Changes to School Times

19 May Changes to School Times

Dear Parents/Carers,

Re: Changes to the timings of the school day

I am writing to you to tell you about some changes to the timings of the school day, which will start in September 2016.

We are making these changes in order to create a two hour session every week for teaching staff to work on the important and, in many cases, very complicated changes to the KS3 curriculum, GCSE, BTEC and A level examinations.  The two hour period will take place between 2:00pm and 4:00pm every Wednesday afternoon.

From September 2016, students will be dismissed from school at 1.30pm every Wednesday.  However, lunches will be served up until 2:00pm for any students who wish to stay.  From 2:00pm to 3:00pm there will be a planned programme of sport, intervention, educational activities and homework clubs, details of which will be circulated at a later date.

These after school activities will be run in conjunction with Castle Green and students can voluntarily join the activities, or parents can request that their son/daughter is part of this supervised programme every Wednesday.  Some may be compulsory and parents will be notified individually if this is the case.

The period that students will miss on Wednesday afternoon will now be replaced by a 6 period day on a Monday, with students being dismissed from school at 4.05pm.

The other significant change is that students will no longer register with their tutors at the end of the school day.  The final electronic registration of the day will take place during the last lesson of the day.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday students will therefore be dismissed from school at 3.05pm.

Consideration is currently being given to a range of issues that arise from these changes including detentions, transport, sports fixtures and the Lexia programme.  Further details about how we will manage these issues will be circulated at a later date.

I realise that these changes will have an impact for some of our parents and I have tried to take into consideration all issues that may arise.  We will be trialling this new timetable initially for the academic year 2016/17 and, after reviewing its success and impact, will make a decision whether it becomes permanent from 2017/18.

I would very much appreciate your feedback on the changes and any suggestions or concerns you may have.  You can do this in a number of ways:

• Email me directly at headteacher@jorichardson.org.uk
• Write to me at the school
• Use the comments form below

Responses by Monday 13^th June would be appreciated.

Below I have included a table to show the basic changes for September 2016.

Many thanks.

Mr Smith
Headteacher