Headteacher's update - SNS Home Learning - Monday - Week 6

Letter sent, Monday 8 February 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

HT’s Weekly Communication Week 6

I hope you are well and managing to stay warm despite the cold weather snap. A huge thanks to our school keepers and staff on-site who made sure everything was cleared and ready for the students attending the Hub provision.

Online Safety

I am afraid last week we have had a handful of isolated incidents where individuals, not known to be from our school, have tried to access entry to our lessons using student login details. Unfortunately, there is a recent trend on the social media platform TikTok, where users are advertising for students to give their login details so they may disrupt lessons, then film the disruption and post it on TikTok.

This is a wholly acceptable, an unfair way to treat staff who are working hard to deliver lessons, and of course further disrupts the learning of the class at an already challenging time.

Our teachers use the lobby function on Teams and therefore admit students into the lesson. One further step we are introducing is for students is to greet their teacher upon entry, this can be done with the camera/microphone on or if the camera facility or microphone are not available, the student can use the Chat facility to greet the teacher.

Please could I kindly ask you to discuss this matter with your son/daughter ensuring they are aware that they are not to forward the Teams lesson invites, log in details or passwords to anyone.

We will deal with such matters seriously and where necessary will involve our Safer Schools Police Team.

Here is a National Online Safety guide on TikTok, to support your discussions with your child.

Key dates

Parent/Carer of BAME Students Forum

Dr Colin King OBE from the FA’s Hall of Fame of Football Coaches will be joining this session. A leading figure in Black and Asian Coaches Association, addressing issues related to diversity and inclusivity in football. If you wish to join the group, please email sop.pre@sns.hackney.sch.uk

Weekly Parent/Carer Year Group Forums

Please see below a reminder of timings and joining links for the weekly parent/carer forums for each year group. These forum meetings are recorded and uploaded to the shared folders which were emailed on 19 January. If you would like a reminder of the link and/or password, please email admin@sns.hackney.sch.uk

Year 11 Forum – Tuesday 9 February

We have invited our link Education Psychologist – Katherine Madden to present in the Year 11 Parents’ Forum this week on ‘Supporting Teenage Motivation’.

East Careers Week (Years 11- 13)

East Education, in collaboration with world-leading East Bank partners; BBC, UCL, UAL's London College of Fashion, V&A and Sadler's Wells, are offering students an exciting online programme as part of National Careers Week (1^st – 5^th March).

They have collaborations from other incredible local partners including Here East, Liverpool Media Academy, Staffordshire University, Art Clubbers and more. The online sessions include behind-the-scenes virtual tours, getting insider information on how to perfect your portfolio and learning all about the different jobs involved in engineering. They also have courses for students that are keeping their options open with workshops like ‘Speaking about your strengths’ and ‘The Hustle Guide podcast’.

Please encourage your son/daughter to sign-up before bookings close on the Friday 12 February as tickets are on a first come first served basis. You can find the timetable and a full list of sessions available to students on the East Careers web page. If your son/daughter would like to attend a seminar, please complete the internal SNS sign-up form for attendance purposes and register for tickets using Eventbrite.

Any issues, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Bailey. Amar.bailey@sns.hackney.sch.uk.

Here’s to a safe and productive week ahead.

Warm wishes,

Zehra Jaffer