End Of Term Letter 2020

End Of Term Letter 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we come to the end of a very difficult and strange academic year, I want to start by thanking you for your support during the Covid-19 Virus pandemic. It has been a challenging year for all of us and your support has been very much appreciated.

There are some updates that I’d like to cover with you before we finish for the summer, I recognise that this has been a term of words and I hope you’ll forgive me for adding to this. I’ll try and be concise.

Prize Giving 2020
Our annual Prize Giving ceremony, usually held in November has been postponed to give everyone some time and space in the first term. We have a provisional date set for 26th January 2021 and we hope to hold the event at Champions Church. The prizes will recognise student achievements from the 2019/20 academic year. Obviously, this event will very much depend on the situation with Covid-19 but we will ensure that whatever happens the academic year and the achievements that happened will be recognised.

New Website
Over the summer we’ll be launching a brand new website. It’s about time too. Our current website is 7 years old and the technology it uses is woefully out of date, many of you will already be aware that it doesn’t work very well on a mobile device. The new website is fantastic and is mobile compatible. The information is presented in a much clearer and orderly way and all of the photography has been updated. It’s definitely fit for an academy in 2020. The best news of all is that the new website hasn’t cost us anything, our sponsor Ormiston Academies Trust has paid for the site as part of a national pilot and we’ll be proud to be the first OAT academy to launch.

September Return
This week we finalised our plans for the September return. We certainly hope that, over the summer, the outlook continues to improve and we can welcome everyone back and this is what we have planned for. You can find the guidance for September at the link and if anything changes in the meantime we will update you as soon as possible.
https://ormistonforgeacademy.co.uk/news/2020/7/15/september-2020-return-2

Training Day: Tuesday 1 September 2020 (academy closed to students)
Year 7 only: Wednesday 2 September 2020
Year 7 and year 12 only: Thursday 3 September 2020
Year 7 and year 12 only: Friday 4 September 2020
Term starts for all: Monday 7 September 2020

Results 2020
Last week we updated our guidance for the collection of results in August. You can find that information here.
www.ormistonforgeacademy.co.uk/results-days-august-2020

To ensure that we make the best possible start to the new academic year in September, we would like to remind our students and parents of some of the Academy’s usual expectations. A full list outlining all of our expectations is on the website, but the key ones we would like to draw to parents’ attention are:

Mobile Phones and Equipment
Once students are in the building, phones must not be seen or heard. We encourage students to leave all expensive personal items at home. We cannot take responsibility for everyone’s phones, iPods, jewellery etc. All losses are at the owner’s own risk. Equipment that will be needed: a pencil case with pen, pencil, ruler, calculator, pink and green highlighter and a pack of colouring pencils.

Uniform

  • All uniform can now be purchased from A Oakes Limited.
  • The uniform code states clearly that plain black polishable shoes must be worn
  • Trousers must be BLACK. Trousers that are ‘skinny’ or legging like are not allowed to be worn for school
  • Students can wear plain black tracksuit bottoms with their PE uniform.
  • Jewellery is restricted to a watch and one small stud earring in each ear
  • Facial piercings or extreme hairstyles (no tramlines etc.)/extreme hair dyes/extreme or excessive makeup are not permitted. Fake nails are not permitted

It’s also important to state that when students come in for the day in their PE kit from September, that they leave any jewellery/valuables at home as we aren’t able to access the changing rooms to store them safely.

We have appointed a new interim vice-principal. Phil Loveday is already a current member of staff and from September he will be responsible for quality assurance, staff development and health and safety. I am delighted to welcome him to the senior team at Forge

We say goodbye today to Hayley Gaio, Maddie Davies, George Taylor and Jacqueline Shilton. We thank them all for the service to the Academy and wish them well for the future.

We also bid a fond farewell to Siddique Hussain who chaired our governing body for 3 years and has served as a Governor for 9 years. Siddique has been a wonderful servant to the Academy and an incredible person. We will miss him. Our new chair of Governors is Rhiannon Martyn and I will introduce you to her in September.

We will be actively recruiting for new Governors in September, if you have an interest in this important role, please email me directly: [email protected].

Finally, we say goodbye to Andrew Burns. As many of you know Andrew has been our Executive Principal for 12 months and previous to that, our principal for 9 years. His leadership and vision has put Forge firmly on the map and his guidance and friendship have had an impact on many people including myself. Most importantly he believed in us all and he ensured that young people from our area were given the best opportunities. His legacy will live on in them and we wish him well in his role at OAT where his impact will be felt by even more young people.

This has been the most challenging year that I have ever worked in education and I am sure that I speak on behalf of the staff too. However, it has also been the most rewarding. As a community, we have proven that despite any adversity thrown at us, we can come through it. And we will continue to move forward and not allow this pandemic to define us. I’m proud of all of the parents who have supported the learning of their children and our students who have shown resilience and determination to get work done.

Every message of support that we’ve received has spurred us on and every bit of feedback has helped us shape a better future. Take the summer to heal, to gain strength again and most importantly look after yourselves and each other.

Thank you.

Dr Lisa Mason
Principal
Ormiston Forge Academy