We would just like to send in a massive thank you to all the teachers and staff at Meadowhead! 
From myself, my husband but most of all our son in Y8 we send you the biggest amount of appreciation for all you have done during this really awful time! For the teaching profession in general we applaud the fact you managed to turn things around in 48 hours and allow our children to carry on learning. We feel the support you have shown our children with emails and the phone to call and not forgetting the lovely gesture of the Easter eggs has been hard to beat! We wanted to acknowledge as a family that we see this must have been so hard for each and everyone of you as we know some of you have had your own children to also have to teach! This has been so hard for us all in different ways but we definitely feel you made it that bit easier for us personally as a family. Well done! The hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed in our house and felt we wanted you to know this! We hope you all get a well deserved rest over the summer and hope September can go as smoothly for you all as possible. Please pass on this message to all the staff at Meadowhead. Xxxxxxx

16.07.20

Our Form Tutors have been making regular telephone calls home and there was some great feedback for the school during one particular Y10 Form Tutor call. 
“I talked with the mother of one of my Year 10 students. She is very happy the provision school has managed to put in place before the summer.  She said how happy her son is to be in school and he has commented to her on the fact he is not just having the core subject lessons, but his option subjects as well. She mentioned that they know of other schools where students are not being offered anything like this, some only getting 2 hours of school time and so was impressed with the full days and content of the school day at Meadowhead. "

Other Year 10 parents have also been in touch to say what a big task this must have been to achieve and how thankful they were to the School. For us it has been fantastic to see so many of our Y10s and Y12s attend on their allocated days.
01.07.20
 

Hi there
Thank you so so much for the lovely letter re our son's remote learning letter from Mrs Grewal-Joy.
What a lovely surprise. All my nagging paid off eventually! We're very proud of him. May I take this opportunity to thank all involved about how seamless learning from home has been. You have worked hard to make it (appear) simple!! When I know the background work will have been immense.  Really appreciated all the daily announcements, the teachers feedback and the colossal way you have pulled something immense off successfully in these awful times and incredibly short notice. We CANNOT fault any aspect of what you've put in place. 😃😃😃

Thanks again (parents of Y8 boy)
 

Received from Y9 parent:

“Thanks also for all your hard work during these really challenging times. I know it’s not been at all easy to move to online learning. It’s been the same for us at Uni although we already had quite a few distance learning courses so we had been doing it for a while – however many of our course were not DL so the work has been immense and I know it’s been the same for you. I think the school as a whole has been fantastic in how you have responded to the challenges and the work and feedback to the kids has been fantastic so thank you so much!”  19.06.20

Mrs Grewal-Joy had a lovely conversation with parent of Y9 student, who also has a younger sibling joining us in September. The parent said the work we have provided for B. has been ‘a cut above the rest’ and she feels the staff have gone ‘above and beyond’ with the tone of their communications, emails and phone calls. She asked Mrs Grewal-Joy  to pass on her thanks and appreciation. She said that Meadowhead staff had the attitude of ‘what more can we do to help, rather than we are unable to help’.  She said she had been chatting to friends and colleagues who worked in other schools and whose had children attended other schools and their experiences were ‘not a patch’ on B's.

19.06.20

"I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your hard work as a History team. I think you have all done an amazing job at putting the work together for the students and getting organised so quickly in very difficult circumstances. My son has really enjoyed the work and it has provoked some interesting conversations around the dinner table, as well as inspiring our younger son to access information about JFK and World War II! Please pass on our thanks to your team."

Y9 Parent 22.05.20

"Thank you very much for all your hard work providing learning and feedback for my son. He has been motivated to get on and work hard to complete the set activities because they have been diverse, interesting and well thought out. I can appreciate how complex and time consuming this is. I've been in my primary school working with key worker and vulnerable children this week, so I know that being a teacher at this time is not easy! It has been a great comfort to me to feel that my son is able to continue to be engaged with his learning, and that is, in large part, down to you.

Thank you again and I wish you all the best over the weeks and months ahead."

Y9 Parent 21.05.20

"I just wanted to say hello and say a big thank you again to all the staff at school. My daughter was quite sad after Boris’s announcement where it was clear she won’t be back in school this academic year.  She is truly loving Y7 and is developing a love of so many subjects. It’s wonderful for me to see how much she loves you all and is so driven to make her teachers feel proud. To have created that culture is phenomenal so thank you so much. We’ve looked at the newsletter on the website and seeing the lovely comment you’ve written about my daughter made me feel really emotional. Thank you for always seeing who she is and encouraging her to be herself."

Y7 Parent 15.05.20

"I just felt it was important to say thank all the staff for the amazing support we are receiving at the moment. All of the letters you have sent have had so much clarity and reassurance for everyone and have been so well timed. My son is in Year 10  and the work set has been well considered and has enabled him to be an independent learner. He has had his ups and downs but on the whole is coping well. This is in no small part down to the school. He misses school he confessed yesterday (yes and his teachers!) and the challenge that face to face teaching brings to his thinking. We are trying to support this when he lets us… I felt that some of the highlights for us are worth mentioning:

- The PE team on twitter have been fun and engaging and actually seeing the fun side of the teachers has been really motivating – their messages on class charts have also been very positive

- Mr Mason has put up an online teaching session for GCSE Physics as a lesson on Loom which is fantastic

- The maths team use an interactive website that works really well

- Chemistry have lent us some requested resources and the office staff and science team were lovely when my husband came to collect this – this felt ‘over and above’

These are highlights for us but all subjects have been amazing and we appreciate it is much harder to teach more ‘creative’ subjects in some of the ways mentioned above but the teachers are working so hard and it feels important to say thank you!"

Y12 Parent 15.05.20

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and commitment in what’s been an incredibly difficult time for everyone. You have all taken so much pressure off and have been truly amazing. Where life will probably not get back to normal for a little while to come, hopefully some things will ease soon. Take care of yourselves and your families." 

Key Worker Parent of a student who has been coming into school. 15.05.20

"….. thank you and your colleagues at school, as a parent faced with home schooling I appreciate the work you are doing remotely to teach and encourage our children. Class chart notifications and work gives my girls structure to their day as we try to stick to the school hours. Stay safe and keep up the good work from one key worker to another."   

Y8 Parent 15.05.20

"I wanted to thank the PE staff for their alphabet exercise drills. Of all the fitness options available to the kids during lockdown this is the one that has stood the test of time for B and she continues to commit to doing these 5 days/week through lockdown. She has adapted some of the exercises and got the rest of the family involved so I'm benefitting too."

Y9 Parent 01.05.20

"Hope you are well. Can I just say what a great idea that you have provided the loom link......I think it looks like a great approach. More focused for the pupils and to see and hear your voice may give more impact and motivation to actually do the work!" 

Y8 Parent 13.05.20

With reference to the weekly Literacy homework and Book of the Week slides we received this:  "Thank you for the book suggestions, I loved the Mystery of Alice and have finished Anne of Green Gables."

Y7 student 21.04.20

"Hi Miss Howard
I am just emailing to say thank you.  A.  is really enjoying the history unit and for us it works really well knowing that a lesson has been set on the same days A.  would have had history. This is really helping me set a routine for us as a family while I work from home.  Also the word documents are really easy to edit which means I haven’t needed to print them. Some of the documents provided by other subjects are either in pdfs which have had to be printed or are tricky to edit (so I have needed to sit with her to help).  I just wanted to make sure you knew that this approach was working was well for us and to say a big thank you." 

The same parent followed up her comment with " A. has really loved the booklets we were both dancing around to the song on the you tube video, which was really fun. I really do appreciate all the hard work that had gone into preparing excellent workbooks. A. was so fascinated by the topic she even wrote 2 paragraphs. Truly thank you so much"   It really does mean a lot to our teachers to hear this, so thank you! 

Y7 Parent 20.04.20

"Dear Mrs Burley,

Thank you for highlighting my daughter's hard work. She particularly enjoys the Maths and even chose to do her work last Friday on her birthday early in the morning before opening her presents!"

Y7 Parent 22.05.20

"The Maths and History work set recently for my child has been excellent!”  20.04.20

"Sophie is really enjoying this maths as it's so practical -  it's great!" ​​ 20.04.20

"Hi School.

This is what our family came up with, apologies I haven't done maths in a while like this but was fun thank you

15+1*(12-3) = 24 (trying to write sorry unsure exactly how to write it on our pc but this is 15 + 9 = 24 (which 1 times 12 minus 3 is 9) 
4x(12 – 9) x 2 this one is 4 times 3 (from the 12 minus 9 giving you 3) which is 12 then multiplied by 2 so equals 24
(15/5)x(17-9) = 24
15 divided by 5 gives you 3 which you multiply by 8 which is gotten by minus 9 from 17. So essentially 3 x 8 = 24"

From C.K Y7 and her mum  20.04.20

"We at the W. household would like to thank you for the maths challenge. J. is in Y7 and we all took part in a maths challenge to see who could work them out the quickest. Fingers crossed we got some right ....."  20.04.20

"Just wanted to say how amazing all the teachers are being from afar. As a Y7 parent it’s been a big change from primary in normal circumstances but given the current situation it’s clearly even harder than anticipated. But I wanted to thank you, as a parent, for the amazing work and ideas you are sending for M. to complete. Luckily she is very conscientious and is getting on with tasks and I am learning to “teach” and more so support her whilst on furlough leave. ...... I just wanted to send this to thank you all and to hope you’re all safe and well." 

Y7 parent 17.04.20