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The latest on our approach to reopening the College Site

I hope this finds all of our Franklin community of parents, carers, students and wider families well.

Firstly, thank you for your patience over the last 11 weeks. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the support you have shown to the College and by the strength of our wider College community.

Invitations to those students we feel would benefit most from some face to face contact have now been sent out, and we will be pleased to welcome some students on site from 15th June.

For the vast majority of students, the main form of support, teaching and learning, and teacher contact will continue online, and we are looking to extend this approach by introducing some classes on site for a small number of subjects and students from June 22nd. I have been absolutely amazed by the quality of work and the levels of engagement of our students, and whilst I know there have been many difficulties, Franklin Students are demonstrating every day why their College is the Region’s best.

All subject areas are currently delivering lessons via Google Classroom, following a revised timetable structure which focuses the student’s lessons Monday to Wednesday with independent learning and progression work expected on Thursday and Friday. These will continue until Wednesday 1st July, the last day of teaching for this academic year.

In relation to news other than Covid-19, I thought it would be useful to share some information with you. Below you can find some useful resources to keep the conversation going about racism in our society which has come to the forefront recently. Our students continue to look to us for guidance and to set an example of support even in these isolated times.

There are some useful resources below:

·     www.theredcard.org/  is a charity aimed at stamping out racism in sport.

·     www.stephenlawrence.org.uk/ is a charity that works with people aged 13-30 from disadvantaged backgrounds in providing them support to start the career of their choice. It was set up in the memory of Stephen Lawrence.

·     www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/ is a charity that works to narrow the equality gap which currently exists in mental wellbeing support for black people in the UK.

These resources might help to answer some of the questions your sons and daughters may be asking you, and you can also be assured that our curriculum and support teams continue to review their schemes of work and resources to encompass the promotion of equality and diversity in all aspects.

We are also setting up some Google classroom resources for students to meet virtually with other students and tutors so that they can engage in discussions, in a supported environment, about Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and wellbeing issues, whether they are personal, local, societal or world- wide.

Of note are:

·     Student Voice –contribute to college values and goals

·     Model United Nations – explore and debate world issues

·     Well Being Lounge – discuss own wellbeing and supportive strategies

With my best regards

Peter Kennedy