STAFF
Trinity School is able to attract and retain a staff of very high quality as a result of the fine reputation of the school and of the professional opportunities it can offer. Most teachers are graduates in their teaching subjects, some with wide experience including teaching abroad, and all have a real commitment to their work. All of our staff are involved in continuing professional development to enrich their professional knowledge and to ensure best practice in improving student learning. Additionally, many are active in the local community, whether as preachers or councillors, or in sport, the Church and fund-raising for charities. Our PE staff are active participants in sport themselves, and our musicians have considerable reputations locally.
Many staff bring wide experience to bear in their work, having come from a background of industry, commerce or the arts. It is worth noting that many staff are themselves parents of children attending Trinity. As well as our teaching staff, we have a team of knowledgeable and experienced support staff, fulfilling an increasing variety of roles, including House Tutors, Curriculum Support and Cover Supervisors.
All staff are represented on ‘Team Trinity’, a group which works hard to improve the working environment and organise social events.
If you would be interested in bringing your experience and skills to work for the school community, please watch out for advertisements on our Job Vacancies Page and in the local press.
Parent/Carer letter 150121
15 January 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope that you are keeping well during this third lockdown. School is quiet with a skeleton staff in the building to make sure that students are supported at home and to look after those whose parents are critical workers. We do have admin and reception staff working on a rota basis, so you are still able to use the same methods of communication if you need to get in touch. We have had no information from government yet about a likely return date but hope that we can get back to some sort of normality sometime after half term.
Y9 Parents' Evening Message
Dear Parent/Carer
After numerous very successful virtual parents' evenings with School Cloud, we fell foul to technical difficulties yesterday. Issues affected us between 4.00 pm and 5.00 pm and it is unlikely that any appointments during this time were able to run as planned. School Cloud have contacted us this morning to explain the issues and have provided the following statement;
“SchoolCloud provides parents’ evening software to over 5,000 schools, and experienced an outage on 14th January affecting the parents & teachers accessing video calls at that time. An update to the system in December caused a web page to perform slowly and this ultimately took the system offline. This wasn’t up to the high standard of service that schools expect of us, nor that we expect of ourselves. We have already made changes, and continue to take further steps to ensure that you can continue to enjoy this new format of parents’ evenings.”
We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Please trust that teachers who you failed to make contact with yesterday, will be in touch during the course of today and next week, to arrange a mutually convenient opportunity to discuss your son/daughter's progress.
Thank you for your understanding and ongoing patience in this regard.
A595 Bothel Consultation Leaflet
A595 Bothel Strategic Improvement. This scheme will provide a more consistent standard of road design for a substantial length of the A595 for a 5km section from Cock Bridge to Threapland Junction.
A595 Bothel Consultation Leaflet
Lower School Parents Evening
Remote Platforms User Guide
Year 9 Virtual Parents Evening
6 January 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
Re: Year 9 Virtual Parents’ Evening -
Thursday 14 January 2021
We hope that you will be able to attend the virtual evening to speak with your son/daughter’s subject teachers. This will undoubtedly be a most useful evening ahead of the imminent GCSE options process and I encourage you to speak to as many teachers as possible, to ensure appropriate curriculum choices are made ahead of year 10. We will be communicating separately about the options process very shortly.
Lateral Flow Testing - Cancelled
4th January 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
Apologies for the lateness and shortness of this message. Following the announcement from the government this evening I am sorry to tell you that the lateral flow testing taking place this week at Trinity School is cancelled. We hope to be in a position to offer this again at a future date, when schools return. Information about remote learning will follow soon.
Many thanks
Jo Hawkin
Headteacher
CCC Letter - Tier 4 School Information
31 December 2020
Dear Parent / Carer,
Re: Return to school
By now you will be aware of the changes to Cumbria’s Covid 19 tier (Tier 4) and to the changes to plans for a return to school in the new year, following the announcement this week from the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson.
To summarise the arrangements for schools in Cumbria, we can confirm that all primary schools should be opening as planned in the first week back (week commencing 4th January). Secondary schools will not open in that week, apart from for vulnerable children and children of key workers. Secondary school exam groups will return to school the following week (week commencing 11th January), and all secondary pupils will return the week after that (week commencing 18th January). Schools will be expected to put in place arrangements for online learning as in previous lockdown or semi-lockdown situations.
Please read the full letter below for more information:
Letter for parents and carers 31 Dec (pdf)
LFT update 31st December 2020
31 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
Government announcement 30th December 2020
As you know the government made an announcement yesterday about changes to the start of term. They have delayed the return to school for students in order to:
“allow schools more time to focus on preparations for additional coronavirus testing and provide a longer period following Christmas to reduce mixing ahead of a return to full-time on-site education for all.”
Although Trinity School is involved in the pilot testing programme, infection rates have increased over the break leading to Cumbria being placed in Tier 4 restrictions. This means that we must follow the DFE guidance published yesterday regarding the phased return to school and school will not now reopen on Thursday 7th January as initially planned. I apologise for the lack of notice and hope that you understand that we are having to respond to last minute and complex government guidance. More information about the phased start of term is later in this letter.
Please read the full letter below for more information:
LFT update letter 311220 - V2 (pdf)
18 December LFT letter
18 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
I was hoping that my final letter of the year could avoid all things related to Coronavirus, but unfortunately the latest guidance from the government arrived yesterday afternoon. Schools did not have any advanced warning and the information sent to schools yesterday arrived after announcements made in the media. I would like to be clear about what this means for Trinity School. As you know we have been involved in extensive planning for over two weeks with the Local Authority and Public Health as part of the pilot testing project. The results of the parent survey were overwhelming, with 1510 parents/carers responding and 1410 saying yes to the test. We feel, therefore, that we have a duty to our community to make the pilot work. One of our aims in the planning of this has been to minimise disruption to learning. The logistics of testing 1410 students and 250 staff means that some lessons must go online to ensure safety for all our staff, students and volunteers. Thank you for bearing with us this week as we send lots of messages and check consents at short notice to make sure that everything is in place. There are staff in school until Wednesday next week, so you can still get in touch until Wednesday 23rd December if you have any questions.
17/12/20 LFT letter
17 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) Monday 4th January – Wednesday 6th January
From the results of the parent/carer survey it is clear that many parents are supportive of the principle of LFT at the start of term. So far 72% of parents/carers have replied and, of those, over 95% would like their child to be tested. We now have enough positive responses to progress our plans. Please bear in mind the scale of this project and, that at any stage, it could be cancelled through no fault of our own! We will, of course, inform you of any changes as soon as we can.
Re: Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) for COVID19 – Consent required
15 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
Re: Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) for COVID19 – Consent required
I wrote to you last week, in conjunction with the Local Authority and Public Health, about our intention to participate in the pilot project for lateral flow testing for Covid 19. The next stage in our planning is to gather consent from all students and staff that wish to take part. We think that testing is an extremely positive step in ensuring that we can limit the disruption to your child’s education that an increase in cases after Christmas could bring. I would urge, therefore, that as many students as possible get tested as part of this pilot.
14 December 2020
14 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
After a month with no positive cases of Covid-19 in the school community, we had a small number of cases in school last week. These have affected the Year 9, 11 and Sixth Form bubbles, with a small number of students in Year 7 and 10 also having to isolate. An update letter will follow for Year 11 parents/carers later today, after we have spoken with Public Health. Whilst some of the individuals that have tested positive for the virus have had minor symptoms in school, none displayed the three main symptoms of coronavirus initially and some have been asymptomatic. All the safety measures we have in place help to reduce the transmission of the disease and we act quickly when cases arise, following government guidance and public health advice. It is important that we continue to be vigilant this week as Christmas approaches.
Post Christmas Testing
10 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
Re: Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) for COVID19
We’re writing to let you know that we are planning to offer Lateral Flow Testing for Covid 19 at the beginning of the new school term in January 2021. This is in advance of the national programme for mass testing, and we are planning to do this with a pilot group of some Cumbrian secondary schools. The reason we want to offer this is that the Christmas period is likely to see more people coming into contact with each other, potentially transmitting Covid 19 without realising, and increasing the number of cases without any symptoms when children come back to school in January.
Christmas Events
3rd December 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
Christmas at Trinity School
We have a number of activities taking place in school in the last week of term to celebrate Christmas and want to keep you informed of events so that students know what is going on and know what to bring to school if they are involved in proceedings.
Christmas Parental Letter 3 December 2020 (pdf)
20 November 2020 Parent/Carer Letter
20 November 2020
Dear Parent/Carer
As you know, it is of vital importance for students’ learning and wellbeing that we remain open. We have this week, reminded all students of our expectations of behaviour and we continue to monitor the small minority of students that are not following Covid related rules. Students are mostly doing their bit to keep the Trinity community safe under difficult circumstances. We have been lucky that many of our staff have not had to isolate and where they have, they have been able to teach from home as much as possible using technology. We know that things are not normal for our students, but as Christmas approaches, we will be planning activities (remotely or in bubbles) for them and rewards for the students that have impressed us the most this term.
20 November 2020 Parental/Carer Letter (pdf)
CCC Covid-19 Information
Dear Parents and Carers,
11 November 2020
Please read the letter below from Cumbria County Council on COVID-19:
This year continues to be very challenging for families and for schools. COVID-19 has meant disruption to pupil’s education and significant changes to how schools are run. As the virus has spread around the county many schools have had to take action because of confirmed COVID-19 infections among staff or pupils. Sometimes this has required whole schools to close for a period, but more commonly small groups or ‘bubbles’ have been required to selfisolate at home.
Read the full letter below:
11.11.20 - Letter to Parents PDF
Progress and Pastoral - Yr7-11s
10 November 2020
Dear Parent/Carer,
During these difficult times we have shared with students our expectations of behaviour in relation to normal classroom practice and also our specific ‘covid rules’ to keep students safe. The majority of students have impressed us with their willingness to help the Trinity family and their appreciation for how hard their teachers are working in this ‘new normal’ to keep them safe. We have learned from the small number of cases of Covid-19 within the school community that, when students follow the covid rules, we are able to send home much smaller numbers of students to isolate. When we are unable to say with a degree of certainty that students have kept within their friendship groups, this leads to the track and trace process taking longer as we look through CCTV footage to be sure that we have all contacts. Public Health have told us that we must be 100% confident that we have traced every contact to avoid a larger number of students staying at home. They assess the risk with us asking questions about symptoms and touch, as well as close contacts.
To read more information please view the letter below:
Progress and Pastoral letter 101120 (pdf)
Compulsory wearing of face coverings
Dear Parent/Carer
Compulsory wearing of face coverings from Thursday 5th November 2020
I wrote to you before the holiday about the school’s policy on wearing face coverings linked to the government’s Covid-19 alert level system. This was in light of the increasing rates of infection in the Carlisle area and the likelihood that we would move into a higher tier. As you know, Carlisle moved into the High Alert Level (Tier 2) on Saturday 31st October. The government’s current guidance to schools is clear that schools in any area in Tier 2 or higher, students should wear face masks:
“When an area moves to the local COVID alert level ‘high’ or ‘very high’, in education settings where year 7 and above are educated, face coverings should be worn by adults (staff and visitors) and pupils when moving around indoors, such as in corridors and communal areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain. As in the general approach, it will not usually be necessary to wear face coverings in the classroom, where protective measures already mean the risks are lower, and they may inhibit teaching and learning.”
You can read the full government guidance by following the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-in-education/face-coverings-in-education
Read more, including our school regulations, in the letter below:
C19 Face Coverings (02_11_20) (pdf)
Bali Information Evening
Dear Parents and Carers
World Challenge 2022: Bali
We invite you to attend an information evening to hear about our next empowering form of overseas learning that is set to take place in Bali in 2022. We are proud to be partnering with World Challenge again, to bring a unique experience that will give our students the opportunity to become true life-learners and global citizens. Previous expeditions to India and Vietnam have proven life-changing for students with one describing it as “A truly invaluable experience.”
Parent Letter- Bali Information Evening
YR 12 INFORMATION
Futures Ready- A guide to applying to university (pdf)
SEND inspection – Ofsted
Dear Parents/Carers,
Please read the letter below concerning Inspection of Cumbria County Council local area’s effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of, and improving outcomes for, children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
SEND inspection letter (pdf)
Pupil Premium
PP statement 2019-2020 Covid (pdf)
Trinity School Pupil Premium Planning Document 2020 to 2021 (pdf)