole Year Group will begin face-to-face lessons together; again, please refer to return dates from my email last Friday.

Parents/carers planning to consent for their child(ren) to be tested in school should please do so by tomorrow (Wed 3rd March).The consent form, for those parents/carers who have not already submitted it, is available at the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/LCS-C19ConsentFormStudent

Students attending for Covid-19 testing should arrive at the Fresco Drive entrance and follow the instructions from the instructional video.

Parents/carers bringing students to school for testing must not come onto premises and should park on Pastures Hill or Fresco Drive, allowing students to then access the Fresco Drive entrance on foot. Where students are walking to school for their test, they should not walk in groups, other than family groups, and must maintain social distancing at all times. Students do not need to wear school uniform when arriving for their test but must wear a face covering in the Testing Centre itself.

Students will leave the school site and return home immediately after their test, which will take around 30 minutes including queueing and registration. Students should arrive at the correct time for their test, to reduce waiting times. During the registration process, students will be asked the following information:

• Their full name and date of birth
• Home address and postcode
• Whether they have received the Covid-19 vaccination
• Whether they have any Covid-19 symptoms
• Whether they have returned from outside of the UK within the last 14 days

It would help the registration process if students knew this information when asked by staff in the Testing Centre.

Parents/Carers will receive the result of their child's test by email and text, via Test and Trace; results are normally sent within 1 hour of the test being taken. In the event of a positive result, school staff will also contact the parent/carer concerned to ensure the student does not return to school the following day.

Students will, in total, have 3 Covid-19 tests in the first few weeks of returning to school and will then be issued with home-testing kits. Timings for students' 2nd and 3rd tests will depend on when the 1st tests can be completed, so will be confirmed next week. These subsequent tests will be conducted during the school day.

When students return to school for face-to-face lessons, we once again would ask them to follow all hygiene measures and observe social distancing. Rules are as they were before the Christmas holiday, with the additional measure that students should now wear a face covering in lessons. We would ask all students to continue bringing their own small bottle of hand sanitizer to school and to observe social distancing where possible around the building. Lesson timetables and 'bubble' arrangements remain as they were last term, as do start times and entrance gates for each Year Group.

The school bus will resume on Tuesday 9th March, for students to use on their return to face-to-face lessons. Students cannot use the school bus when arriving on site for their Covid-19 test.

I will be emailing students today with the details of times and dates of testing and there will be an Assembly on Teams for each Year Group on Friday 5th March; invites will be sent to students by each Head of Year.

Please share the information contained in this email with your child(ren) and also encourage them to read the email I have sent to them, as well as looking at the accompanying information on our website.

Thank you for your continued support.

Keep safe.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

LCS Young Reporter 2021

Posted 1st March 2021

LCS students in years 7-9 have been participating in the Young Reporter Project from home this year.

In previous years, a large group of students would be working frantically with the aim of producing an entire news website in a day! This year, due to the pandemic, students have been working on their articles at home and have sent them in for publishing.

You can view their efforts at Students > Clubs and Activities > BBC Young Reporter > 2021.

Well done to all those involved!

Job Vacancy: Teacher of Humanities (A-level Psychology)

Posted 25th February 2021

LCS has a vacancy for the position of Teacher of Humanities (A-level Psychology).

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

Welcome to Littleover Community School. I am lucky enough to have worked at the school since September 2000 and I am delighted to have been asked by Governors to take the role of Acting Headteacher from January 2020 until July 2021.

We are a large comprehensive secondary school, located to the south west of the City of Derby, close to the main transport routes of the A38 and A50. We pride ourselves on the excellent teaching we provide for all our students, as well as the care and support all students receive to help them achieve their best.

We are committed to a broad and balanced curriculum and our students have achieved outstanding results at both GCSE and A Level for many years now. We also believe in providing all our students with wider opportunities for learning and developing through their work in the classroom, as well as access to extra-curricular opportunities in sport and performing arts.

I hope you find our website informative and easy to use.  We are always happy to receive ideas of how we can improve our service to parents, carers, students and our community. 

If you have any ideas or questions about anything on our website, or more widely about the school, please do not hesitate to contact us.  If you would like a paper copy of our school brochure or paper copies of any of the information contained on our website, these are also available, free of charge.

Littleover Community School.
Learning, Caring, Succeeding.

Mr J. Wilding
Headteacher