COVID19 Update – return to full academy opening

Welcome back to all our students.

Dear Parent / Carer,

It has been fantastic to welcome back all of our students to the academy this week. I am incredibly proud of each and every one of them as their attitude, behaviour and conduct has been excellent. I am sure that for many students it may have been a daunting prospect returning to school this week. But from what I have observed around the academy; when I have both visited / been an LFD tester in the testing area, dropped into lessons and talked to students during Food Breaks, is that our students have adapted incredibly well to the return to onsite learning. I know that the teachers would like to share with you that they are really enjoying being back onsite with their students and returning to some form of ‘normal teaching’.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the staff involved with the LFD testing programme here at Ormiston Park Academy. We have had 99.7% consent to test and this week we have had zero positive results across the academy. Our testing team is comprised of both external testers and OPA staff testers who have been working together and have undertaken a superb job since the start of January, conducting close to 2000 tests in total. It has been a team effort and I am very grateful for what these colleagues have achieved to ensure that the testing takes place smoothly and that we have been able to open safely. It has been lovely to hear students show their appreciation to the testing team with their good manners, their politeness and humor. I clearly feel that we have a renewed strong sense of community within our academy and that we have an opportunity to build upon this as we journey through the remainder of the academic year.

As always, I am extremely grateful to parents / carers within every year group of the academy, from Year 7 to Year 11 for their continued support from home. It has been fantastic to receive so many messages of thanks and appreciation for individual teachers and for the academy as a whole over the period of school closure, in regard to the learning provided across ASCEND, Keyworker and Remote Live. 

It has no doubt been a challenging period for everyone across the nation and I thank you for your adaptability and also the ability to work with us across the changing parameters for the best outcomes of the children. Looking ahead, I thank you in the in advance for working with us over the next weeks and months to firmly re-establish and develop our academy ‘day to day’ routines, so that we are able together to drive excellence across the academy.

I wish you all a very good weekend.

Kind regards

Your sincerely

Mark Roessler