Head’s Blog – December 2020

Head's Blog

11th December 2020
*update 18th December 2020*

Dear Parents and Carers

As I write this letter, we have collected all of the items that students have brought to school
in support of our Advent Foodbank charity focus. Thank you for supporting this initiative so
generously, and we have been humbled by the sheer volume of items that children have
brought in to school this year. It has been our most successful appeal to date and reflects the
core message at the heart of our Mission Statement that everyone matters, and very much
puts our faith into action making clear our calling as a Catholic community to support the
most vulnerable and needy at this time of year.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer a formal thank you to the students at school who
each and every day engage so positively with the new processes and systems that have been
necessary to keep us all safe during the Advent Term. As we enter into 2021, and as infection
rates continue to fall, we are hoping that we will be able to adjust our arrangements to allow
more flexibility both within the curriculum and across our enrichment activities and after
school provision, whilst at the same time maintaining the highest of safety standards
throughout the school – we will look to update you in the New Year.

I would also like to offer my thanks to all our students who have continued to live up to the
high expectations of our 4Rs, and who live out our Catholic values though their attitudes as
members of the St Nicholas community: Thank you for being punctual at the start of the
school day and to your lessons, for your positive engagement in class with your studies, for
attending in the correct school uniform and with the correct equipment ready to learn and
for being role models to each other through your words and your actions. Collectively, all of
these small behaviours create a firm foundation upon which deep learning can be built and
from which future success is destined to follow.

Thank you to parents and carers for your understanding and support through this most
challenging of Terms – for your words of encouragement, suggestion, understanding and
appreciation. Thanks to those who were able to leave some positive words to share with our
staff community and thanks for offering feedback on our remote learning provision.

As we draw ever nearer to the celebration of Christmas, we would do well as always, to reflect
on the words given by Pope Francis from St Peter’s Square on Christmas Day last December:

May Emmanuel bring light to all the suffering members of our human family.
May he soften our often stony and self-centred hearts, and make them channels of his love.
May he bring his smile, through our poor faces, to all the children of the world:
to those who are abandoned and those who suffer violence.
Through our frail hands, may he clothe those who have nothing to wear, give bread to the
hungry and heal the sick.
Through our friendship, such as it is, may he draw close to the elderly and the lonely, to
migrants and the marginalized.
On this joyful Christmas Day, may he bring his tenderness to all and brighten the darkness of
this world.

I do hope that you are able to join the Christmas celebrations within your own parish communities this year, virtually or in person.

Following the government’s announcement on 17th December the new Lent term will begin virtually for students on Wednesday 6th January 2021 for Years 7,8,9,10 and 12.
Years 11 and 13 will be in school from Wednesday 6th January.
For more information click here to read the Headteacher’s Letter

Students will be reminded of uniform standards during the first week back and I would ask you to re-familiarise yourself with our Uniform Policy and other detailed information on our school website should you be making any purchases in preparation for January.
Until then may I wish you all a happy, holy and peaceful Christmas.

Richard Woods

Headteacher

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