Neatherd High School: This has been a school year like no other in living memory. We’re probably unanimous in wishing to see the back of 2019-20 and looking forward to the new academic year, when school opens to pupils (Y7 and Y11) on Monday 7th September, and all the others the next day. When the government announced the closure of schools on Wednesday 18th March, our attendance was already plummeting with pupils being kept home and being sent home with symptoms of the virus. A quarantined triage room was set up and we feared for the health of our school community. We also had to consider how to keep educating our pupils from the following Monday, with just two working days to prepare a remote education system. Our year 11 pupils were broken-hearted to hear, on the news like their teachers did, that they would not be able to sit the GCSE exams they had spent months, years, working towards. Their now-traditional end of year rituals – the farewell form party, the shirt signings, the exam speeches, the prom – were now all up in the air. Staff hastily put together a small farewell gathering for them on the Friday afternoon of March 20th, now their final day of high school. Other pupils missed out too – the year 10s on their week’s work experience, as well as our sports festival, activities week, trips out, school holidays to Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, all cancelled. The support staff went into fifth gear, organizing free school meal vouchers for families to be sent out immediately so no pupil missed out. There was no time to wait for the government to sort things. Welfare calls were made to all Neatherd families to check in on how they were managing. We ordered dozens of netbooks so pupils could continue their learning and distributed them within weeks. The government’s smaller batch of laptops arrived a few weeks ago and will also find their way to pupils. Teachers entered into a new way of working. Uploading work to the Google Classrooms (which they had to quickly learn how to use), organizing pupil work, giving feedback at all hours, responding to emails, teaching by text, video tutorials, Google Meet check ins and holding staff meetings online. Working from 6am to 6pm became the new norm, staring at the screens while their own families sought to find a new normal. Teachers are parents too and found that “home schooling” was far more difficult with our own children than teaching “bottom set year 9” on a Friday afternoon. The Google Classrooms will stay open throughout the summer so pupils can improve and complete any work they need to. The pupils really stepped up too – producing excellent work for months, finding technological solutions such as uploading work via smartphone, email conferencing and innovative ways of not just doing school work but learning new skills – DIY, childcare of siblings, new hobbies and of course cooking the family meals – and sharing these successes with us here on our Facebook page. #neatherdhomelearning shows these fantastic kids keeping spirits up in those dark (but sunny) months. Parents and carers suddenly became teaching assistants at home, and their eyes were opened not just to the intricacies of the school curriculum and the technological prowess of their children but also to the importance of what school provides above and beyond the teaching in the classrooms – the routine, the discipline, the pastoral care and the support for kids, earning a new respect for what happens behind the famous red doors. We thank the parents for working with us in maintaining the progress of the pupils – some thrived, some struggled – but all were supported and cared for. The school of course wasn’t closed at all. We welcomed in the children of key workers – NHS, police, agriculture, care, retail, education etc. – so their parents could keep the country’s essential work going. The building was kept clean and safe, with new social distancing measures by our great site team. Pupils who relied on our support were also brought in – peaking at 75 pupils on our busiest day. The school stayed open throughout Easter “holidays”, May half term, and the bank holidays. Staff worked on a rota, caring for the children and ensuring a safe routine for them during school hours. Pupils worked the allotment, sent cards to care homes and made PPE masks and shields for local health and care workers. Many of these kids have spent an unbroken four months of school together in unique circumstances that they will surely look back on with fondness for the rest of their lives. As with every end of year, there are tinges of sadness as we say farewell to some colleagues. Ms Rogers in the data team, tenaciously organizing the sensitive details of our pupils and families; Mr Minai, the softly spoken, sharply dressed mathematical genius who leaves us for Jane Austen School; Mrs Zawiasza, our tough cookie cover supervisor ably taking year 11 maths one lesson and year 8 art the next. And finally of course a stalwart of the Neatherd scene. We say a fond farewell to Mr Miller, head of PE and a teacher at Neatherd for 36 years. The word legend is often overused but not in this case. Everyone will miss his humour, warmth, support and sheer passion for sports, especially rugby. And now we are looking ahead to September, again given a very short period of time to plan “the best way we can” a safe return for pupils and staff. We are confident that our school, like all other schools working with like minds, will bounce back and continue to offer the education, care and kindness we are renowned for. We would love to share your messages with staff when we reopen, so we ask you to share them here: https://ift.tt/2OGy1W1 We wish all our families and friends a properly relaxing summer break – everyone deserves one