Dear Parents and Carers of Year 11 

 By now, you will have seen the announcement from the Secretary of State (SoS) for Education regarding GCSE exams and school closures. Please take this time to read this letter through with your child as soon as you can. GCSE exams will not take place this year. Whilst I appreciate that this will come as a massive shock, I want to reassure students that we had anticipated this and all is by no means lost. The headline is “exams cancelled” but there are three other critical elements to it which I would urge all students to note: 

 1. “Recognition”: The SoS promised clearly that all Y11 students will receive the recognition they deserve for their hard work, and qualifications will be awarded. At this point I do not know how this will be arranged and will update you when we know but I imagine this could involve the use of teacher assessments, smaller scale delayed tests and predicted grades. 2. “Progression”: The SoS said clearly that “no student should pause their ambitions” to progress next year. Schools, colleges, sixth forms will adjust and work off whatever new system is put in place.  3. “Fairness & Appeals”: As students will not have the ability to sit an exam, and qualifications will be awarded by some other mechanism, the SoS was clear that this will be done fairly and that parents and students will be able to appeal this, if they feel the eventual award has not been fair. 

 So, we will keep teaching Y11, they will keep learning, and they will still get the rewards for their hard work. I appreciate that this will be an emotional time, but we will support your children, and they should take comfort from the fact that we are here for them and all students in the UK are in the same position. What we do know is that our Y11 are in extremely good shape and will therefore be able to quickly adapt to whatever advice is given by the SoS over the coming days. We are also agile as an organisation and will make sure that even in these unprecedented and uncertain times, our students have a better chance of success than if they attended any other school in the country. To this end we have produced detailed work packs and online resources for your children to work through and we will send more information out in the coming days about how they can best maximise their time.  
 
Finally, I want to reassure you that I will be fighting for justice for your children.  It isn’t their fault that we are in this situation and I want to reassure you that I will be doing everything within my power and that of the Greenshaw Learning Trust to make sure that your son/daughter receives recognition for what they have worked so hard for. These are unprecedented times and the government has called for a “war time” effort. Year 11 are now at the front of that, in having to adjust. Right now, we are shocked, in the coming days we will absorb this, and over the long term they will be fine, we can promise you that. 
 
Yours faithfully 
 
Ms K Brown Headteacher