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

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

To all parents and carers.

Good evening from LCS.

If you were not already aware, our Virtual Open Day presentation is now live on our website and can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.littleover.derby.sch.uk/openday.php

I apologise for not being able to invite you all to visit us on Open Day this year, but the current Covid-19 restrictions have made this impossible. I hope you enjoy our virtual presentation.

Another plea for students to bring face masks into school, please. We have given out around 140 face masks to students across the school this week, which is a relatively low number but will cost us significant money over time. We are currently looking at sourcing good quality washable/fabric masks to offer students who forget/lose theirs, but there would need to be a charge for this. I hope the number of students we are providing masks for will continue to reduce over time.

Finally, a reminder of our rules on mobile phones and some explanation of why this is a current concern. Since we returned to school 5 weeks ago, we have dealt with very few significant issues during the school day. Students' behaviour and attitude towards their work and each other has been outstanding. 

Where we have had some problems and incidents of poor behaviour, as I have mentioned before, has been as students leave school at the end of the day. The common link in most of these incidents has been social media comments and the use of mobile phones. Students are not allowed to bring phones into school for reasons that are well documented; this has always been our policy at LCS. We have noticed an increase in the issues and problems we would expect to deal with at this time of year, which in part has been caused by students' use of mobile phones and social media during the recent school closure; we are dealing with incidents going back to social media posts made in April and May this year. 

With today being World Mental Health Day, we should be reminded of the impact social media and mobile phones can have on behaviour and the increasing research surrounding the effects over exposure to electronic devices can have on the mental health of our children. I would continue to ask all parents and carers to support our ban on mobile phones in school, to allow students to fully focus on their studies, but also to allow them some much needed time away from their devices. We believe our rule on phones in school has a positive effect both on achievement and mental health.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the school. Have a great weekend.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

Littleover Community School has been informed by WisePay that WisePay have had a data security incident which adversely affected their website from 2nd to 5th  October 2020.

If you have, as a carer/parent, been affected by the WisePay data security incident you will have now been notified by the school.

The LCS Uganda team would like to thank anyone who donated towards the money raised for the Child Africa school in Uganda.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who generously donated to our Uganda Covid 19 and Flood Damage Appeal before the Summer. Both Covid-19 and the monsoon season had a devastating impact on the lives of the families of Kabale and Equator, the Child Africa Schools in those towns and the staff who teach there. We were overwhelmed with the incredible kindness of all those who gave money to support everyone affected. We raised nearly £3000 in total which was used for different purposes as shown in the pictures below. 

Anticlockwise from the bottom: 

• Repairs begun on CA Junior School, Kabale's retaining walls which were damaged in the flood
• CA Centre, Kabale Coordinator Michael Kyarikunda purchasing beans and preparing them for distribution to local families
• Head Teacher of CA Junior School, Kabale Muwanika Augustine (in red shirt) and teachers thanking Littleover Community School for their support in helping staff pay their rent. Teachers have not been paid in Uganda for many months and are at risk of eviction
• Families in Kabale at the CA Centre (yellow wall behind) receiving essential supplies of maize flour, beans, oil, salt and soap paid for by LCS
• Families in Equator at the Equator CA School (tree behind) receiving essential supplies of maize flour, beans, oil, salt and soap paid for by LCS
• CA Centre Equator Coordinator Willy Muwanga and CA Junior School, Equator Coordinator Wilber Byamugisha

LCS Donations were used in a variety of ways to support the school.
(Click to enlarge)

Once again, thank you for your generosity. 

Mrs Bush, Mr Pestell, Mr Moses and Mrs Chawner

Littleover Community School has been informed by WisePay that WisePay have had a data security incident which adversely affected their website from 2nd to 5th  October 2020.

WisePay took their platform off line on 5th October 2020 and have launched an investigation into this. As a Local Authority school we are working with Derby City Council’s Data Protection Officer and Information Security Officer to obtain the critical information now needed from WisePay to support our parents / carers and determine who has been affected.

Please be reassured that LCS and Derby City Council staff are doing their upmost to obtain this information from WisePay. As soon as we have more information from WisePay, we will update you.

Due to the Coronavirus situation, this year's LCS Open Day and Evening is a virtual event. The event comprises of several presentations and can be viewed online.

You can find the information under Parents > Virtual Open Day 2020.

LCS Sixth form staff have made an online version of the Information for Year 12 Parents evening, normally held in late September.

The presentation can be found via Sixth Form > Parent Information.

We are currently experiencing an issue with card authentication on Wisepay.

The issue appears to be affecting cards from certain banks, but not others.

Wisepay are investigating the issue and hope to return to normal service as soon as posisble.

We apologise for the inconveniece.

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

To all parents and carers.

Greetings from LCS, at the end of another week.

We are now more than half way through this first half-term. In an email I have sent to staff today I have encouraged all of us to reflect on what we have accomplished so far and to recognise how well our return to school plans have worked to date. I cannot praise staff enough for the work they have done and continue to do in very challenging circumstances.

The success we have had so far is in no small part a result of the enthusiasm and commitment of our students and also the on-going support of parents and carers. From the encouraging emails we have received to the parent who spoke to me at the school gates this morning and said thank you, your support continues to be very much appreciated.

We are almost there with our virtual Open Day presentation and we hope to have this on-line by the end of next week, close to the original date of 8th October. Our catch-up plans for Year 11 have started this week and Mr Smith will be writing to a number of students soon to invite them to a session we are putting on in the October holiday.

I have spoken to all students today and reminded them of our face mask rules, which have been in operation for just over a week. The vast majority of students have been well equipped and well organised and have followed the rules impeccably. We are handing out a number of masks to students who are forgetting to bring them or losing them each day and it would help us greatly if parents and carers could make sure students are leaving home with their face masks. We are finding that students are less likely to forget or to lose the washable/fabric style masks than the disposable style, but either are still acceptable in school. Please remember that exemption cards for students can be requested via email to Ms Barrows, School Medical Officer.

I wish you all a pleasant and relaxing weekend.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

A student in LCS Sixth Form has tested positive for COVID-19. All close contacts of this students have been informed and will now self-isolate as per Public Health England advice.

To all parents and carers.

We have been informed of a positive Covid-19 case in our Sixth Form. This is an isolated case of one student, who became symptomatic after arriving home from school on Monday.

We have identified potential close contacts of the student concerned, who have all been sent home; parents have also been informed.

Due to the nature of this case, we have been able to keep the close contacts to less than 10 students, all of whom were informed and left site within one hour of the report being received. These students will now self isolate for 14 days.

The student with the positive test had not been in school since Monday lunchtime and will now self isolate for 10 days.

Below is the letter from PHE containing advice for such situations.

J. Wilding

Acting Headteacher

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

To all parents and carers.

It has been an eventful, but extremely rewarding first 3 weeks of term. The students continue to amaze us with their positivity and resilience and all Year Groups are continuing to make excellent progress. The need to create Year Group 'bubbles' in school has caused some issues for us, which we are addressing and making adaptions where required, but one of the main effects of the 'bubble' system appears to be happening when students leave school at the end of the day.

With our staggered finish times, students are leaving school in their Year Group 'bubbles' to minimise mixing. Some students are finding this challenging, particularly in the younger year groups, and are becoming over excited around their peers, without the older students around to calm them down. We have had some calls from members of the community about poor behaviour of our students on the way home from school and I have been out to two particular areas in the last few days to talk to students about their responsibilities and our expectations of them, while wearing our school uniform.

Whereas most of this behaviour is simply 'silliness' or over-enthusiasm, this can lead to more serious issues if it gets out of hand. I would, therefore, ask all parents and carers to talk to their children about walking home from school sensibly and safely, as the good reputation this school has in the community is built on the behaviour of our students, both in and out of school. If students witness others letting the school down on their way home, they should speak to their Head of Year, or to myself, so we can identify those responsible. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

With the current restrictions around Covid-19, we will unfortunately not be able to hold our regular School Open Day and Sixth Form Open Evening events this term; these events were scheduled for 8th October and 20th October, respectively. We are in the process of putting together on-line virtual presentations for both events, which we hope to have 'live' on our website on the original dates, or as close to these dates as we can. We are working hard to make as much relevant information as possible available through this virtual format, as the option of people visiting school personally is not available to us at this time.

Thank you, as usual, for your ongoing support. Enjoy your weekend.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

The latest LCS Sixth Form Prospectus is now available to download. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Sixth Form Open evening will be virtual this year, with the information planned to be released at the end of October.

The prospectus can be found under Sixth Form > Prospectus.

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

To all parents and carers.

Greetings from LCS.

I would like to thank all students, parents and carers for their support over the last 2 days. Year 10 students have returned to school today and work has started to be set for those students who we identified yesterday as requiring to self-isolate. All students have been incredibly sensible and responsible about the current situation and we have also received some welcome support from parents and carers. My decision to initially ask all Year 10 students to remain at home yesterday was not one I wanted to make, but I am grateful to students, parents and carers for their understanding of the reasons for this decision.

Students have responded extremely well to the change of rules regarding face masks from today and have cooperated well with our new expectations. A small number of students, understandably, forgot about the new rule and were provided with face masks by school staff, but I am grateful to the vast majority of students who remembered and were prepared accordingly; I am sure those who did forget will be organised for tomorrow.

Finally, I have been asked to share a letter from Public Health England about the Test and Trace programme. A link to this letter is below:

Test and Trace Program Letter - Public Health England

Thank you again for your support and positive comments of the last few days. Please do not underestimate how much this means to myself and to all staff in school at this present time.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

LCS has 2 vacancies for the position of: Kitchen Assistant.

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

Mr Wilding has issued an update: Parents/carers of year 10 students who were in close contact with the student that tested Positive for COVID-19 have now been contacted and these students should now self-isolate as per Public Health England guidance. Other year 10 students should attend school as normal.

To all parents and carers.

Good afternoon from LCS.

Thank you to all Year 10 parents and carers for your support today. I can confirm that all students identified as 'close contacts' of the student testing positive for Covid-19 have now been informed by school. Parents and carers have been called individually and a follow up email has also been sent, containing information and advice from Public Health England. These 'close contacts' will now self-isolate as per Public Health England guidance. I would like to thank all parents and carers of these students for their understanding and support. Work for students will be set using the Go4Schools system during their self-isolation period.

If you have a child in Year 10 and have not received this telephone call and email from school today, your child can return to school tomorrow. Other Year Groups should continue to attend school, as normal.

A reminder to all parents, carers and students that face masks will now be mandatory inside the school building from tomorrow, apart from during lessons. Students should wear a face covering when moving between lessons, at break and lunchtime inside the building and whilst queuing for food and toilets. Face coverings are not mandatory when students are outside of the school building. Details of acceptable face masks are shown on our website.

This decision is not one we have taken lightly and is a result of several factors. As I stated yesterday, if you wish your child to be exempt from wearing a face covering please contact us via email at admin@littleover.derby.sch.uk and mark your email for attention of Ms C Barrows, School Medical Officer. We will continue to keep our policy on face coverings under constant review and may change our position at any time, if circumstances change.

Finally, I have attached two useful links for parents and carers from the NHS and DfE. The first link, below, is to a useful website summarising guidance for parents and carers if their child is unwell and cannot attend school.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

This second link is to government guidance for parents, translated into several languages.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-in-the-autumn-term-translations-for-parents-and-carers

Thank you again for your continued support. It was inevitable we would be faced with this situation at some point, with rising infection rates nationally. It is something we were ready for and will no doubt have to deal with again. Your support as parents and carers is vital for us and is something we will need to maintain.

Best wishes.

J. Wilding
Acting Headteacher

Year 10 students should remain at home on Tuesday 22nd September, after a Year 10 student tested positive for COVID-19.

To all parents and carers.

Good evening from LCS.

We have been informed this afternoon of a positive Covid-19 test for a single student in Year 10. This student was not in school today, but was in school without displaying symptoms last Friday.

Public Health England advice is to trace back 48 hours from the student becoming symptomatic and to identify their 'close contacts' from this time; in this case, we are tracing back to last Thursday 17th September. As we were not informed of this positive test result until after the end of the school day today, we are currently working to identify who these students are, using student timetables and staff seating plans. The default position from Public Health England is not to advise all student 'bubbles' to stay at home, but given the time scale we are working to we cannot guarantee that all potential contacts will be identified before the start of school tomorrow. 

We are therefore asking all Year 10 students to remain at home and not attend school tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd September. Year 10 students should remain in the home, although there is no need for other family members to self-isolate unless they are displaying symptoms. This is a precautionary measure, but will allow us time to inform all contacts of the student concerned, without the need for students to be sent home during the school day. Staff will identify those student 'contacts' throughout tomorrow morning and parents/carers will be sent a copy of a letter via email advising them of action they need to take. Parents/Carers who have not received this 'close contact' letter by the end of school tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd September, can send their child(ren) back to school on Wednesday 23rd September, unless additional announcements are made.

Students in all years other than Year 10 should attend school as normal tomorrow. Staff will be asked to set work for Year 10 students tomorrow using the Go4Schools system.

Below is a letter from Public Health England to all students, parents and carers. This is a general letter we have been asked to share to all students and parents. A further letter will be sent tomorrow to all 'close contacts'.

Prior to receiving the information regarding this positive Covid-19 case, we had made the decision as a school to enforce the wearing of face masks in the school building from Wednesday 23rd September. Face masks will be compulsory from Wednesday in all indoor areas and food/toilet queues, including break and lunch times and lesson changeovers. Students are not required to wear face masks in lessons or when outside of the building. This decision has been made with thought to a changing weather forecast later this week, meaning that more students may be in the building at break and lunch times. It is also a response to this morning's government briefing and concern over rising Covid -19 cases nationally. 

If your child is exempt from wearing a face mask for medical reasons, please email us at  admin@littleover.derby.sch.uk  and address your email to Ms C Barrows, Medical Officer.

Please refer to our website for photographs of acceptable face masks, which must be of plain colour and of the elastic ear-fitting style; bandanas and scarves are not allowed.

Further updates will be issued tomorrow.

Thank you.

Exam information booklets for GCSE and A-level students are now available.

We have also updated our Exams Contingency Plan with additional measures due to the COVID pandemic.

You can find all this information on the Exams > Exam Information page.