School Communication
Updates 
- 'Phase 6' work starts Monday 22 June to Friday 3 July- ParentMail sent 19 June
- School Information (Exams section)- Year 11,12 & 13 Subject Examination and revision guide information
- Land's End to John O' Groats SGS Challenge 2020- Update
- Letter from the Headmaster- Year 10 and 12 Reopening school -ParentMail sent 5 June
- 'Phase 5' work starts Monday 8th June and run until Friday 19th June- ParentMail sent 4 June
- Lands End SGS Challenge 2020- 24 May (Starts 1 June 2020)
- 'Phase 4' work starts 18 May-ParentMail sent 15 May
- Video message from the Headmaster-ParentMail sent 15 May
- Wellbeing-A-Z Student Welfare added
- Online resources-Phone app- Efficient notes from online working at home. ParentMail sent 5 May
Previously
- Home Study Guidance - Support Video-How to organise and prioritise during home study. Video link sent via ParentMail
- Competition Time -Virtual 'Bake off' competition for staff and students
- Letters- Letter from the Headmaster 3 April 2020
- General-PFA News- Raffle postponement, quiz and car boot cancellation
- General-Library Fines-Ignore overdue reminders
- Competition Time- Art Competition-Make a sculpture out of recycled materials- ongoing
- Competition Time- English Department Competition- Write a 1,000 word article
- Student Welfare- Safeguarding and E Safety page (School Information page-Student Welfare)
- PFA Raffle update 29 April 2020
- Competition Time- Nature on your doorstep photography- ongoing
- Competition Time- Create famous artwork- with a twist- Ongoing
- Phase 3 work starts 4 May 2020. ParentMail sent 1 May
- VE Day celebrations-8 May 2020. ParentMail sent 1 May
Phase 6 Work
Dear students and parents,
I hope you all continue to be well. Following a comprehensive programme of (remote) staff training, Phase 5 has seen a really pleasing development in the variety of activities and supporting materials (e.g. videos/audio) students have been receiving. I am really thankful for the student feedback received, and proud of the response staff have given to the training programme. I anticipate further developments in Phase 6, from Monday 22nd June to Friday 3rd July.
Microsoft Teams - Increased Activity 
From Phase 6 we are asking all staff to make work instructions available from Microsoft Teams. This is a really powerful programme in the Office365 package (that all students have as part of their school account), and has exciting benefits for the future of both remote and in-school learning. This includes the ability for students to ask questions live by ‘posting’, access files, complete online assignments and access support videos and web-based resources, and engage in audio/video calls with staff. Therefore, we are urging all students to engage regularly with Teams (i.e. have it loaded up throughout the day). Mr Harris has kindly made tutorial videos available to students to show them how to access Teams and other programmes.
We understand that many students are not yet familiar with Teams, and so staff will use email to send their classes the links to these Teams sites. However, as this (and future) phases progress, we will expect less individual emails between staff and students, and more activity on the Teams sites. This will relieve the administrative burden on students from processing and sending so many individual emails. Please note; teachers will still be checking emails regularly and for some work this will continue as a method of communication, submission or feedback. Parents do not have Teams access, so can still communicate with staff via email too.
GCSE and A-level Information
To further support our current Year 10 and 12 students with their respective studies, we have published a list of current GCSE and A-level examination boards, specification codes and recommended revision resources. Please note that this has been collated based upon the status quo; and may be subject to change as the courses develop. A copy of this can be found here on the school website.
Support
Another reminder that for those who require support, there are resources available on the ‘school communication’ section of our website (including a home study guide, blank and exemplar work plans to organise study, and the support video of how to keep organised).
Wishing you an enjoyable weekend and a productive Phase 6. Keep safe and well,
Mr D Endersbee
Assistant Headteacher i/c Teaching and Learning
PHASE 5 - WORK AND SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS
I hope you all enjoyed the sunshine of the half term break. We are now back into learning routines, and Phase 5 is due to start on Monday 8th June and run until Friday 19th June. Please note there are a few special arrangements for this phase – outlined below:
Firstly, the phase coincides with the partial return of Years 10 and 12. The usual two-week programme of work will be set, the majority of which will be completed remotely as per previous phases. However, when in School, students will have the guidance of a subject specialist to help them complete/review this work. The Headmaster will be writing to you with more details regarding this plan.
Secondly, Year 9 students will begin GCSE option content from Phase 5. To mirror their timetabled allocation of lessons, for their three option subjects they will receive 180 minutes’ worth of work to complete. Core subjects (Science, English, Maths and MFL) will continue their current allocations. Those subjects not being followed at GCSE will no longer set work for Year 9 students. We are confident that by starting this content now we will engage Year 9 into the next step of their School career. Confirmed option choices will be communicated with parents and students by the end of this week.
Thirdly, all students will undertake our World of Work Week in this phase, led by Mrs Johnson (Director of PaCE). Years 7, 8, 9 and 12 will receive a resource (e.g. website, video link) from every subject that stimulates interest in a career in that field. Students will be using the information gathered from these resources to complete a task as part of their PaCE curriculum. In lieu of the cancelled Work Experience programme, Year 10 will be engaging in a more comprehensive careers programme. To facilitate quality time for this programme, each subject is setting 30 minutes’ less work than normal. This is a fantastic opportunity for all students to spend some time thinking about life ahead, and we encourage parents to discuss this with students too. Further details will be communicated by Mrs Johnson.
Online TLA
Thank you to those students who completed our Home Study survey; the results of which have really helped both our pastoral teams to prioritise support, and for Mr Harris to create student-specific training videos. I am also pleased to announce that our staff development programme is well underway, with an ever-increasing number of staff honing their skills in delivering more varied online TLA, most notably through audio, video and Teams-based media.
Support
Another reminder that for those who require support, there are resources available on the ‘school communication’ section of our website: https://www.spaldinggrammar.lincs.sch.uk/page/?title=School+Communication&pid=175 (including a home study guide, blank and exemplar work plans to organise study, and the support video of how to keep organised).
Wishing you an enjoyable weekend. Keep safe and well,
Mr D Endersbee
Assistant Headteacher i/c Teaching and Learning
PHASE 4 WORK RELEASED
May I firstly take the opportunity to once again commend students and parents for your ongoing diligence during this difficult time. Routines are very much established, and a reminder that for those who require support, there are resources available on the ‘school communication’ section of our website: https://www.spaldinggrammar.lincs.sch.uk/page/?title=School+Communication&pid=175 (including a home study guide, blank and exemplar work plans to organise study, and the support video of how to keep organised).
‘Phase 3’ draws to a close today, with ‘Phase 4’ starting on Monday 18th May. This is another two week phase, however it is split across the two weeks either side of the half term break (w/b 25th May), and will therefore end on Friday 5th June. We do not expect students or staff to work during the half-term break.
As outlined by the Headmaster in his video address (ParentMail 15 May), we are preparing for longer-term home study. Although in an ideal world regular ‘virtual lessons’ might take place via video, these simply are not a feasible solution within the current context. However, we are developing a staff training programme within which online methods and resources are being researched, shared and applied, which in turn will result in students receiving more variation to tasks and the media by which they are taught or learnt. This may involve some form of video interaction with some teachers, but please note that not every teacher's context is the same, and opportunity to offer this proves more difficult for some than others.
Wishing you an enjoyable weekend. Keep safe and well,
Mr D Endersbee
Assistant Headteacher i/c Teaching and Learning
Library Fines- Ignore automated overdue reminders
The school Library is closed along with the rest of Spalding Grammar School, although we are aware that there will be books due for return in the period that the Library and school, are closed.
Mrs Graham has set the Library management system to “CLOSED” for this time, meaning that no fines will be charged from March 20th until we return to school.
Please do ignore any overdue emails, as they are being issued by the automated library system.
Mrs Graham and the Junior Librarians will view all the overdue books as normal returns when we do open the Library once again.
Best Wishes
Mrs Graham and the English Department