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Parent Bulletin 10/12/21

Please see the latest bulletin from Mr Solly below...

Dear UCC Families

We have been feeling rather festive today, with students and staff wearing Christmas Jumpers to raise money for Save The Children. Fund-raising at UCC is a great feature of our school and our students are so passionate about supporting local and national charities. Yesterday we hosted a Macmillan Coffee morning, raising over £100 for a very good cause, combined with our efforts from earlier in the term when our students raised an impressive £1,124 for Children in Need.  

Next Tuesday students can order 'Christmas Lunch in a Box' and on Friday we will host a number of celebration assemblies to mark the end of term, before we finish at 1pm (with buses departing at 1:15pm). 

After the Christmas break we will return on Tuesday 4th January 2022 for the start of the Spring Term. Our Year 11 students will be taking their Pre-Public Exams, which are a very important milestone in their final year at UCC. The government's 'Plan B' for exams is for in-school assessments to be used to award GCSE grades, so in the event of the summer exam series being cancelled we will be using these Pre Public Exams as part of the evidence base for calculating grades. If you are a parent of a Year 11 child, then please support them with achieving the right balance over the festive period. It might sound like a 1990s Mars advert, but I would recommend students strive to achieve a good balance of work, rest and play over the 2-week holiday. It is important for them to have some downtime after a long term, and spend time celebrating Christmas with their family. However, they should make a plan for revision over this period, so they are prepared for the PPEs, and parents play a key role in helping them be organised, motivated and consistent. Our website is a good source of information to support students and their parents with revision: https://www.uppinghamcollege.org.uk/page/?title=Revision&pid=105 

You will have read that it has been recommended that schools set up on-site testing for students when they return in January. We have made the decision to not set up the testing site at UCC on this occasion. Instead, we are asking our students to continue taking the twice weekly Lateral Flow Device tests throughout the Christmas period, and then take an additional test on the day prior to returning to school. We feel that this achieves the same outcome as the on-site testing (which is also voluntary for students) and we will have rooms available for students to take a test in school on Tuesday 4th January if they so wish. We will send reminders out via email and text as we near the start of the Spring Term. 

Have a great weekend
Mr Solly