Dear Parents and Students, Update as of 9.01am on 16 July 2020 I hope you and your loved ones are well. This is my last update of this most interesting academic year. I hope you have found my updates timely and informative. I cannot believe that in this same year of managing the College through lockdown, we also had a full inspection in November - that seems light years ago. Anyway, as I think I may have said before, I feel the College is emerging stronger than we entered this latter period. I have had assemblies on the terrace in the past two days with each year group and have told them how proud I am of them, how adaptable, resilient, creative and supportive they have been and how in the face of great adversity and disruption, we have, more than ever, appreciated our strength of belonging to our College. We are also indebted to the many, many parents who continue to contact us to say thank you. Your support throughout this period has been invaluable. Thank you. We all deserve a little rest and so I hope the sun shines on you and each of us throughout the summer. What do we know?
- September: The Education Minister has announced that from September, if the current low numbers of Covid-19 remain, students will not need to social distance, though adults will continue to do so. I have attached her statement for you to read in full. What this means is that we will be able to provide as full and as close to a normal provision as possible. I will write to you later in August to give the details but its lovely to end this year with the reassurance for our parents, students and staff that the College will nearly look and feel as it did.
- Guidance for if you are going away: Should you be travelling off island, please return to Jersey at least 72 hours before term begins. This is to ensure all students will have been tested and received the result prior to entering College.
- Autumn Exam series: Should Year 13 or Year 11 students decide to use the option for the Autumn exams, and I suspect it will be very few, the following dates are useful. We will of course support any student to prepare for these.
- A level exams: 5 - 23 October
- GCSE exams: 2 - 23 November
- Trip Refunds:We do realise that some parents are still awaiting refunds for trips that did not take place. We would like to reassure you that we are following up on all outstanding funds. If you are due a refund, this has not been forgotten. We are chasing suppliers and, once we have received funds, refunds will be processed as soon as possible. Please accept our apologies for the delay as this is taking some time.
- Music at JCG: Despite all the upheaval of this term, our musicians have kept working through lock down, playing and singing, keeping their spirits up. We were sorry to not be able to invite you in person to listen to the last of our lunchtime Music Café performances, but we hope you can sit back and enjoy these performances in our first Virtual Music Café, which is on JCGTV. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiyEhm1gL7ro6nwzb81wukqpI2x9hakLzWe very much hope that Music Café will return in the Hall next term.
- Year 9: It's been wonderful to have two thirds of Year 9 out and completing their DoE Bronze Expedition. Huge rucksacks, I suspect packed with sweets, were trudged around the island. For the third of students not out getting lost, we organised a wonderful Art project for them with a visiting Artist. The results are staggering and even the most toughest of critics in Year 9 gave the last two days 'a strong 9/10'.
Any finally, yesterday we held an afternoon tea party for Year 13 - we could not just let their final year fizzle away. Our incredible Kitchen team prepared some beautiful individual picnic hampers and Mr Milner and Mrs Spiteri had prepared goodie bags containing a JCG teddy, a Leaver's hoodie, a yearbook and a £10 voucher for Beresford Street Kitchen. All of this was possible through the very generous support of Saltgate. It was wonderful having our precious students back for them to meet their teachers, meet each other and enjoy being together. As people began to depart, I was given a large wrapped present. Once wiped down, I opened it to reveal this:
I really don't have anything else to say; this poem says everything you need to know about the very special culture and very special people at JCG.
Take care, thank you again and have a wonderful summer.
Yours,
Carl Howarth
Principal