001_Y7and8_17Jul2020_ECI

Essential College Info​ - 17.07.20

 

Years 7 & 8

Dear Parents and Carers,

September protocols
Our first line of defences to reduce infection risks are:

1. Hand washing (as students leave their homes, before period 1 when they arrive in college, at
breaktime, at lunchtime, at the end of the day as they leave and once more when they get
home again).

2. Respiratory hygiene (catch it, bin it, kill it). Students must all bring tissues (or handkerchiefs
that are washed daily) and if they run out to sneeze or cough into their elbow not their hands.

3. Not touching eyes, noses or mouths.
4. Students must wear masks if travelling by public transport, school buses or taxis.
5. Social distancing as much as possible.
6. Ventilation e.g. doors and windows will be kept open as much as possible.
7. Regular cleaning / disinfection of surfaces. Our caretaking team and cleaning team will do this

regularly. However, students will have to disinfect and wipe down their own tables and chairs
after each lesson.
8. Arrangements to keep students in year group ‘bubbles’ (year timetables, separate lunch
queues, separate canteen tills, separate zones outside etc.).
9. Every year group will have their own ‘garden’ area outside and their own year group section of
the lower playing field (while that is open in the Autumn). They must keep to these at
lunchtime and breaktime. There will also be separate zones on the All Weather Pitch for
students to play football. This is the only place where students can play football, so any
student wishing to play football must bring their own suitable boots for the AWP.
Our second line of defences to reduce infection risks are:
1. Testing. Any student who has symptoms or has been recommended to be tested should do so
as soon as possible.
2. Track and Trace.
3. Self-isolation as directed by Health professionals / the College.
We know how much everyone wants to ensure that Public Health do not close either year groups or
the whole college at any point in the next academic year, so please ensure your children adhere
strictly to the above protocols and habits e.g. good hand and respiratory hygiene should be a habit for
life.

Student organisation and safer classrooms in September
Further to my recent message to you all about all the steps we are taking to minimise infection in Sep
(e.g. year group bubbles), please read this more detailed document about classroom practice.
Covid-19 and classroom teaching.

Students will be expected to be well organised and bring all the necessary things they need for school
e.g. pens, glue stick, calculators etc. Please impress upon them the importance of such organisation.
Thank you.

The Drive
The main student entrance will now be at the top of the College Drive. Students will cross the drive to
access this. To keep them safe, no cars, minibuses or taxis carrying students will be permitted to
enter the driveway nor the car parks lower down whether for drop off or pick up. Students will not
need to go down the drive anyway as the entrance to the college will only be a few steps from
Downsview Crescent. There will certainly be no stopping or pulling in permitted by the Main Entrance
because:

1. There will be a zebra crossing there for students
2. There will be no 3 point turns permitted so close to T junction and the traffic coming in from

Downsview Crescent
3. The paved area to the Main Entrance will only be built for foot traffic, so no vehicles allowed.
We recommend that parents bringing students to / from College either:
A. Ideally, drop / pick up students half a mile away from the site. A short walk will be good for

their health.
B. Failing that (e.g. if you are very late), drive in an anticlockwise direction arriving at the College

travelling East along Downsview Crescent, drop your children and then carry on Eastwards and
go back around via Browns Lane. This ‘one way system’ will make a huge difference to:

a. Student safety
b. Reducing traffic congestion
c. Improving everyone’s journey times
d. Enabling buses and coaches to make their journeys.

C. Students with disabilities will be dropped off on Downsview Crescent as close as possible to
the Main Entrance and walk down, so parents of able bodied students should be considerate
and not stop near the Drive entrance. There will be disabled parking for the new building but
that won’t be built and ready until the old Science block is demolished and the new car park
built, which won’t be until Autumn 2021.

Please be aware that if we don’t all either drop off / pick up half a mile away and / or keep to a one
way system, standstill congestion and serious accidents are a real probability. Thank you for your
understanding and support.

Students travelling on school buses will enter the new College from the North East coach park as they
currently do.

Students walking up from Uckfield Town Centre will be expected to walk all the way up Lime Tree
Avenue to Downsview Crescent, cross the Drive and then enter the College there and use the same
route at the end of the day. The only exception will be students finishing the day in Art, History, the
Leisure Centre or the PE / Small Animal Care classroom in the Eco Garden who will enter Lime Tree
Avenue by the ACRES house and go into Uckfield as they currently do.

Student Leadership Team
Congratulations to our two new Head Students:
Lucy Meacher and Charles Mack.
They will be very well supported by our two new Deputy Head Students:
Jess Molesworth and Freddy Crisp.
Below is the full list of our Sixth Form student leadership team:

Head Student Charles Mack
Head Student Lucy Meacher

Deputy Head Student Freddy Crisp
Deputy Head Student Jess Molesworth

Assistant Head - Careers/ Academic Owen McSherry

Assistant Head - Careers/Academic Milly Lambert

Assistant Head - Charity Lily-Mae Gauntlett

Assistant Head - Environment Isobel Bartlett

Assistant Head - Media Lily Larkin

Assistant Head - Peer Mentoring Alana Severn

Assistant Head - Molly Dunn
Social/Extra-curricluar

Assistant Head - Sport Ellie Goldsmith

Assistant Head - Wellbeing (1) Jacob Somner

Assistant Head - Wellbeing (2) Lucy Wainwright

Assistant Head - Wider Engagement Rosie Newman

Assistant Head - Diversity and Freya Johns
Equality

Senior Prefect - Careers/Academic Lorna Birkby
Senior Prefect - Careers/Academic Zak Robertson
Senior Prefect - Charity Emma Chrismas
Senior Prefect - Environment Joss Pope
Senior Prefect - Media Louis Gibson
Senior Prefect - Peer Mentoring Bethany Best
Senior Prefect -
Social-Extra-curricular Joshua Christian

Senior Prefect - Sport Katie Cawley
Senior Prefect - Wellbeing Marvella Horthy
Senior Prefect - Wider Engagement Saif Ullah
Senior Prefect - Diversity and
Equality tbc

We were extremely impressed by all the applicants this year. They spoke so genuinely about their
pride in the college and they are all so overwhelmingly positive about the experiences they have had
here. Throughout the selection process, the Year 12 students’ leadership qualities shone through. We
all feel so confident that they will make a real difference to the lives of our students in all year groups
in the coming year.
There will be new student leaders in all (Y7-12) year groups next year. The positions will be for the
same areas as the Y13s. For example, there will be student leaders for Sport in Year 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
and 12, student leaders for Environment in each year group, student leaders for Wellbeing in all year
groups etc.
So, students in Years 7-12 should apply to their Director of Year for these positions of responsibility in
September.

Celebration Evenings and Certificates / Prizes
Even though we cannot have the usual Celebration Evenings, we will still have a virtual event.
Directors of Year will be sending you this with all the names of students early next week. Well done to
all the students for their great achievements!

Keeping up with learning
We know how much hard work so many students have done while we have had lockdown. They
should be reassured that they have made better progress than the average student nationally due to
our ‘real time, remote learning’. There is further reassurance that there will be lots of extra sessions
for students to further help them consolidate their learning and secure their understanding next year.
However, for the small number of students who haven’t been good independent learners and done all
the work they were given during lockdown, they should not delude themselves that any extra teaching
sessions next year will be a ‘magic solution’. Those students with weak independent learning habits
are likely to be the ones who forget to go to any help they are offered. Any students who haven’t
done what they should have done during lockdown should go back through their Google Classroom
and work their way through key activities during the summer holidays, doing an hour a day. For all
the students who have done their best with real time, remote learning, they should enjoy the summer
break after all their efforts.

Our new College culture
As we move into the new buildings and return from lockdown, we will be further improving and
transforming our culture. All the staff in Uckfield College are looking forward to working with you all to
achieve this together.

Our plans for September
1. 3 Inset days

a. Thu 3 Sep - unpack and set up classrooms, offices etc.
b. Fri 4 Sep - our new college culture
c. Mon 7 Sep - normal Sep Inset day
2. First two days of term for students​ (Y7, 11 & 12 - Tues 8th and all years 7 to 13 - Wed 9th
Sep). Please follow the link for more details.
3. Arrangements for health and safety as we open fully in September (cleaning, ventilation, first
aid, hygiene, reducing contacts and maximising distances, test, track & trace etc)
4. Arrangements to keep students in year group ‘bubbles’ (year timetables, separate lunch
queues, separate canteen tills, separate zones outside etc.).
5. Individual adjustments for highly vulnerable staff and students

6. Normal timetable for all students
7. Assessment for Learning, Personalised Learning Checklists and AfL shaping teaching and

learning
8. Exams for Y11, 12 and 10
9. Interventions / tuition
10. Pastoral support

Financial impact of the pandemic
We are very aware that there will be more families facing financial difficulties as a result of being
furloughed or being made redundant. We have always had a confidential system to support families
with costs such as uniform, equipment or school trips. That system is that parents should contact the
Pastoral Leader for their year group and the Finance Team. We would strongly advise parents who are
eligible to apply for Free School Meals as that will not only assist with your child’s nutritional needs but
also enable the College to access funding to support things like uniform. It is also important that any
parent struggling with the cost of uniform should contact the Pastoral Leader as soon as possible.

Fun video
And finally, we created the following fun video for students. F​ or it to make sense you probably need
to watch the original video first (unless you are a massive Eurovision fan and are completely up to
speed with the zeitgeist : )).
Dear students,
We want to say:

1. Well done for working hard on your Real Time Remote Learning
2. We miss you and are really looking forward to seeing you all in September
3. Keep working, reading, learning, revising and thinking

We've made a video for you:
Uckfield College Think about things You Tube link
which is our homage to:
Iceland's Eurovision entry
Keep going with your learning and enjoy your summer holiday when it starts next week,
From all the staff at Uckfield College

Wishing you all a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing all of you in the autumn. Warmest
regards,

Hugh Hennebry
Principal

Year Group Information

Year 7

● Message from Mrs Elsden about the end of term and start of term in Year 8. This has also been shared on the 
Year 7 Google Classroom.  

● AR prizewinners announcement - A​ huge well done to all the students who have made a fantastic effort with
their reading this year. So many students have earned AR stars for passing reading quizzes, and three of them
are lucky dip prize winners: Alaina Horthy, Aurora McGowan and Poppy Barnes. Teia Goldsmith wins the prize
for most AR quizzes taken with an impressive 33 quizzes. Teia is also an AR Millionaire, along with Megan Shaw -

they have both read over 1 million words this year. William Keywood is the reader who has made the most
progress this year. Congratulations to all these students!
 
Previously shared information:
● Deep  Learning  Day  Feedback  from  Monday  29th  June:​   We  asked  students  “​How  have  you  been managing 
your  school  work  and  homework  recently?  What  advice  would  you  give  to  a  student  who  was  finding  this 
difficult?”. We had over 250 responses and you can see the Top Ten Tips list h​ ere.​.
● Uniform:​ The uniform for Year 8 is the same as Year 7.
● You can access the Uckfield College M​ ental Health and Wellbeing Hub h​ ere for a range of websites and
resources to support young people, particularly during a challenging time like this. C​ hildline ​has a very useful link
on how children can help self-regulate any anxieties they may have due to the lockdown.
● Some students are becoming overwhelmed by the volume of emails in their inbox as lessons are now taking
place via Google Classroom. This is certainly a 21st Century challenge to learning! Please can we ask you to
support your child in deleting and filing their emails each day to keep their inbox manageable ​so
that they can easily see outstanding work and messages of support from their mentor or teachers. I’m sure that
many of us share the dread of seeing 100+ ‘unread emails’ and how this can easily cause additional anxiety and
it’s certainly the same for our students.
● Our IT Support department has compiled this useful w​ ebsite t​ o troubleshoot common Chromebook issues.
Additionally, you can see a Parent Guide to Google Classroom video h​ ere​.

Year 8

● Thank you​ to all Y8 parents for your continued support during this pivotal and unprecedented year.
● Please see below- a ​flier from ESBAS​ offering advice to any parents (during August) concerned about

attendance.

● W/C 20th July, a c​ elebration assembly​ video will be released celebrating the achievements of our
wonderful Year 8s. They deserve congratulations on the tremendous challenges they have overcome this
past term.

● AR prizewinners announcement - A​ huge well done to all the students who have made a fantastic
effort with their reading this year. So many students have earned AR stars for passing reading quizzes,
and three of them are lucky dip prize winners: Freddie Reed, Sophie Stapley and Elizabeth Rose.
Charlotte Siddons wins the prize for most AR quizzes taken with an impressive 48 quizzes. Charlotte is
also an AR Millionaire, along with Elizabeth Rose, James Hanson, Holly Hamilton-Andrews, Wini
Buckwell, Oscar Rabson Stark and Ollie Gooch - they have all read over 1 million words this year.
Alexander Houghton is the reader who has made the most progress this year. Congratulations to all
these students!

Previously shared information
● GCSE Options Letters​- these have now all been sent out confirming GCSE choices. If you have not received

one, please email the Director of Year at [email protected]
● Final weeks- ​as we near the end of the academic year, please ensure that your child maintains their high

standards of studying.
● Distance Challenge-​ Between 4th June 2020 and 1st July 2020, 20 year 8 students completed a distance

challenge. The challenge was to walk or run the distance from School to Lands End. The target was 300 miles. I
am delighted to announce that this target was not only reached, but reached TWICE. The total distance reached
was 7​ 39 miles. ​To put this into perspective, some of the places our students could have reached include:

○ Spain

○ Portugal
○ Italy
○ Czech republic.
○ Norway
○ Crowborough.

Please see the image below which highlights the radius of the miles covered.

● If your child is experiencing any difficulties with online bullying, please inform the year team immediately.
● To help with any minor anxieties, please see these useful and simple c​ are cards.
● Digital fly-through of the new school building h​ ere​.
● There is a post on the Y8 Classroom (dated July 6th) showing the progress of our new building.
● As students spend an increased amount of time in front of a screen during the day, please see this useful link

explaining a few tips on avoiding screen-time based headaches.
● When reporting an absence on Edulink, please endeavour to provide as much detail as possible to allow us to

authorise/unauthorise as appropriate.
● Engagement emails- please be aware that edulink emails regarding lack of engagement are n​ ot ​detentions. This

is the mechanism by which teachers use to record a lack of engagement during a lesson. This is for

information-sharing purposes only.
● Please see the links below to help your children with the day-to-day challenges of lockdown.

Oxford Mindfulness for Studying.​ ​This shows Coronavirus Sanity Guide.​ ​Practical tips on staying
students (and parents) how to be more mindful positive and feeling useful during lockdown
of your emotions and how to manage your
mindset.

Action for Happiness.​ A​ call to action in promoting Using Psychology to get through the Lockdown
everyday happiness (highly recommend this for Psychology made simple to help explain
DLD activities). everyday emotions and motivations. Can help
children make sense of emotions.

Encouraging Happiness in your everyday life. Childline​ ​a very useful link on how children can
A handy link to promote daily happiness where help self-regulate any anxieties they may have
it is not easily found due to the lockdown.

Deep Learning Days / Pastoral Mentoring Days
We will soon announce some exciting news via PE lessons about a Virtual Sports Day on Tuesday 21st July.
Tuesday 21st July is Virtual Sports Day
Wednesday 22nd July is an Inset day.
In the last two Deep Learning Days, we are making them Pastoral Mentoring Days and all Year 7 & 8 students
will have an audio meet with their Form Mentor on one of the days in small groups. The aim of these is to
ensure that your son or daughter will be able to talk through how their independent study habits are working,
support their well being and provide pastoral care.

Cultural Experience Challenge
During this lockdown period there are very few opportunities to engage with cultural experiences ‘in the flesh’.
However, students can still enrich their learning (and enjoy themselves) by taking in some virtual culture. Here
is document which has a link to ​100 Cultural Experiences​. Please share with your child and encourage them to
take part in some of them.

Uplifting Uckfield
At the end of each week, we are continuing to collect a photo of a piece of work that your child has produced
that they’re proud of. We are celebrating the best of these on social media. P​ lease let us know if you would
prefer that your child's name and/or work is not used on social media platforms. You have previously completed
photograph consent forms and we will not use photographs of students if you did not give your consent.
Students will share their work with us​ via this ​link.​

Notices

Sussex Uniforms Covid-19 response:
Firstly, thank you everyone for your continued custom during this difficult time.

In response to the current situation with COVID-19 and the government's guidelines
we would like to reassure customers that Sussex Uniforms are ​still open online -
please see a​ ttached information​.

Currently we are not experiencing any delays, but with reduced capacity there may be times that orders take
a bit longer, so please ​place your order as early as possible​.

The customer service team are working from home to assist customers and have introduced a new live chat
section to the website in order to assist with any customer questions or queries.

The Sussex Uniforms Team - ​https://www.sussexuniforms.co.uk/

Sussex Police letter

Sussex Police have asked for schools to share t​ his letter​ with families please. The letter contains some useful
resources to help keep parents, carers and children safe over the summer holidays.

MyON Summer Reading Challenge - access thousands of books online:
From early next week, all students will have access to ​MyON,​ an exciting new online reading platform
featuring thousands of books from graphic novels with audio narration through to classics from Dickens and
Austen.
Any student who completes 12 hours of MyON reading over the summer will be entered into a prize draw to
win a £10 voucher. Please see this u​ ser guide​ and ​video.​

East Sussex Young Carers provided by Imago Community are asking that schools take this time
to promote support for Young Carers.

A Young Carer is someone aged between 5 – 18-years-old who is responsible for caring for a member of a
family with a long-term condition, disability, mental health or substance misuse issues. The Young Carer could
be providing physical, practical or emotional support to the cared for. For support please visit the website

below to make a referral -
ttps://www.imago.community/Children-and-Young-People/East-Sussex-Young-Carers
Alternatively, contact your child's pastoral leader at Uckfield College school and ask them to make the referral
on behalf of the family.

East Sussex Music Instrumental/Vocal Lessons - Continuing remotely
Our wonderful instrumental and vocal teachers are offering virtual lessons so your son/daughter can continue
learning their instruments during the lockdown. For more information and to sign up for online lessons please
read ​the attached letter.​ Mr Gower - Director of Music

Supporting Children with Learning Disability/ASD Coping with
COVID-19 Isolation
Please see the attached link ​SEND link

East Sussex Community Voice Wellbeing Survey for Young People and their Families
The pandemic and lockdown have impacted on the lives of us all and in many different ways. Some good, and
some not so good.
East Sussex Community Voice would like to know more about how the pandemic is affecting your emotional
wellbeing – whether it’s in a positive or negative way and are asking young people and their families to
complete a short online survey that will take about 6-8 minutes to complete.

The key findings from this survey will be shared with the people in charge of local services and schools, so
that they can better understand the impact of coronavirus on young people. We will also make the findings
publicly available online.
You have until Friday 10 July 2020 to complete the survey.

Children and young people’s survey: ​https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/QT99DD2

Parent and guardian's survey: h​ ttps://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/QCZPSLW

Online safety
We know that you, parents and carers, are having to manage your child’s use of
technology and help them learn remotely. This can feel overwhelming but we
would like to share some resources to help you to ensure your child is safe and
happy online:
● Internet matters​ - for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
● Net-aware​ - for support for parents and carers from the NSPCC
● Parent info​ - for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
● Thinkuknow​ - for advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online
● UK Safer Internet Centre​ - advice for parents and carers

New courses starting in September for Adults with ACRES Learning: Study Maths or
English. Relax, improve or learn a new skill. Paint, exercise, learn a language and
more. Courses being announced soon.

FREE* GCSE English & Maths 1-year intensive courses, Functional Skills English &

Maths. Improve your employability or set a great example to your children and at the same time better
understand their schoolwork.
ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is another that may interest your parent's whose first
language is not English.

Register interest in any course, just e​ mail​ your​ choice of course to us or call us on 01825 761820 on Tue,
Wed or Thursday 10 am to 3 pm. We will contact you with more details.
Keep an eye on our w​ ebsite​ for the latest information.

* FREE to any eligible learner, who has not previously attained a grade 4/C At GCSE or equivalent

Use the Summer to Build Your Study #NeuroNinja skills - ​Andrew Wright

Wishing all of you a great summer holiday - To help you prepare for returning to the new
normal in school from September we’d like to let you know about the following webinars
that will be available for the whole summer.
They are all about how to build a study habit over the summer. The videos are
available at the following website - w​ ww.actionyourpotential.org​.
Follow the​ instructions attached here​ to access the videos.
Best wishes
Andrew and Angela

Action Your Potential

Job Vacancies - ​see link to current vacancies page here for both Support staff and Teachers
https://www.uckfield.college/vacancies

DSE Guidance on maintaining healthy posture while working at screens-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bX-oKbMPw_uIHF33z9vnVqRWylOQoVGd/view?ts=5e86011e

Uckfield College Facebook - ​Uckfield College Facebook page

UCTC TWITTER- Follow us on ​Twitter @​ UckfieldCollege

Term dates​ for the Academic years 19/20 & 20/21 - h​ ttp://www.uckfield.college/termdates

Reporting Absences - S​ ee li​ nk to information on Website

Uckfield College Life​ ​- ​June’s Issue

Uckfield College Life will be published once a month. W​ e have attached the Newsletter to the title
above - if you wish you can click on the title to see the newsletter. Please e-mail details to Toni Fletcher,
[email protected].​