Dear Parents and Guardians ,
Further to the parent consultation that was held earlier this year and the more recent period of staff consultation , we are now writing to confirm that our new working week will be adopted from September 2021 . This is an exciting development for the Foundation as it offers students and teachers an enhanced academic platform upon which to build for the future , the chance to improve our already outstanding pastoral care , as well as the opportunity to re-energise and redesign our boarding provision and maintain and broaden our co-curricular options . Governors have given their unanimous approval to this decision and we are pleased that our new working week takes account of as much input from our community as possible . We have made several changes to the original proposal and these seek to reflect feedback from parents , pupils and staff . The key features of this are :
• A restructure of our current timetable , including o Longer lessons of 50 / 55 minutes in Pocklington School to allow for more indepth study , in line with the development of our Values and Virtues o Reduced travelling time between lessons for Pocklington School pupils o Full days on ‘ half-term Fridays ’ o A move to a single morning break in Pocklington School
• A small extension to term dates to facilitate additional teaching time
• The cessation of Saturday morning academic lessons This results in :
• An overall increase of two weeks teaching time across the academic year for Pocklington School pupils
• An increase of 6 days teaching time for Prep School pupils
• A synchronised Prep and Pocklington School timetable that allows for improved use of the Foundation ’ s excellent shared facilities
And enables us to :
• Redesign our Pocklington School curriculum to reflect a changing and more demanding educational landscape including offering additional subject choices at Middle School and Sixth Form level
• Commit to maintaining and , where possible , improving our co-curricular offering during the week and at the weekends in Pocklington School including a wider variety of sporting options
• Offer an improved and more varied weekend boarding programme
• Gain more frequent and additional pastoral time for all Pocklington School pupils ; in line with that afforded in the Prep School
• Establish additional INSET opportunities for staff prior to the beginning of the Michaelmas term
Following this letter is a revised version of our original brochure . This aims to give parents an overview of the rationale , goals and structure of our new working week and some of the implications thereof . Much of the next two terms will be spent in preparation for this initiative . Our boarding staff will be drawing together the specific details of our weekend boarding experience packages and our sports department will be fine tuning their midweek and weekend fixture cards . Our pastoral staff will be designing our vital tutor programmes and all teaching colleagues will be working together to put in place teaching and learning techniques that will make the most of this new structure . We should like to thank parents , pupils and colleagues for their support and contributions during this process .
Yours sincerely ,
Toby Seth Headmaster
Tim Stephenson Chair of Governors