Dear Year 11

I hope that this message finds you and your family all well. It seems like such a long time since we last saw each other and so much has happened since then. I just wanted to reassure you, that we have not forgotten about you and wanted to let you know about the current situation regarding your results in the summer, your future destinations and plans moving forward for your studies.

This is now the summer term and the time when you should have all been sitting, your much-anticipated GCSE exams, however we know that this year is more than a little different. What we would like you to remember is that you are very much still a part of our school community and we will be continuing to work with you, over the coming weeks, to support you in your preparation for your next steps; whatever they may be. Before you left we collated the destinations data for many of you and will be continuing to follow up with those students who have not yet provided that information. This is important as it enables us to contact institutions and help you to bridge the gap between Year 11 and post-16 studies.

Our staff have been busy working on predicted grades for you, which we will be collating and sending off to the exam boards in due course. This will then go through a process of quality assurance by the Department for Education who will then make the final decision of which grades to allocate. The results day for Year 11 will be on August 20th and we will send you more details of timings and logistics later on.

In the meantime, I am very aware that many of you are now uncertain of what to do regarding your current studies and workload. I believe that it is important that you keep your brain active and your minds engaged. It is always a danger for Year 11 students having such a long break from studies after their GCSE exams before going on to study post-16 courses. However, this year, your break is going to be significantly longer.

Therefore, we have been in contact with most of your post-16 providers to look at preparatory work that you can be doing. Many of the places you have chosen to study at are providing preparatory work for you to complete and have been contacting you individually. However, any information that they are sending us is being placed on to our school website for you to access. You can find this under the school life tab entitled Alumni and School leavers. If you are the only student who has applied to an institution and there is material relevant to you, then this will be emailed to you on your school email account so keep checking.
If you have concerns about applying for a place or even accessing the course you have been accepted on to and would like further support with liaising with schools and colleges please email Miss Dean cde@pewsey-vale.wilts.sch.uk and she will be pleased to assist you.

This term, we would have also been planning and coordinating things for your prom. At this time, we can not clarify exactly what will happen regarding this. However, what we can say is that we intend to have some kind of event where we can celebrate together as a Year group once things get back to some form of normality.

In the meantime, if you need anything, please do get in contact with us at school as we are open and available to you. I am very proud of how you as a year group have conducted yourself over this past year and I wish you the very best over the coming months.

Please all stay safe, take care and look after yourselves.

Mr Pritchard & The Senior Leadership Team