Stevenage Secondary Schools' Letter to Year 5 and 6 Parents
Unfortunately in light of new covid-19 safety measures, it is not possible for Hertfordshire Secondary Schools to host open evening events this year. Please click here to see the letter below to all year 5 & 6 parents. We would encourage you to contact the School if you have any questions and we would be very happy to answer these.
Dear Parent/Carer
We are very excited to welcome you and your child to Barnwell School.
Transition from primary school is a very exciting but also nervous time in a young life. At Barnwell we endeavour to make the transition as smooth as possible, by providing plenty of bespoke opportunities for Year 6 students to integrate into our community.
From the moment you accept us as the school of choice for your child, we work closely with the primary schools to get to know them as an individual and provide the appropriate level of support in place to help them settle quickly. If information is needed about free school meals, click here.
This transition process does not stop in the September of Year 7 however. We continue to work with all of our students until they become confident and independent citizens.
Please take the time to read the information provided, enjoy our media clips and feel free to contact the school if you have any queries. In particular, have a look over the "What Do We Do" section below, as COVID-19 may mean the transition process is a little different this year.
Regards
Mr M Roberts
Head of School
Year 7 Students Starting at Barnwell this week!
We are really excited to be beginning to get back to some form of normality, (even though we know it will be very different to what we have had in the past) and even more excited to welcome all new Year 7 students into our school.
Revised Information Booklet
I have made some tweaks to the Information Booklet that has been previously published. These tweaks cover the changes that have had to be made to meet with government COVID guidance for schools reopening in September. This includes changes such as the timings of the school day for Year 7s, as part of our staggered start and finish times for different year groups, and changes to things like after school clubs, etc. the revised (now version 3) booklet is available on this page.
This booklet has got all the information about the equipment needed, uniform and hopefully everything else you generally need to know.
This Thursday
This Thursday is an induction day just for our Year 7 students, there will be no other students on the Middle School Campus at all on Thursday. When everyone arrives in the morning there will be lots of staff out and about to guide students (just students I am afraid – time to leave your children at the gate and enjoy your own day) to the main school hall where we will start our day with a brief assembly to run through a few bits and pieces and to actually welcome them face to face, in the flesh, as actual physical human beings! We have really missed not being able to meet everyone for real over the last few months.
The rest of the day on Thursday will be a carousel of activities to get to know the other students in your bubble, to get to know your Head of College, your link bubble tutor and begin to get to know lots of other staff. The activities on Thursday include: a tour of the Middle School Campus, activities within your bubble to get to know everyone, a session with your Head of College and an orienteering exercise in the afternoon. You will get to see your timetable (and get a copy to take home), learn about a lot of how things work at Barnwell, have a chance to ask the questions you need, and find out all the other bits and bobs to help you get settled. There will be a lot of information on Thursday…
Lunch
All Year 7 students will be given a PIN code to allow them to purchase lunch from the canteen. In order for this to happen however, students will either need to be entitled to free school meals or have money on their account. Money can be added to student’s accounts through the School Gateway App or online from the link on our homepage. If you are logging on for the first time to the school gateway, you will need your mobile number and the email address used to register with Barnwell School. Students can of course come with their own packed lunch.
If you are having trouble accessing the app, please drop us an email starting@barnwell.herts.sch.uk and the people that know how to sort this will get in touch. We will also be registering students thumb scans over the first two days; so as long as we have had biometric consent.
On Friday
Friday is our whole school induction day; all our students will be back in on their staggered start and finish times. The Year 8 to 13 students will also get a chance to re-familiarise themselves with the surroundings, most of them having not actually been physically in school since March.
For our new Year 7s, this will be the second day of induction with activities taking place during the morning, before the first lessons start for everyone in the afternoon. The activities Friday morning will include a chance to get logged in to our school network, to reset passwords and find out how to use some of the online apps such as Show My Homework, Office 365 and school emails.
Lessons on Friday afternoon will run from period 4 through to period 6. There will not be a need to have PE kit on Friday even if there is a PE lesson on the timetable. From Monday, all students will need to make sure they have got their PE kit for timetabled PE lessons, but don’t bring it in every day!
Maths and English Challenge Tasks
As a school, we will not be collecting in home learning on paper from September, all home learning will be submitted electronically through Show My Homework. I have set up two tasks on SMHW, one for the English Challenge and one for the Maths Challenge and these should appear as soon as students log into SMHW. If you have managed to get some or all of these Challenge Tasks done, really well done, please submit the work via SMHW before the end of next week and we will get the college points added on ASAP.
Lockers
We will send out further information about lockers over the next week or so via SchoolComms.
College Ties
If you have not yet purchased a college tie, we do have a stock of these in school, please contact our reception staff on the Middle Campus to purchase ties. If you have any other questions about the arrangements for starting at Barnwell, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us starting@barnwell.herts.sch.uk
We are really looking forward to meeting you all on Thursday.
Mr Reavell
Senior Leader - Transition Manager
Welcome messages from Mr Fitzpatrick and Mr Roberts
Introduction from Mr Reavell
Middle Campus Walking Tour
Middle Campus Aerial Tour
Click to watch our Middle Campus and Aerial Tours!
A few reminders...
Responding to your online forms
Thanks to everyone that has now completed their online forms, we have been busy using this information to set up friendship groups ready to start allocating Colleges and form groups. Some of you, on you online form, as well as telling us who you wanted to be with, also said there were people you wanted be away from. Hopefully your current teachers will have started talking to you about this, if you are not currently in school, either we will be in touch or your primary school will be in touch very soon about this.
Getting ready for Year 7 - Booklet
We have produced a booklet titled ‘Getting Ready for Year 7’; you should have received this via email recently. This booklet is designed to get you ready for joining us in Year 7, it isn’t something we are going to collect in and mark, but purely information and activities to allow you to get yourself a little bit more familiarised for life in Year 7 at Barnwell.
Video Tour and Introduction Videos
You will find the links to video tours of our middle school campus, introductions from myself, Matt Roberts (our Head of School), Tony Fitzpatrick (our Head Teacher) and some welcomes from some of our current year 7 students.
Allocations to Colleges and Form Groups
One of the things we have been most emailed about by parents (and students) is when and how you will find out what College you have been allocated to. We will be publishing college and form group information, by email, during the week beginning Monday 6th July. College allocations are based on friendship choices first (the ones you made via the online form) and obviously taking into account conversations we have had with your current teachers… We try and get some sibling connections between Colleges but this often contradicts friendship choices and it is the friendship choices that ultimately win.
New Intake Evening
We held a virtual New Intake Evening on Microsoft Teams on Thursday 9th July.
Transition Live - Main Presentation
Introductions from the Heads of College
Ennis College - Mrs Brown
Hoy College - Mrs Jones
Redgrave College - Mrs Cowling
Year 7 Adventure Weekend
With real disappointment, we have taken the extremely difficult decision to postpone this event at this current time. With so much uncertainty around everything, we felt this trip was something we were better off postponing until next summer. Apologies, I know this will be a disappointment to lots of you also, but we are still planning on running the event, just later in the year.
Key Staff:
Mr M Patching – Assistant Headteacher responsible for Wellbeing
Mr A. Reavell - Senior Leader responsible for Transition between KS2 and KS3
Mrs E. Brown – Head of Ennis College
Mrs L. Cowling – Head of Redgrave College
Mrs S. Jones - Head of Hoy College
Key dates:
New Intake Day - To be confirmed.
Start of term - 3rd September 2020. Other dates are listed on our Calendar.
All of the specific information you need to prepare for life at Barnwell School can be found by downloading the Year 7 Information Booklet below. This includes responses to many of the FAQs posed by students, plus uniform and P.E. kit details.
Please also find copies of our Consent Booklet, Home School Agreement, Instrumental and Vocal Tuition form, a Middle Campus Map and an example of a year 7 student timetable.
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