A year like no other...

When we returned to school in August 2020, none of us could have foreseen just what was in store. Below is a look back on the last academic year.

The Autumn term started with a media frenzy as Manor High was one of the schools starting earlier than the rest of the country and responding to dramatic changes in government policy towards slowing the spread of COVID.  Typically, the school embraced the changes, as well as the media spotlight, and shone through as we celebrated a second round of outstanding GCSE results.

Oadby and Wigston hit the national headlines with the highest 7-day infection rate in England. We knew that it would be only a matter of time before the spread within the locality would impact upon our school. After starting the month as one of the few schools without closures, we soon had cases of COVID among staff and pupils. 

Our whole-day lessons have been a great success. They provided a much more family-friendly basis on which to provide online learning.  The switch between in-school and home-based learning was as seamless as possible. Where families lacked the ICT capacity, the school, and community, did everything to provide support and equipment.  Online learning and assessment continued to improve and was helped significantly by our all-day lessons.

Our safety measures are extensive. They helped to keep cases and isolation to a minimum. The combination of year group bubbles, masks, whole day lessons, sanitisers, social distancing and many other initiatives, kept safety and learning at the forefront. 

For the first time ever, our Open Evening was a virtual event. Although we missed having the opportunity to showcase our amazing school and the Manor High Way in person, this new version was found to be widely appreciated by our local community.  We compensated with a huge number of personal tours, done under COVID-safety precautions, so that families could see the calmness and focus of our school in action.

Oadby and Leicester are among the most heavily-affected areas in the country for the COVID infection and secondary schools have the most impacted age group. Towards the end of our first term, we asked for opinions on our whole-day lessons so that we could continue to improve our service.

We acted upon the feedback and, in the true spirit of the Manor High Way, we learned, listened, adapted and improved.  This led to the plan for a three-part day for the Autumn of 2021. Instead of whole-day lessons, or the traditional 5-lessons day, we will move towards three lessons, in different subjects, of 100 minutes each.  This retains the best of this year’s experience whilst building upon the areas we want to improve. 

Mr Cross completed his “12 marathons in 12 weeks” challenge to support Leicester Hospitals’ charity. His fundraising was supported by staff on the completion of his challenge at the top of Old John in Bradgate Park, plus a non-uniform day, where funds were split between House charities and Leicester Hospitals.

This first week was a hard one for the local community as infection rates increased in the area and in the secondary age group. Infections within the community led to infections of students and staff, so the school responded in a way that supports safety, safeguarding and high-quality learning, online and in school. Year 11 PPE examinations continued and all pupils received the highest standard of learning, remotely or in classrooms.

We continued to promote safety by encouraging the wearing of masks in school, both in public areas and the classrooms. The government finally made face coverings in school compulsory, but, as often the case, Manor High was far ahead of the curve in having already done so. 

Year 11 sat their PPEs in preparation for their GCSEs, showing great resilience and dedication. The government maintained that GCSE exams would go ahead as normal but the continued growth of infection rates and the disruption to learning time made us prepare for a variety of eventualities. A week later, the government announced that examination dates would be pushed back by three weeks.

We trialled the use of School Cloud for our parents evening. This was a huge success and one of the COVID wins, which we will continue for the future.  It led us to coin the term “COVID-Keeper” to describe any initiative from the period of the pandemic which we would wish to retain for the future. 

As school returned on Monday 4th January, important updates were sent out about exams, mass testing, online learning, attendance in school and more. Mr Powell received numerous emails, updates and significant changes from the Department for Education over the Christmas period. Many of these became obsolete with the announcements late that evening.

The announcement was made by the government that schools would switch to online learning for all from Tuesday 5th January until February half-term at the earliest, to slow the spread of infection and alleviate the pressure on the NHS. It was reported one in fifty people in the UK had COVID and the death toll in a single day exceeded a thousand for the first time.

The government announced that GCSE examinations would not go ahead in the original format. The following day, it was announced, in a radio interview, that examinations were cancelled. This was confirmed later on the same day by the Secretary of State for Education. However, just as schools were most certainly not “closed”, exams are not “cancelled”. The public examination of GCSEs would not go ahead, but there would still be assessment and Year 11 pupils should continue to work hard towards these. 

A typically stoic and pragmatic approach was taken by the school. Students would be supported, academically and pastorally, through this difficult period. We made clear that nobody knows a child’s progress in a subject better than the teacher. However, the government would eventually decide to assess pupils for GCSEs in 2021, the school would use the personalised knowledge and assessment of each child and would evidence this rigorously, to provide teacher-assessed grades. This prescient approach meant that when this was duly announced, the school was ready.

Despite the fluidity of the situation and the lateness of announcements, our practical approach, based upon sound knowledge of each individual pupil, meant that we were able to offer the highest levels of support.

Mass-testing of pupils currently attending and staff commenced. The equipment arrived on the first day of term and we spent the week training a team of support staff to be able to deliver this.

On a lighter note, Monday 25th January was snow day! In the midst of online learning, safety measures and government announcements, we were able to enjoy a day of simple snowy pleasure when heavy snow forced the school to close for the day. On this occasion, students were encouraged to get out and enjoy the white stuff to support their wellbeing.

At the end of the month, the government announced there would be a full return to school for students on 8th March at the earliest. Our successful online learning would continue until then.

Throughout the difficulties, positivity was still in good supply at Manor High. We received 15 Amazon Fire tablets from Luke St Claire at Knightsbridge Estate Agents. Jim Gannon, from Zeph’s café, donated another dozen and Luke has found a way of donating two Apple PCs and, potentially, a further 10 tablets. At times like these, the strength of our community work and the community’s generosity really count.

Our support for our KS4 students post-16 choices continued during National Apprenticeship week, with sessions from Loughborough College and other national events.

Motivation for our Year 11 students was high on our agenda with Maximize Your Potential offering highly informative sessions and a presentation on ‘Oxbridge Aspiration’ from James Neville. James has degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and so his expertise is highly valued. Years 9-11 enjoyed a live read through of Macbeth by stars from the RSC.

Half-term arrived after several weeks of lock down and home-based, live, online learning for the vast majority. 

With the announcement of the return to school in March and the mass testing of all students at this time, volunteers were sought to staff our COVID Asymptomatic Test Site along with the help of school support staff.

We welcomed our students back to school at the beginning of March. A staggered start was arranged to allow for the mass testing of all students on their return. This unprecedented return of students was a huge success, with over 1700 tests administered over a two-week period.

At this time, Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests were a relative unknown to most – even those who had tested before had taken a PCR test. Unlike PCR tests, LFDs pick up asymptomatic cases and therefore, prevent the unknown spread of the virus. Students showed their huge resilience when faced with taking a throat and nose swab on their return to school.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the volunteers who worked in our test centres: Rizwana Ahmed; Angela Baer Schalch; Mohammad Eghtedarian; Heidi Genijovich; Naomi Logan-Walker; Krishna Modhwadia; Bibi Rashi; Joanne Ross; Fozia Saeed; Samantha Newcombe and Yvonne Sensier. They performed a superb job, working efficiently and safely whilst ensuring our students are reassured and well-supported throughout the testing process. Most importantly, they did this with humour, spirit and collective pride in a way that blends perfectly with the Manor High Way. 

Following the testing in school, students continued to test at home.

Despite the media focus upon “lost learning”, “disadvantaged pupils”, “suffering” and a “lost generation”, our experience was markedly different. Our pupils had benefited from the online learning we provided and they were eager to return to school and build upon their knowledge. The momentum created through a return to in-school education and the Magic of Manor was something we have been able to harness. A rejuvenated love of learning and the joy of being in school, as well as an appreciation of our school and its workers, were clearly evident. In practice, the return from lockdown was full of hope and optimism.

As we broke up for the Easter holiday, on 26th March, the school received the latest guidance and updates from the DFE about the awarding of GCSE grades for the summer 2021. It was confirmed that GCSEs would be teacher assessed, but with a series of robust checks and moderation procedures in place. Easter sessions supported our Year 11s’ continued learning and improvement.

We marked a full year since lockdown with a short video by Mr Powell, talking about the key challenges but, more importantly, the lessons learned and huge opportunities presenting themselves to our schools. 

We learned which Year 6 children had been successful in gaining a place at our school in 2021-2022. As with many things, our transition plans would be adapted to offer a virtual welcome to our school.

Our ski trip for 2022 was announced and we received the highest level of interest from families ever recorded at Manor High. Our Greece trip with Outlook Expeditions in July 2022 also continued to attract attention from our adventurous students.

Literacy was at the forefront of learning with World Book Day and our #GetCaughtReading posts and tweets. We encouraged families to turn on the subtitles in order to promote a different form of reading. While comedy was on the agenda in the form of Comic Relief day, a well-needed bit of levity whilst raising funds for good causes.

Support from parents and students continued, including a lovely message from Sara, one of our pupils, who describes her ten favourite things about Manor High. This meant a lot to the staff and it is a moving reminder of what we are all working towards and trying to achieve at our amazing school.

We launched our tutoring sessions in conjunction with the National Tutoring Programme. Consequently, we have arranged twice-weekly sessions for approximately seven weeks for some students in Year 7 and Year 10 to help to consolidate learning in Maths or English.

KS4 were offered COVID-safe work experience by LEBC who created a virtual work experience programme to provide students with the opportunity to gain vital key skills they would have gained during a physical work placement.

The Friends of Manor High ran their first online event, a Truffle Workshop. This proved very successful both with the edible delights created, and also by raising valuable funds for the school. Their work continued with a Spring Raffle, which featured a huge amount of prizes donated by many local businesses and individuals.

The recent upturn in the weather, albeit a little fresh, meant that we were able to use the field at lunchtimes. It was great to see our pupils back on the fields, enjoying the sunshine and playing at lunchtime, in a socially distanced way and with zones. 

Our traditional ski trip has never been so popular. With such high interest, Mr Handley worked his magic and found a way to double the number of pupils who can go in March 2022.

We were saddened to hear the passing of Angela Hewing, a valued member of our catering team who had worked at the school for many years, and whose own children came through Manor High. She will be greatly missed and remembered fondly by all who knew her.

A national drive for blanket bans of phones in schools was reported. At Manor High we have always had a policy by which phones are not allowed to be seen or heard in school, but that for safety reasons and emergencies, they are useful for parents and children before or after school. For this reason, we will be in rush to implement a full ban, but, instead, will retain our sensible and safe policy of no use of phones during school hours.

To support our families as the holidays approached we decided to reintroduce the requirement of wearing masks in the last two weeks of term. This was as a response to increased cases in the community and, sadly, a marked increase of cases in local secondary schools.

A key focus in June was understandably our Year 11s as GCSEs were submitted to exam boards following weeks of rigorous testing, moderation and checks.

The students formally left the school on Tuesday 8th June, following the completion of their final assessments. The day was marked with a formal assembly where we guided students through next steps, GCSEs and how we will administer results on August 12th. We asked for a show of hands and the majority of pupils wanted to be informed or their results by collection in person on the day. We are happily able to support this.

Smiles could be seen everywhere as the assembly ended and students moved around the school, saying goodbye and thanking staff.

Our Year 11 leavers celebrations continued with a trip to Alton Towers and Nando’s on Thursday 17th June. Although a prom had always been on the cards since the beginning of Year 10, our students ended up opting for a day trip, which we were happy to deliver for them.

A more information leaving assembly was held the next day. Tears and laughter were in large supply as we celebrated with seriousness and frivolity as a remarkable year group launched themselves from the Manor High Way to the next stage of their educational journey. There were awards, gifts, speeches and much more. A video of their journey through Manor High reminded us of many great memories and, thanks to their parents, their best baby photos were seen by all!

Their final memento of their Manor High journey will be their Class of 2021 leavers hoodies, which are available to order until mid-July, and will be given out on 12th August, GCSE results day.

From leavers to starters, we moved our focus to our new intake.

Our transition days, which had been carefully planned for the final week of term, were postponed to the beginning of the new term. Most secondary schools delayed their transition arrangements to the start of the new term. This made sense because the risk of infection would be greatly increased by all of Year 6 visiting a wide range of secondary schools for 1 or 2 days’ induction before returning to their primary school. Therefore, in order to support safety, we are doing the same. Our new students will now benefit from two days of exciting and full transition in August.