To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon and Happy New Year from all at LCS. I am emailing you briefly today, as promised, to confirm arrangements for the first week of Spring Term.

With the amount of time many students have already been out of school due to Covid-19 issues since September, we will be setting work for all Year Groups next week. Our aim is to follow the same pattern of remote learning we used last term and Mrs Bunting will email all students with the programme for their Year Group. Our programme of remote learning will continue until guidelines change and as long as resources allow. If changes need to be made, parents, carers and students will be informed.

Students in Years 7-9 will have work set on Go4Schools. They should follow their normal timetable and teachers will be available during lesson times to answer any questions and/or to provide feedback. Students in Years 10-12 will have a combination of work set on Go4Schools and lessons delivered through Microsoft Teams.

Year 13 students should be preparing for their Mock Exams and teachers will be available for support during normal lesson times.

I would ask for your continued support in making sure your children work to the best of their ability with remote learning tasks. This is not an extended holiday and we expect all students to do their best to compete work set.

A small number of our most vulnerable students will be in school next week, as well as children of Key Workers. Parents/Carers have been asked to complete and return a form to confirm their child(ren)'s place; please do not send your child(ren) into school tomorrow unless you have done this.

For students who are in school next week, they should arrive in school at their usual time and at their usual entrance. When students arrive tomorrow morning, they will be directed to the classroom where they will be working for the week. Students in school will complete the same work set remotely for their Year Group, lesson times will be as normal and arrangements for the end of the school day will be as they were last term.

Food will be available in school throughout the week, although there will be a reduced menu due to the small numbers of students attending. Students eligible for Free School Meals will be provided with food in school as normal and parents/carers of those students eligible for FSM working from home will continue to be provided with on-line vouchers.

Students in school next week must only attend if they are well and not showing any symptoms of Covid-19. They must not attend if self-isolating due to Covid-19 or if they, or any member of their household, are awaiting test results.

A significant amount of our time in school next week will be taken up with planning for Covid-19 testing of students and staff. Details of our plans for this will be communicated as soon as possible.

I anticipate sending several email updates to you in the next week and will try my best, as ever, to maintain open and honest communication at all times. Please continue to monitor your emails, as well as our social media sites for regular updates.

Best wishes.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

To all parents and carers.

Good morning everyone.

You will be aware of the latest guidance for schools from Monday 4th January, which again changes our previously published plans for students returning at the start of next term. School will now only be open next week for vulnerable students and children of Key Workers, with all other students working remotely from home. The current plans are for students in Y11 and Y13 to return to school from 11th January, with other Year Groups returning from 18th January.

Further details of Remote Learning will be emailed to students, parents and carers ahead of next Monday, so please continue to check your emails over the next few days.

You will also no doubt be aware of well publicised government plans for schools to begin testing of students for Covid-19 from the start of next term. We have been informed that testing kits and appropriate PPE will begin to be delivered to school from 4th January, but I am sure you can all understand what a massive challenge the organisation of this will be for a school the size of LCS. On this basis, I would respectfully request you continue not to ask us about our plans for testing and that you await further communication from school next week.

I hope you have had a great holiday so far and I wish you all the best for the new year.

Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

I had hoped by leaving my last email update to the afternoon of the penultimate day of term, there was little chance of any government announcements requiring us to change our plans.  Unfortunately, I was mistaken.

With the DfE announcement from yesterday afternoon, students in Year 11 and Year 13 only will now be returning to school on 4th January, as well as vulnerable children and children of Key Workers. We are contacting parents/carers of vulnerable students today and will be emailing all parents/carers during the holidays to identify children of Key Workers where parents/carers wish them to attend school from 4th January. Current government guidance is for students in all Year Groups to return to school on 11th January.

Students in Years 7-10 and Year 12 will be provided with a program of Remote Learning for the first week of next term. Timetables will be emailed to all students and will also be posted on our website.

Apart from the reference to all students returning on 4th January, the remaining information and guidance contained in my email update from yesterday still stands. Please read the instructions carefully for reporting positive Covid-19 cases up to 24th December and we would still ask all parents/carers to report Covid-19 related absence on 4th January, regardless of Year Group.

You will also be aware of the recently announced plans for testing of students and staff for Covid-19 in schools from the start of next term. We are seeking further clarification on the implications of this for us as a school and will be releasing further details from January 4th.

During the school holiday, I have been asked to remind all students, parents and carers of the current Tier restrictions for Derby. These can be found on the DCC website at https://www.derby.gov.uk/coronavirus-covid19/coronavirus-guidance/

Thank you.

Keep Safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

In my message today, I have outlined the procedure for contacting school with information of positive Covid-19 tests after Friday December 18th.

As students in Year 8, 9 and 10 are already working from home and will have had no contacts in school for at least 7 days by Friday 18th December, the following applies to parents/carers of students in Year 7, Year 11 and Sixth Form only.

The DfE guidance is as follows:

•  For the first 6 days after teaching ends, if a pupil or staff member tests positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), having developed symptoms within 48 hours of being in school, the school is asked to assist in identifying close contacts and advising self-isolation, as the individual may have been infectious whilst in school.
• Where a pupil or staff member tests positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), having developed symptoms more than 48 hours since being in school, the school should not be contacted. Parents and carers should follow contact tracing instructions provided by NHS Test and Trace.
• School staff are not asked to remain on-call or conduct any contact tracing more than 6 days after the final day of teaching. Where a schools last teaching day is on Friday 18 December, there should be no pupil contact tracing asks beyond Thursday 24 December.

If your child develops Covid-19 symptoms before the evening of Sunday 20th December and then receives a positive test result, you should call or email school, using our normal contact numbers. A recorded message will be left on our phone and email system, including a telephone number for parents/carers to text the following information:

• Name and Year Group of the child.
• Date and time they were first symptomatic.
• Date and time of positive test result being received.

This dedicated number for reporting Covid-19 cases will be available from Saturday 19th to Thursday 24th December from 9am to 11am. Please only text during these times.

Once the information has been received via text, a member of school staff will call the parent/carer to clarify details and to take names of potential close contacts. School staff will then identify further close contacts by referencing lesson seating plans.

When close contacts are identified, parents/carers will be informed by email. All parents and carers of students in Year 7, 11 and Sixth Form should, therefore, continue to check their emails until Thursday 24th December.
If we have no email address in school for a parent/carer, one phone call will be made in an attempt to make contact. After that, a letter will be sent by post.

The following applies to all students at the start of term on Monday January 4th

As things stand, all students in all Year Groups should return to school on Monday 4th January 2021. ***PLEASE SEE SUBSEQUENT UPDATE REGARDING WHICH YEAR GROUPS SHOULD ATTEND SCHOOL ON MONDAY 4TH JANUARY***

If your child has any symptoms of Covid-19 on Monday 4th January, you must not send them to school. You must also not send them to school if they have been advised to isolate by NHS Track and Trace, or if they or any members of your household have tested positive for Covid-19 or are awaiting a test result.

Please telephone school on the morning of 4th January to report your child's absence and keep them at home until their period of self-isolation has ended.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

On Thursday 17th December, LCS will be transitioning to a new internal phone system.

As part of this process, the school’s phone number 01332 513219 will be transferred to the new system.  The transfer is scheduled to take place between 10am and 1pm.

During this period, it is possible that anyone calling school via 01332 513219 will not have their call connected.  If this occurs, please use the temporary number 01332 978 300 .   This number will act as a contingency until the main school number has transferred.

Thank you for your co-operation.

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

To all parents and carers.

With just a few days left until the end of term, I wanted to send a positive email update today, instead of my usual Covid-19 dominated messages.

Despite all the challenges we have faced this term, I think it is important to remember and celebrate everything we have achieved together as a school and to praise students and staff for their resilience during such challenging times.

Students in all year groups have settled back into a routine of attending school this term. This shouldn't be underestimated as an achievement, given the length of time most students were absent through the first lockdown of spring and early summer this year. For students to have returned as positively as they have and for them to have made such progress is a tribute to their resilience and to the support of yourselves, as parents and carers.

I would like, also, to pay tribute to all LCS staff, who have worked tirelessly to keep the school open and to continue supporting students to progress academically and emotionally. This term we have developed and improved upon our Remote Learning programme, something no school had the capacity for until recent months. We have also successfully introduced a new system for Parents' Evenings which, again, none of us thought we would ever have the need for prior to this year.

We have been lucky as a school to have the support of the majority of our parents, carers and the wider community, but it has been hurtful and frustrating to read some comments in the press both nationally and locally criticising schools and teachers during this time. As someone who has been in teaching since 1993, I can never remember a more challenging time for all of us and as a wise person once said "before you abuse, criticise and accuse, then walk a mile in my shoes" - actually, I think that was Elvis Presley!

As well as our work managing Covid-19 in school this term, I also want to inform you all of two significant achievements for LCS in the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we received confirmation that we have successfully gained Bronze Status in the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools School Mental Health Award. This is something Mrs Craven and our wellbeing team have been aiming to achieve over the past year and is a sign of our ongoing commitment to support students and staff with their wellbeing and mental health.

Secondly, in a recent article published in The Times newspaper, LCS was ranked as the 11th best school in the East Midlands (249 in the country) based on 2019 A Level (A*-B) and GCSE (9-7) results. This is more impressive when schools with selective intakes are removed, as LCS would then be ranked 3rd in East Midlands comprehensive secondary schools.
We will never say we are perfect as a school and we are always looking to improve, but to receive recognition for the work we do is always reassuring and motivating.

As we near the end of term, for students in school our plan remains to finish term on Friday 18th December, with the following finish times:

• Year 7 - 1.45pm
• Year 11 - 1.35pm
• Year 12 and 13 - 12.35pm

There will be a final Assembly presentation for all students before they leave school on Friday and students working from home will have an Assembly with their Head of Year, via Microsoft Teams. Students in these Year Groups will be informed of the exact timings later this week. For students self-isolating in other Year Groups, the presentation will be made available via the school website and social media sites.

I will need to contact you again towards the end of the week, to explain how you can inform us of any students testing positive for Covid-19 at the start of the Christmas holiday, as school staff will need to remain on call to deal with close contacts until Thursday 24th December. I will update all parents and carers before the end of Friday on how to inform us if your child tests positive for Covid-19 before this time.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

4 LCS students have tested positive for COVID-19. Parents/carers of close contacts have been informed, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Due to an increased number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the year group, Year 8 will move to online learning from Monday 14th December, returning on 4th January 2021 after the Christmas break.

Mr Wilding has issued a message to all year 8 parents/carers.

To all Year 8 Parents/Carers,

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Due to an increased number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the year group, Year 10 will move to online learning from Tuesday 8h December, returning on 4th January 2021 after the Christmas break.

Mr Wilding has issued a message to all year 10 parents/carers.

To all Year 10 Parents/Carers,

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Due to a rise in covid-19 cases, Year 10 LCS students are to remain at home on Tuesday 8th December.

To all parents and carers of Year 10 students

Further to the earlier message posted on our Facebook page, I have an update with regard to the current situation with Covid-19 cases in Year 10. Due to the number of positive Covid-19 cases reported to us in Year 10 today, we are still in the process of identifying close contacts of several students. We will, therefore, not be able to make contact with all parents and carers of those students affected this evening.

As a result of the number of cases in Year 10 today, I am now asking all Year 10 students to remain at home tomorrow. All students will be emailed shortly with details of how to access remote learning; please ask your child to check their email later this evening, for this information.

I will be in further discussions with the Local Authority and Public Health tomorrow morning and if there is a need for Year 10 students to remain at home beyond tomorrow, I will contact all parents and carers again tomorrow, via email. I will be honest with you now and say that this is very much a possibility.

Please ask your child(ren) to stay at home this evening and tomorrow morning, until we have contacted all close contacts of the positive cases we have had reported today; we will endeavour to do this as soon as possible tomorrow morning.

I will issue a further update as soon as I can tomorrow. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

The first 5 LCS Year 10 students who have been busy working on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award since March have now completed their awards.

Well done to:

• Heather Bradbury
• Alice Hodgkinson
• Oliver Lefranc
• Zainah Mian
• Girish Sayal

LCS DofE Team

LCS is holding a Christmas Jumper Day on Monday 14th December to raise money for Treetops Hospice.

In the past few years, we have raised funds for Treetops in memory of Sharon Granger and Helen Kerr, former members of staff at LCS, in the form of all staff and students (who would like to) wearing their Christmas jumper and similar to non-uniform day donating £1.

This year, due to Covid, we will have to do things differently.

Therefore, we have created a Gofundme page to collect the donations and the amount raised will be sent directly to Treetops.

Students, who would like to join in, can wear their Christmas Jumper along with their usual school skirt/trousers on the 14th December.

We hope you will be able to support Treetops who have received reduced funds like many charities this year.

To donate, please use the following link:

• LCS Christmas Jumper Day on GoFundMe

Thank you from LCS.

Due to an increased number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the year group, Year 9 will move to online learning for 2 weeks from Monday 7th December.

Mr Wilding has issued a message to all year 9 parents/carers.

To all Year 9 Parents/Carers,

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

Good evening from LCS.

As Year 9 students, parents and carers are already aware, due to a number of confirmed COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases in the Year Group, Year 9 will move to online learning for the next two weeks from Monday 7 December, returning to school following the Christmas break on Monday 4th January. This is extremely disappointing and frustrating for us as a school and I am well aware of the frustration being felt by those students, parents and carers directly affected.

In making this decision, I have taken advice from Public Health England and Derby City Council. Littleover is experiencing a high rate of coronavirus cases as a community and this has been reflected in the number of cases we have seen in school recently. Cases in Year 9 have been of particular concern and whereas we have a number of positive cases and students being asked to self-isolate as close contacts in other year groups, Year 9 has seen a significant rise in cases in the last 3 to 4 days, with other students displaying symptoms and awaiting test results. We had hoped that asking Year 9 students to work from home previously would have allowed us to bring the number of cases down and be able to continue until the end of term with students in school but, unfortunately, this does not seem to have been the case.

All students in Year 9 have been issued with a letter this afternoon with details of their on-line learning programme, which will start on Monday. This information will also be posted on our website. 

We are asking students to follow their normal school timetable and to complete work set by teachers in a variety of different formats. Teachers will be available during each lesson to offer support and answer questions, via email. We are planning to contact as many students as we can over the next two weeks via telephone and will also be planning some recreational and fun activities, including our regular last day of term Assembly which will be via Microsoft Teams.

I cannot apologise enough for having to take this action, but I feel there is no safe alternative under the circumstances.

Public Health Derby and Derby City Council have asked me to take this opportunity to remind all students, parents and carers of the new Tiered restrictions for Covid-19 management. Derby is currently under Very High (Tier 3) local restrictions, which means no mixing of households indoors or most outdoor places, apart from support bubbles. Full details of the restrictions can be found ongov.uk/coronavirus.
A link to the specific guidance is below:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-restriction-tiers-what-you-need-to-know?utm_source=1%20December%202020%20C19&utm_medium=Daily%20Email%20C19&utm_campaign=DfE%20C19

For students in school over the last two weeks of term, it will be a more low-key end of term and approach to Christmas than we are used to. We will continue lessons as normal until the last day of term, but we are planning some festive activities, including Christmas Jumper Day on Monday 14th December; more details to follow next week.

Due to the current restrictions, staff will not be able to hold their traditional Form Time activities with students, such as last day parties and 'Secret Santa', and we strongly advise students do not bring presents, chocolates etc into school to share with friends. I know this will be very difficult for students to do, but the increased risk of Covid-19 transmission these activities create would put them at potentially greater risk of infection.

As a staff we are making changes to our usual Christmas routines. We are sending more E-Cards within school instead of traditional Christmas cards and replacing our traditional presents to staff with charity donations to local good causes. I would encourage students to do the same, to show our appreciation of those around us, without putting them at increased risk.

I will update you all further next week and throughout the last two weeks of this, extremely challenging, Autumn Term.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

Year 12 Autumn reviews are now available on Go4Schools.

More information about them can be found from a letter sent to students on the Letters Home page.

4 LCS students, 3 in Year 9 and 1 in Year 8 have tested positive for COVID-19. We are in the process of contacting all close contacts of the students, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

We are looking forward to welcoming Year 9 and Year 11 students back tomorrow, after their period of Remote Learning. I would like to thank all students, as well as their parents and carers, for supporting our Remote Learning program over the last 2 weeks. An important reminder that students should not return to school if they are showing any symptoms of Covid-19, regardless of how mild these symptoms may be. Students should also not return if any members of their family have symptoms or are awaiting test results.

We are continuing to have cases of students testing positive for Covid-19 in most Year Groups, which are requiring groups of students to be sent home as close contacts. At present, most of the students testing positive are already self-isolating due to cases in their family, or are leading to small numbers of students being identified as close contacts. If numbers of positive cases continue to increase or there are large numbers being identified as close contacts, however, I cannot guarantee that whole Year Group bubbles will not be asked to work from home in the future. As always, any decision made will primarily be with the health and safety of students and staff in mind.

As we are now 10 weeks into the Autumn Term and with the number of cases of Covid-19 we have had, particularly recently, we are aware that some students have now been asked to self-isolate as close contacts several times. We are looking to put in additional support for these students, particularly if they have been sent home more than twice since September. We cannot predict which students will test positive for Covid-19 and, therefore, do not know who their close contacts will be. We will continue to do what we can, however, for the students most affected.

A reminder that school is closed on Monday 30th November for staff INSET. We are planning some Christmas activities for students in the last 3 weeks of term, details of which will follow in due course. It will be a different end of term than any we have had before, but we will still be marking the festivities in some form.

Finally, we have been contacted by our local Police Safer Neighbourhood team about E-Scooters. I have been asked to share the message below with all parents and carers;

Thank you, as always for your continued support. Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

LCS has a vacancy for the position of: Teaching Assistant (English, Maternity Cover).

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

The timetables for the GCSE and A-level exams in Summer 2021 are now available to download.

You can download a copy from the Exams page.

An LCS Student in Year 10 has tested positive for COVID-19. We have contacted parents/carers of all close contacts of the students, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

There are a few important items in my update today, which I hope you will all find useful.

Firstly, I would like to thank all parents and carers for their feedback on our Remote Learning programme. I have received emails from a large number of people and all feedback has been gratefully received. We have adapted our programme throughout the week and have learned lessons ourselves for how we would do things differently if/when we are in the same position again. Overall, we are happy with how our remote lessons have gone so far and with the vast majority of students who have engaged in a positive manner.

7RMF are due to return to school from their period of Remote Learning on Monday, followed by Year 9 and Year 11 on Thursday 26th November. Please remember that these dates for students to return are only if they are well and not displaying any symptoms of Covid-19.  If your child is symptomatic, no matter how mild the symptoms may be, or if they are self-isolating due to a subsequent positive case since their period of Remote Learning began, they must not return to school. Please also do not send your child(ren) to school if they or anyone in the family is awaiting test results. This applies to all students at all times, as well as to students returning to school from Remote Learning.

The government have recently published updated guidance for parents and carers around school provision during the Covid-19 outbreak. The link to this guidance is below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-in-the-autumn-term

On a separate matter, we have started our run of Parents' Evenings which will take us up to the end of the Autumn Term. We held a very successful remote Year 7 'Settling In' evening with parents/carers and Form Tutors on Tuesday of this week and we have two Parents' Evenings, for Year 13 and Year 11 respectively, scheduled in the next few weeks. For the Year 13 and Year 11 Parents' Evenings we will be using a new system of video calls, using software from SchoolCloud. Parents/carers of students in Year 13 have already received this information and appointments are in the process of being booked. Year 11 parents/carers will receive this very soon and will be able to start booking appointments with teaching staff. This is a totally new way of running Parents' Evenings for us, but we are excited about using the system for the first time and I hope it will be well received by parents and carers.

In my last update I promised a link to our recent parent/carer and student survey results. These can be found on our website, at the link below:

https://www.littleover.derby.sch.uk/information.php#parents_survey

Finally, the letter below outlines support available to families through the Christmas period. This letter comes jointly from ourselves and Derby City Council and is aimed at families not already claiming Free School Meals for their children; see below:

If you wish to access this support, please follow the instructions contained within the letter. A downloadable copy can be found under Parents > Communications > Letters Home

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. I am always happy to hear from anyone with comments about the school, positive or otherwise, and would again encourage anyone to email me if they would like to do so. I will do my best to respond to every message I receive.

Thank you. Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

The results of the recent LCS Student and Parent/Carer surveys are now available.

You can find them at Parents > Communications > Parental Surveys.

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

To all parents and carers.

Good evening from LCS.

I hope this message finds you all well. Unfortunately, as you know, I had to make the decision yesterday to ask Year 9 and Year 11 students to work from home for the next 2 weeks. This was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make since taking the role of Acting Headteacher in January, but was a decision where I felt I had no choice.

As a school, we had a relatively small number of cases of Covid-19 amongst students in the first half-term; up to the last Wednesday of the half-term, we had 3 cases amongst students in 6 1/2 weeks. Over the last 2-3 weeks cases have risen in the community and in Derby as a whole, which has been mirrored in school. With the number of students currently being asked to self-isolate in Year 9 and Year 11, the decision to go to Remote Learning for 2 weeks with these groups was made both on health grounds and on the grounds of consistency of learning for those students at home, as well as those at school.

I am well aware of the inconvenience this decision will have caused some families, which I can only apologise for. With the number of cases locally, however, I cannot guarantee that the same situation may not happen again in other Year Groups, when the number of cases or students self-isolating reaches a certain point. All I can promise is that any decisions made will primarily be on the basis of the health and safety of our students and staff.

We have started our Remote Learning offer for students in Year 9 and Year 11 immediately this morning and, understandably, this has not been without technical problems. I hope most students have had a positive experience of lessons today and I would like to thank those parents and carers who have brought issues to our attention. Any issues or problems raised are being addressed and we are confident we will get better at delivering lessons remotely, over time. Today was the first day this school has ever attempted to teach a Remote Curriculum in this way and I would respectfully ask parents and carers to bear with us until we can iron out the problems. If you have any comments you would like to make on this issue, positive or otherwise, I would be happy to hear from parents and carers via email. As always, I will try my best to respond to any messages I receive.

As we expected under the circumstances, a small number of students have behaved inappropriately using the Microsoft Teams technology and those students have been contacted individually to remind them of our expectations for Remote Learning, which are the same as in the classroom. As the excitement and novelty of Remote Learning wears off, I hope students will settle in to using the technology in a consistent manner.

I would like to thank all parents and carers for their feedback on our recent Parent/Carer Survey. The responses to this, as well as our Student Survey, will help us to improve our work during the ongoing Covid-19 guidelines and restrictions. Results from both surveys will be posted on our website soon and I will include a link to these results in a future update.

Finally, thank you for the positive responses we have had to our Act of Remembrance film, which was shown to all students yesterday during our collective period of silence. For those of you who haven't seen it, the link is below:

• https://youtu.be/5hTTOQKK7C0

Thank you, as always, for your continued support in these challenging times.

Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

3 LCS students,1 in Year 10, 1 in Year 12 and 1 in Year 13 have tested positive for COVID-19. We are in the process of contacting all close contacts of the students, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Due to Covid restrictions, 2020 GCSE and A-level exam certificates this year will not be able to be collected via our usual Reunion/presentation evenings and must be collected from school at specific times.

Collection days for ex-students of LCS are as follows:

• 16th November - 20th November - Surnames A-M
• 23rd November - 27th November - Surnames N-Z

1pm – 4.30pm daily.

Please bring photo identification with you.

Update 20th November: Further Maths Certificates have now arrived and are ready for collection.

Note: Students in LCS Sixth Form will receive their certificates in school.

Due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases amongst students in Years 9 and 11, we ask that students in these year groups remain at home until Thursday 26th November.

Mr Wilding has sent a message to all parents and carers:

Due to COVID-19, this year's LCS Remembrance ceremony has been held online. Lest we forget.

3 LCS students,1 in Year 7, 1 in Year 9 and 1 in Year 11 have tested positive for COVID-19. We are in the process of contacting all close contacts of the students, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

LCS has a vacancy for the position of: Teacher of English and Media Studies.

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

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

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

I have deliberately waited until now to send my first email update of the new half-term, as we have been awaiting guidance on the continued opening of schools during national lockdown. This guidance arrived late yesterday afternoon.

In short, there appear to be very few new aspects of this revised guidance which will affect us at LCS. The main change is the move to compulsory face coverings for all students and adults in communal areas of school buildings, although the revised guidance still does not make face coverings compulsory in lessons. As we have already been operating this system since mid-way through the last half-term, our rule on face coverings will continue as it currently is.

I have asked staff to be increasingly vigilant in enforcing this rule, together with other aspects of our safety and hygiene protocols, and I have spoken to all students yesterday about the need for us all to follow the rules for our own safety. I would respectfully ask all parents and carers to continue supporting us with our hygiene rules and I would thank you again for the support you have shown so far this year.

The revised government guidance also references transport and reminds parents and carers that if bringing or collecting children from school by private vehicle, that this should preferably be for single household use. Students using public or dedicated school transport, such as a school bus, should continue to wear face coverings at all times.

Attendance at school remains compulsory for all students, unless they are medically unfit to attend for whatever reason, including Covid-19, or instructed to self-isolate as a close contact of a positive Covid-19 case. Students absent for Covid-19 related reasons will be set work remotely throughout their illness, or self-isolation period. 

The original advice over shielding for extremely clinically vulnerable students no longer applies in most cases, although parents are advised to speak to their GP if they are concerned.

As I have previously highlighted, it is essential that students displaying Covid-19 symptoms access a test as soon as possible and do not attend school. Students should not attend if they have been tested and are awaiting test results, unless the test has been taken as a routine part of a student or parent/carers job and they are not symptomatic. This would apply, for example, to those parents/carers or students who work in a care home.

Finally, on Covid-19 related issues, I would be grateful if all parents/carers could make sure they have provided us with up-to-date telephone numbers and email addresses. If you have changed your details recently, please contact us so we can update our records.

I mentioned in a previous update that we were looking at various ways of delivering Parents' Evenings remotely for the remainder of this year. We have decided to use a similar system to other schools locally, which facilitates appointments with teachers via video-call link. The system we are planning to use is called Schoolcloud and a link to instructions for making video call appointments is attached below:
https://support.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/article/801-video-parents-how-to-attend-appointments-over-video-call

Appointment times can be booked through the same on-line system and we will be contacting parents/carers of Year 13 and Year 11 students soon with instructions for their Parents' Evenings, which are on 24th November and 3rd December, respectively. Please do not contact us with questions about this at present, but please wait for further instructions around the date of your child's Parents' Evening; we hope to send information to each set of parents/carers around 2 weeks before each Parents' Evening date, to allow time for appointments to be made.

The Year 7 'Settling-In' Evening will proceed on 17th November as previously stated, with phone calls to parents/carers from each Form Tutor; we will not be using the Schoolcloud system in this case.

I will issue a further update early next week, unless there are further changes to government guidance in the meantime.

Best Wishes. Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

Two LCS students in Year 11 hav tested positive for COVID-19. We are in the process of contacting all close contacts of the students, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Year 7 students are due to receive their flu immunisations on Friday 6th November. Parents/Carers are required to fill in a consent form prior to this date.

The consent form can be found at https://www.derbyshireandcityimms.co.uk/Forms/Flu.

The option to consent or decline the vaccination is at the end of the questionnaire so please complete even if you do not want your child to have the vaccination.

When completing the e-consent, please state the year group your child will be in at the beginning of the school year September 2020.

The unique school code for Littleover Community School is DC112956.

For more information about the vaccination please visit our website:http://www.derbyshireschoolnurses.org.uk/parents/immunisations

If you experience any problems please call the School Age Immunisation Team: 

• Repton: 01283 707178
• Clay Cross: 01246 252953
• Or email DCHST.immunisationteam@nhs.net

If you have any questions regarding this please contact the Immunisation Team directly not the school office.

Thanks

LCS Medical Officer

LCS would like to support our friends at Ravensdale Infant School in their fundraising efforts following the recent fire.

Please consider making a donation at GoFundMe - Help Replace Resources for Ravensdale Infants

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

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

I would like to thank you all for your support through what has been a very challenging half-term. Overall, our plans for re-opening of school have been very successful, with excellent levels of student attendance and engagement. Students across the school have settled back into a routine very well and are making excellent progress, both academically and socially. The ‘bubbles’ system has been a difficult one to adapt to and there have been some side-effects, as mentioned in my previous updates, but overall the system has worked well and has allowed us to keep the school open for all students for the vast majority of the time. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of school staff or the support of yourselves as parents and carers.

Unfortunately, our experiences of the last 48 hours have somewhat cast a shadow over the progress we have made in the last seven weeks and I want to be honest about our current situation, as well as asking for your support to make sure this does not happen again.

Up until Wednesday morning this week we had been made aware of three students testing positive for Covid-19 since the start of term. All of these students and families had followed the correct procedure and self-isolated immediately after the student became symptomatic, as well as booking an immediate Covid-19 test. As the students in these three cases had been absent from school since the onset of their symptoms, when they did ultimately test positive it was a relatively straight forward process to identify their ‘close contacts’, which were somewhere between twenty and forty students in each case. Although, regrettably, students were asked to self-isolate for a period of time in each of these cases, the potential impact on students was kept to a minimum, because the families concerned followed the rules.

Unfortunately, since Wednesday morning, we have been made aware of three further cases of Covid-19 amongst students in school, one each in Years 8, 9 and 10; these students are linked. As the published guidance on testing and self-isolation was not followed in at least one of these cases, there is the potential that one or more of these students has been in school whilst symptomatic. We were made aware of one of the students concerned returning a positive Covid-19 test result on Wednesday and the remaining two have subsequently also tested positive within the last 24 hours. This is the reason for my decision to send Year 8, 9 and 10 home yesterday as a precaution, as at the time this decision was made we only had confirmation of one confirmed positive test result, but we highly suspected the other two would follow. If that was to happen, which ultimately it has, I was not prepared to risk the potential further spread of Covid-19 infections amongst students. With these Year Groups being away from school yesterday and the INSET day today, the affected Year Groups will now have been away from school for 11 days before the start of next half-term on November 2nd.

The information we have sent out as a school since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak back in March has consistently reminded parents and carers of the guidelines related to Covid-19 and self-isolation. As well as our school website, which is regularly updated, information has been sent via our social media sites on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. My regular email updates have also reminded parents and carers of these guidelines numerous times.

It is absolutely vital for the safe running of the school that students displaying any of the symptoms of Covid-19 stay at home and do not attend. It is also vital that students are tested in this circumstance and that they remain absent from school until they receive a negative test result, or their period of self-isolation is completed.

I would like to thank the parents and carers who have followed these guidelines to the letter, as they have helped keep the numbers of Covid-19 related issues in school to a minimum.

I would like to remind some parents and carers of the guidelines, however, and point out the potential damage that can be caused when these guidelines are not followed.

As school will be closed now until Monday 2nd November, it is vital any positive cases of Covid-19 amongst students are reported to us, so any potential decision on students or Year Groups needing to self-isolate can be made ahead of the new half-term starting. If your child receives a positive Covid-19 test result during the school holidays, please email the school at admin@littleover.derby.sch.uk . You will receive an out of office reply to your message, which will contain a number to text the name of your child and their Form Group. Please text your child’s details to this number, together with the date they were tested. Please do not call this number or use it for any other purpose. Please only inform us of positive test results, not symptoms.
If parents and carers of student ‘close contacts’ need to be contacted over the holiday we will endeavour to do this by email to the individuals concerned and we will also post general updates to all parents and carers via the usual channels.

Please check your emails next week, together with the school social media accounts, in case there is any information we need to inform you of.

Finally, a couple of unrelated issues. Hopefully, all parents, carers and students will have recently received email links to a survey we are asking you to complete. Results will help us assess our performance as a school over the last half-term and will also enable us to prioritise areas for improvement. Please complete this survey by Monday 2nd November. Your support is very much appreciated.

Our Virtual Sixth Form Open Evening will be available on our website from the end of school today, for all parents, carers and students looking to apply to LCS Sixth Form for September 2021.

I hope you all enjoy the holiday next week, especially our students who have worked so hard over the last half-term. You deserve a break.

Thank you. Keep safe.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

The LCS Sixth Form Virtual Open Evening is now online.

You can find it under Sixth Form > Virtual Open Evening.

An LCS student in Year 9 has tested positive for COVID-19. Relevant parents and carers of students in close contact are being informed, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

An LCS student in Year 8 has tested positive for COVID-19. Relevant parents and carers of students in close contact have been informed, as per Public Health England prodecure.

To all parents and carers.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

Wisepay have issued a letter to parents regarding the recent security incident.

You can view it at Parents > Communications > Letters Home.

Two LCS students in Year 10 have tested positive for COVID-19. We are working as quickly as possible to inform any close contacts of the affected students.

To all parents and carers.

We have been made aware today of 2 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with students in Year 10. We have immediately been in contact with Public Health England and have been working as quickly as possible to identify the close contacts of the first of these cases.

Thank you to those who were able to come in to take your child home so quickly earlier today for those we identified from the first case.

We will be in touch as soon as possible with the parents of those students identified as close contacts of the second case. If you do not receive any direct communication from us by the end of school tomorrow then your child will not have been identified and can return to school on Monday 2nd November. It would be advisable for your child to stay indoors tomorrow until we have had time to contact you if necessary.

We have further concern over possible further close contacts between students in Year 8, 9 and the 2nd case in Year 10. Because of this we are asking all of Year 8, 9 and 10 students to stay at home tomorrow (Thursday) as a precaution whilst we work on identifying these possible contacts. Work will be set via Go4Schools for your child.

I apologise for the disruption this will cause to your child’s education. With school closed to students on Friday and next week being half term holiday, I have taken this decision as a precaution and to prevent further potential Covid-19 infections.

I hope you understand the reason for this decision.

Please note that Year 7, 11, 12 and 13 should come to school as normal tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued support.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

We have had another busy, but very successful week in school. I would like to take this opportunity to update all parents and carers on a few current issues.

Year 11 students have now completed their first week of Mock Exams. Their attitude, organisation and behaviour has been second to none and I would like to thank them and their parents and carers for how well the exams have gone so far. Mocks continue through next week, until Thursday 22nd October.

Our 'catch up' sessions have continued this week and additional students have been invited to our extra holiday sessions on Monday 26th October. We have had a very pleasing response to the offer of this additional support and I am sure those students who attend will benefit greatly from it.

We are in the process of contacting parents and carers of students in Year 7 and 8, with regard to the upcoming Parents' Evenings. Plans for these will be shared with Parents and Carers and there will be an option for your preferred form of communication from school regarding your child's progress. We are currently looking at several options for Parents' Evenings in Year 9 onwards and will be communicating this information to relevant parents and carers soon. Our aim is to ensure any system we use for Parents' Evenings is accessible to as many parents and carers as possible, whilst also providing the detail of information required on student progress and future targets. We are looking into a number of possibilities for this and will confirm plans as soon as they are finalised.

Our plans and resources for Remote Learning are developing at pace and we are now far better equipped as a school to set work for students to complete at home, if and when we experience positive Covid-19 cases. We are investing significantly in additional and improved technology to offer the best package of remote learning as possible, when required. This is a big challenge for teachers, particularly where classes will have students present in school, as well as some self-isolating and working from home at the same time. We are continuing to improve our remote learning provision and this work will be ongoing throughout the year.

I have spoken to all students this week about the sending of emails to teaching staff. All teachers at LCS are more than happy to receive and reply to emails sent by students, but these must be appropriately worded and sent at a reasonable time. I have reminded students to use correct language when emailing into school and that there is no obligation on teachers to reply to messages sent out of school hours. Teachers will reply to messages as soon as they can, but most teach several classes across the school and will not be able to reply immediately. Teachers also deserve a break when at home with their families, so will not reply to messages out of normal school hours. I would respectfully ask for your support with this as parents and carers.

Very shortly we will be sending out a survey for both parents/carers and students to complete. We are interested in your experiences and thoughts about our return to school this half-term and all feedback will be greatly received. This survey will be sent out via email either next week, or in the first week of next half-term.

Finally, a reminder that next Friday 23rd October is a staff INSET Day and school will be closed to students. The half-term holiday starts on Monday 26th October and students return on Monday 2nd November.

Have a good weekend.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher