Dear parents / guardians

I hope this letter reaches you and your family in good health and spirits, although I am all too aware that some of our families have faced tragedy during the current crisis – our thoughts are with those pupils, staff and wider families affected.

Distance Learning
Online work is being set every two weeks by all subjects.  Some subjects like Textiles, Graphics and Art have set ongoing project based work that will last for the half-term.

All pupils will receive an email detailing their work each fortnight from their subject teachers via their school email.  This can also be accessed via the Distance Learning section of the school's Moodle page on our website.  All pupils have an email and Moodle login.  Should you or your daughter have any difficulty, then please contact us via the school office number or the distance learning email address.

We also have a very small number of laptops still available to loan to families to facilitate online work.  If you are interested in these, please email: it-support@turvgng.bham.sch.uk.  We believe that the Local Authority will be implementing a scheme announced by the Department for Education to provide 4G-enabled devices to homes of some Year 10 students without internet access at some stage.  We will, of course, be in touch as soon as we have further information.

Some families have requested paper-based work.  Again, this is being set every two weeks by all subject teachers.  Packs are posted out by the school office no later than the Friday before.  Should you require a pack, please contact the school office via phone: 0121 4648346 or email: distancelearning@turvgng.bham.sch.uk

I have written to parents and emailed Year 11 students about their summer GCSE exams previously.  To briefly restate – exam boards will allocate grades based on a number of factors.  Where the grade awarded is low we will encourage students to sit the exam in September.  Therefore, we encourage Year 11s to continue with their GCSE studies.

All pupils have access to the Science website Educake and Mathswatch with school logins and the French Department has sent out website lists and logins.  Some subjects such as History have all of their lessons and resources on Moodle should your daughter need to access work there.

Please do not be overwhelmed by all of the school work coming out to you and your daughter.  This work is available with the intention of supporting home learning and the lock down, not add to the stress of it.  We recommend that your daughter tries a little and often with variety.  If there is work that she cannot do or is struggling with, then to contact her class teacher via email.  We are more than glad to help and to do what we can under these difficult circumstances.

We are able to offer parents access to a free webinar which is provided by an organisation the school works with:
Title: How to help your child study effectively without becoming the enemy  
Date: Tuesday 12th May 2020 
Time: 6:00 – 7:00pm 
Cost: Free 
Sign up link: https://www.elevatecoaching.info/webinar-uk-1/ 
 
Free School Meal Vouchers
Edenred are the company chosen by the Department for Education to distribute the Free School Meals Vouchers.   If your child is in receipt of Free School please check your inbox and junk folder for an email from noreply@edenred.co.uk or hello@email.edenred.co.uk.
The emails have been sent to the primary email you have registered on parentmail and were sent out on or around 21st April 2020.
Please note the voucher will be for 4 weeks per child at a value of £60.  These vouchers can be spent at a range of supermarkets.
Vouchers will continue to be sent out on a 2 or 4 week period until schools re-open.

Financial Crisis
We are aware that many families are struggling with loss of income and delays to benefits.  If you are having serious financial difficulties and/or need a foodbank referral, please email safeguarding@turvgng.bham.sch.uk or phone school on 0121 464 8346.  All contacts will be dealt with in confidence.

Pupil Wellbeing
We hope that your child is staying physically well whilst staying at home, but we also hope that they are looking after their mental health.   Staying in some sort of routine can be very useful to ensuring positive mental health at this time so having set meal, exercise and bed times and ensuring that screen time is kept to a healthy level. 

Keeping in touch with friends via the vast range of technology now available is also really important for young people at this time.  All pupils should have had emails and in some cases phone calls from us signposting them to a number of agencies who offer support with wellbeing, Kooth.com online support service is an excellent source of advice and also offers an online counselling service.  For further advice on ensuring positive wellbeing, go to the student pages of our school website, emotional health and wellbeing, support outside school.  Attached is a poster with details of how you can still access mental health support from PAUSE.  If you have any concerns about your child's wellbeing you can contact us at school on safeguarding@turvgng.bham.sch.uk and a member of the pastoral team will get back to you.

Return to School
While rumours continue to swirl in the press, we have received no guidance at this time when schools will re-open and for which year groups.   We have had some useful experience of keeping children safe whilst continuing to teach the children of key workers, and we are actively planning for different scenarios of how best to safeguard children, staff and their families when school reopens.  We will continue to take our responsibility to your children extremely seriously.

Meanwhile, if you wish to access the current provision for vulnerable children and the children of key workers please email enquiry@turvgng.bham.sch.uk in the first instance.  We would respectfully ask that you don’t send your daughter into school until you have had confirmation from school that we are expecting her in.

In closing, if you wish to raise any comments, constructive criticism or have positive comments on the performance of our school before and during this shut-down, please email me via enquiry@turvgng.bham.sch.uk marking the email ‘FAO Mr Jones’.  We look forward to seeing your daughter in school as soon as it is considered safe to do so.

Yours faithfully
 
Mr N Jones
Headteacher

Turves Green Girls' School Open evening & Morning are taking place on the following days and times:

Open Evening, Tuesday 17th September, 6:30 - 9:00pm
Open Morning, Thursday 19th September, 9:15-11:00am

Turves Green Girls’ School would like to congratulate our Year 11 leavers and their teachers for securing fantastic results in their GCSEs. The percentage of leavers securing a Grade 4 or better (equivalent to the old ‘C’ grade) rose to 69% in Maths and 79% in English.

The number of students securing higher grades, 5+ (equivalent to the old ‘B’ ) is also remarkable. Across a wide range of subjects, our leavers achieved tremendous results, with over 60% achieving a 5+ in Computer Science, 54% in RE and 52% in History.

Our broad curriculum, which allows students to follow practical qualifications, has also allowed many students to secure a career path into public services with results with 96% securing a pass or better and 62% achieving a distinction or better in Health and Social Care Btec. Creative subjects, such as Performing Arts – Dance, have again seen huge success, with 83% achieving a merit.

One particularly pleasing outcome of this summer’s hugely challenging and stressful exams is the number of students who achieved the very highest grades, 8s and 9s. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Computer Science, English Language and Literature, History and Geography all saw a number of students reach these phenomenal heights – placing these talented and hard-working students amongst the best and brightest in the country.
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We wish our leavers every success in their chosen sixth forms, apprenticeships and colleges, and look forward to hearing about their challenges and successes in the years ahead and hope to see many return whether for work experience, to present in careers sessions or speak in assemblies and other events.

Dear Parents

Please see the file below for details of when your Daughter should come to school on the first day back at the start of the new academic year, Tuesday 4th September.

Dear Parents.

As a school we have been asked by Network Rail to share the following video on Rail safety.

You vs. Train