Newsflash – Friday 29th March 2019

Message from the Headteacher

Our thoughts and prayers are with young Alex for a steady and full physical recovery and with his loving parents following the accident earlier this week.

Having first checked the wishes of Alex’s parents, I knew it was important to our students, parents, carers and governors that I brought you up-to-date with as much factual information as possible on the recent accident.

Given the very serious circumstances, Alex is doing extremely well at hospital. Two of our staff visited him at hospital on the first evening, some of our students have since visited (including friends) and we are visiting on Saturday. He is an extremely brave and positive young man. We already knew this, due to his flawless positive record in school (already over 140 achievement points alone in just over half a year!) but we know even more now. Alex’s recovery will take time but our thoughts and prayers are with him. The support of our students (cards, balloons, well wishes and many, many kind actions) and our parents (both on the day and ever since) have brought much comfort to the family and much solace to our wonderfully supportive staff and governors.

Welfare and Safety

We are taking the most senior advice available on securing the safety and welfare of our young people and staff. I can bring you up-to-date with recent events, actions and investigations:

The support and expertise from Tameside Council have, we can inform you, been second-to-none at this stage. We have met and agreed ways forward in both the short term and medium term with:

• The Assistant Director of Education for Tameside
• The Director for Operations and Neighbourhoods
• The Children’s Services Directorate
• Representatives from the Protection Board, the Health and Safety Executive, the Insurers and Solicitors.

On Tuesday, evening and subsequently we have put in place:

• Temporary additional safety measures until permanent exhaustive checks and measures (any that need to be taken) are taken
• Planning for any necessary permanent safety alterations to explore and finalise
• The bridge area to floor 3 has been temporarily fenced off until all final checks are done beyond doubt and any changes are introduced
• The central stairs are not being used. This is as an additional precaution
• We have introduced a two-way system using our Arts’ and Sports’ stairs which makes them busy but they are very well supervised and our students are showing great maturity

We will up-date our whole community as necessary.

In addition, we have provided and will continue to provide support to students who require it and are monitoring carefully through our pastoral and On-Board systems for any signs of on-going anxiety. We continue to ask our parents and carers to keep a careful eye for your own children’s well-being and to let us know if there is anything further you would wish us to do.

Routine

The advice we have received, and which we strongly believe, is that we should stick firmly to our normal routines
that support teaching, learning and personal development. The students and staff have thus far been magnificent
and many families have contacted us share our view that it should be business as normal. Times and lessons are as
you would expect.

Social Media Expectation

In line with guidance, we continue to ask that social media is used respectfully, responsibly and sensitively in line with the family’s wishes. Serious incidents that happen, as you know, affect real people -the family, many of the children and our staff have benefitted so much from a community of voices offering hope, comfort and practical approaches for all concerned.

Mutual Support

We offer our love and support to Alex and his family and we know you do the same. The kind words from children and the parents have been over-whelming and show us just how fortunate we are to serve you. We look forward to visiting Alex and his family at the hospital on Saturday.

Stuart Marshall, Headteacher
Drew Duncan, Executive Headteacher

Something to Keep Alex Entertained

We have been approached by a number of parents, students and staff who wanted to organise a collection for Alex, to buy him something to keep him entertained as he recovers. Alex’s family appreciate this kind gesture, so if you would like to contribute we have set up a Just Giving Page, see the details below.

Also in the Newsflash this week;

• Praise for Our Students
• Year 11 (Turing) Leavers Hoodies
• Turing College (Year 11): Compulsory Lesson 7 Sessions
  • Week commencing Monday 1st April 2019 – Red Week 
  • 4-weeks to go!
  • Easter Revision Sessions
• Year 8 Students Tread the Boards
• Easter Gifts
• Nightingale College (Year 10): Pre-Public Examinations
  • Wednesday 24th April to Tuesday, 7th May 2019
• MCSP Debate event
• Scientist of the Week – Callum McNally, Year 10
• Year 9 Assessments
• Redgrave College (Year 7): Easter Reading Challenge
• Book of the Week – "The Trails of Morrigan Crow" by Jessica Townsend.
• Redgrave College (Year 7): Scholar’s Club Programme
• Curtain is Almost Ready to go up on our MCSP Talent Show – 2019
• Arts and Sports’ News
• Dates for your Diary
• Homework Clubs
• Ever Thought About A Career In Teaching?
• Redgrave College (Year 7): Easter Reading Challenge Parent Letter

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