Our Ref: 2021/036/AND/SAF
12 February 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
Firstly, please accept our sincere thanks, from all of the staff at Amington, for your tremendous
efforts supporting home learning for this extended period of time. We completely understand that it
has been a challenge to manage your own busy lives whilst your children are learning at home and
we are grateful for all of your support.
You will be aware that the Government has suggested that schools will begin to reopen in early
March however, currently, we have no further information or guidance on which to begin the
planning around welcoming our students back into school. What I can say with certainty, is that we
are all eager for our students to return as soon as is permitted by Government and as always, we
will do everything required of us to reduce the risks on the Academy site associated with Covid-19.
For all students this is has been a challenging time and for none more so than our Year 11 students
who are preparing for their GCSE examinations in the summer. Unfortunately, we are yet to receive
any firm guidance from the Department for Education as to the means by which students will be
assessed, beyond that there will be an element of centre assessment in the final grades which are
awarded. With this in mind, it is crucial that we continue to provide as much support and guidance
as we can for every student in Year 11. To this end, in the final three days of the two week February
half term, Year 11 students will be receiving targeted intervention sessions to address specific areas
for development. We believe that by providing support in this way we are balancing the opportunity
for parents, carers and students to have a well-deserved break with the essential need to prepare
our Year 11 students for the months ahead. Students and families will be contacted with the specific
dates and timings of these additional holiday sessions.
As you will know, the Academy has remained open for vulnerable students and the children of key
workers throughout each of the periods of lockdown and as we enter the half-term break, the
Academy is once again responsible for tracing close student contacts of positive Covid-19 cases in
the first two days of the holiday. This means that if your child develops symptoms less than 48 hours
after last attending school and receives a positive test, up until Wednesday 17th February, we ask
that you register the case through the contact form on the Academy website. From here, we will
alert all close student contacts, as appropriate.
Thank you to those parents and carers who responded to our recent survey on our remote learning
provision. We are grateful for your feedback and we have already begun to act upon a number of
the suggestions we have received including increasing the frequency of English and Maths lessons
in Years 10 and 11; a revised remote learning timetable is attached below and will be shared via
EduLink and on our website. The overall survey figures tell us that 86% of families are happy with
our remote offer but as always we are determined to continue to improve and we will keep you
informed of any developments to our learning provision.
Prior to Covid-19, every Friday morning, an open door policy allowed any member of the community
to meet with me directly. In the new term, I intend to provide a remote version of the parent drop-ins
which will include some form of live Q&A; further details will follow shortly and I look forward to
resuming our positive dialogue.
As always, our commitment and priority is to do our very best for all of our students.
Yours sincerely
Mr A Deen
Principal