Headteacher Message - Ashton on Mersey School

8th January 2021

Headteacher Message
The first newsletter of any new year is usually packed full of excitement at the
year ahead following a peaceful and happy Christmas. This year has already
started to unfurl as last year ended - like no other.

Whilst we would be unwise to predict the remainder of 2021, I take heart from
an American President whose legacy will undoubtedly be preserved in ways in
which the current President's will not be. Abraham Lincoln said that 'the best
way to predict the future is to create it'. The school community has started
creating this week with its familiar blend of innovation, expectation and sheer        Mr McConaghie
resilience.                                                                             Headteacher
Ashton on Mersey is now fully open for learning, albeit with a blend of onsite provision for the pupils of
critical workers and for those pupils classed as vulnerable, alongside a high quality remote learning offer
for all other pupils. All pupils need to start this term as positive and committed as possible despite the
continuing challenges of this pandemic. Every pupil and student should be learning each day from home
and from next week live lessons will be the norm.

The staff at Ashton on Mersey will be leading and supporting pupils through lessons which offer a full
curriculum and are structured around a typical timetable. Every single child should have access to a digital
device and they should have internet access. Should this not be the case, digital devices are available on
loan from school and we also have a batch of 4G dongles which can be distributed should internet
capability be limited. The government have stated that pupils without access to a device should attend
school as part of the critical worker and vulnerable pupil group. We would not expect any pupil to fall into
this category. Please contact the school immediately should either devices or internet access remain an
issue.

It was announced this week that there will be no GCSE examinations. The school has no further details on
the process for determining the grades of pupils at the moment. We would simply ask all pupils to engage
with the remote learning provision and commit to their studies. If pupils are focused and they complete
any and all tasks set by teachers to the best of their ability, then we can ask no more of them at this
uncertain time. When the school has more details of the grading process we will, of course, inform all
parents and pupils.

It was inspiring to see our ex-pupil Marcus Rashford receive a special award at the BBC's Sports Personality
of the Year Award over the Christmas break. It is important that we continue to support any pupil that is
eligible for a free school meal. As such, the school will be reverting to supermarket vouchers from next
week. A further communication will follow to eligible pupils.

Finally, the request for schools to commence tests for Covid this week was ambitious. However, I am pleased to
report that the school is ready, the venue is prepared and the staff have been fully trained. Consent forms to all
pupils will be sent out next week enabling us to test the whole community. It is clear from the evidence that
Lateral Flow testing can offer an even safer environment for pupils and staff.

                                   Year 11 Head of Year Message
Happy New Year - I hope you are all well and enjoyed the Christmas break. Year 11 have commenced this week
with online live lessons 3x a day. These lessons are followed up with tasks to keep our young people in a
routine through the lockdown period. I hope you will find the learning as exceptional as it is in our
classrooms. It is important that pupil concentrate on their online learning and completing any assignments set
by teachers during these sessions. This will help with the teacher assessment of your child.

From the week commencing 11th January 2021, we will require all Year 11 pupils to sign in to a form time at
8:30am each Wednesday to check in with their form tutors. Their form tutor will send a link to the meeting via
Satchel One.

With regards to the applications to colleges and Sixth Forms, if you have any questions about them please
contact Mrs Eyong via email eeyong@aom.trafford.sch.uk. Mrs Eyong is carrying out remote careers
appointments and pupils will be informed of their appointment time in advance. Information regarding
apprenticeship vacancies will also be sent out on a weekly basis. Please be advised that any applications
submitted before Christmas have all been sent to the relevant institutions. If you have not heard from them
please contact them directly.

Finally, I know that this is a difficult time for all young people to be working hard and staying motivated but
please encourage them to keep up the hard work as the mock exam results before Christmas were encouraging
and we need to continue to achieve. If you need any advice or support please contact me via school.

Miss Ellis – Head of Year

Teaching and Learning
We have now engaged our remote teaching strategy. All pupils will receive 3 double lessons per day led by a
subject specialist. This may not be the same as their ‘in school’ timetable as we also have to provide on site
education for key worker groups but every pupil will receive their full allocation of lessons. Please refer to the
timetables sent out every Friday via email. We use Googlemeet to deliver the remote lessons and all pupils should
use their school email address and password to access the live lessons. Email addresses from outside the school
will not be allowed entry so please make sure your son/daughter is using their school account to log in. All lesson
activities and links to live lessons will be sent out via our Satchel VLE. Please encourage your son/daughter to
attend all lessons and complete all activities to the best of their ability; support them by providing resources such
as pens/pencils/highlighters/paper and finding a quiet place for them to work.

                                               Stars of the week
 Iancu Dragan, Year 7 – for his excellent remote learning work in his MFL lesson. Keep up the good work!

 Aiyla Mustapha, Year 7 - Aiyla has been producing fantastic English work all week. The attention to detail and
 presentation demonstrate that she is applying herself very well to her classwork. Keep up the good work!

 Esme Beattie, Year 7 – for her excellent quality of work in Humanities. Keep up the good work!
Joshua Liu, Year 8 – for his hard work and effort for History. Keep up the good work!

Jesen Mellor, Year 8 – for his outstanding positive attitude. Jensen has entertained us daily each day this
week by singing a song at the end of each day from The Greatest Showman. This is on top of engaging
brilliantly in each lesson- we could all do with being a little bit more Jensen!
Kiera Gardner, Year 8 – Fantastic work by Keira who
combined her own knowledge and internet research to
produce visually pleasing and informative science work in
preparation for her end of unit test. Her continued effort at
home learning is a beacon of light for us all to follow as we
strive to make progress during these challenging times.
Amber Proud, Year 9 – Amber is                         Amy Stringfellow, Year 11 – Amy has been working
a super talented young artist and                      extremely hard on her fantastic Natural Forms “Flip Rotate”
she has produced an excellent                          symmetrical composition. She has sketched out her creative
drawing of a skateboarder in the                       design and has started to add colour using mixed media –
style of artist Randall J Henrie                       Pencil crayons, watercolour paint, biro pen etc… I am very
this week. Keep up the good                            proud of all the hard work, time and effort she is putting
work!                                                  into her artwork. This is a super, high quality piece of work
                                                       showing lots of creative flair and skill. Keep up this high
                                                       standard of work Amy. Well done! Miss Cockayne
Nicholas Ollerenshaw, Year
10 - Outstanding attitude
throughout Year 10 and is         Simone Fowler, Year 11 - Excellent quality of work,
achieving grades above his        her dedication and determination to excel and
targets across the board.         achieve the highest GCSE grade possible. She is a
Nicholas is a mature, diligent    delight to teach. Keep up the good work!
and hard working pupil who
has also started lockdown
work exceptionally well.
Keep up the good work!