It was excellent to be able catch up with the headteachers of the secondary schools in Brentwood in person the other day. These education leaders have steered St Martin’s, Brentwood County High School, Shenfield High School, the Ursuline High School, Anglo European School and Becket Keys through some of the most difficult and challenging times in recent memory. They’ve organised school ‘bubbles’, testing and made space for vaccination programmes, while also trying to ensure all their students have had access to lessons, be it online or face to face.
Secondary school students have had to cope with home-learning, self-isolation of themselves and their teachers when Covid was running amok among schools prior to the last two Christmas holidays. This year’s A level students had their GCSEs cancelled and at times must have feared that their next exams would also be affected.
I am very pleased to say that it is the Government’s full intention that exams will take place this summer, and this week entrants have been given more information about the topics on which they will be tested. Students will be able to use formula sheets in maths, physics, and combined sciences, and there is going to be a more spread-out exam timetable to mitigate the risk of Covid to exam performance.
I know the Brentwood secondary school heads have had to support students who are anxious and stressed as well as coping with all the usual teenage issues which make these years so brilliant, terrifying and memorable.
There is no doubt our local headteachers have done a great job in extremely trying conditions. I wish them and their pupils well in their exam preparations from now until May and look forward to seeing the results of their labours.
