Dear parents / carers,

It was fantastic to see so many parents / carers and pupils in school to participate in the return to school inductions this week – the majority of pupils conducted themselves appropriately and could understand why the additional safety measures and changes to their pods would mitigate risk as we looked to complete our re-opening. You should all have been contacted by a Senior Leader within the school either offering you place or justifying why a place hasn’t been offered – under the current restrictions we were only able to offer 24 places across all year groups and across the whole site (spanning 4 weeks 15th June – 10th July 2020). I appreciate that some of you were disappointed with the news but I can assure you that the discussions with Senior Leaders on 9th June 2020 were robust and looked at all the evidence from pre and during lockdown. The process was quality assured by our Vice Chair of Governors (Sallyann Tuckwell-Allen).

All staff attended Elmwood School on Friday 12th June 2020 to complete preparation training on how the day will run and to prepare your child’s class environment, as well as reading and discussing your child’s needs. This also supported staff’s anxieties as some of them were returning to site for the first time since 23rd March 2020.  A very massive thank you to Shellie George, Teaching Assistant, for brightening up the school entrance by adding a little bit of glamour for our amazing staff on their first day back.

Monday 15th June 2020 will be the start of the schools approach to recover (a process to rebuild, restore and rehabilitate) our very special Elmwood Community. We will do that by THINKING – REDUCE RISK – HAVE FUN.

For those pupils who were unsuccessful in securing a placement at this time we will endeavour to work with you to support you through additional visits and activities (whilst maintaining to the Government’s guidelines) and for the those pupils who have requested a placement back in September we will be embarking on some transition activities so you can start to develop the relationships with your child’s new tutor team.

Keep in touch and keep safe.    

Lee Cross

Headteacher 

Elmwood School (Exam Centre Number 20848)

King George Crescent

Rushall

Walsall

WS4 1EG

Tel: 01922 721081

Colour Leaves

LETTER FROM LEE CROSS, HEADTEACHER, TO PARENTS/CARERS – 12.6.20