You will be aware from the national media that the Department for Education has made sudden and late changes in its expectations of schools when they re-open in January.  All secondary schools have been asked to extend the previously planned staggered start to the spring term. 

For exam group students in Years 11 and 13, remote learning will commence on Tuesday 5th January.  Students in these year groups should remain at home and should log on to Microsoft Teams at 10.50am on the 5th for registration with their form tutor.  Online lessons will begin with period 3.  Students in both year groups will return to school on Monday 11th January. 

We will also provide on-site education for our more vulnerable children and children of key workers. Members of staff from our Flexible Learning Centre will be in contact directly with some families on Tuesday 5th January to invite them into school from Wednesday 6th January.  If you are a critical key worker and are unable to source care for your child during this first part of term, please contact the school office (office@uhs.org.uk) to book a place.  We will confirm arrangements back to you by email.

Students in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 will remain at home for an extra two weeks and return to school on Monday 18th January at the normal times.  Provision of remote learning in the period up to the 18th is being considered for these year groups and an update will follow. 

The school will be working to set up a rapid flow testing centre during the opening two weeks of term.  The set up will include the collection of parental consent forms for all our students.  When we have more details on this, a further communication to parents will be sent and will include the consent form.

Start of term arrangements are detailed in the Principal's update of 1st January below.

Our staggered start and finish times have helped keep student bubbles apart. We will continue with these with the following amendments:

Year 12 students volunteered their time to participate in a Christmas shopping event on Friday, 15th November. During the day they assisted elderly people with their Christmas shopping around Uxbridge town centre. This annual event was organised by the Town Centre Minister and we were one of several schools that had been asked to assist on the day.

On Tuesday 29th October, Years 7 and 8 students took part in a rugby X masterclass led by Ben Ryan at the O2 arena. Ben Ryan is an extremely well-known international rugby coach, coaching Fiji to Olympic Gold and England to numerous 7s titles.

On Tuesday 24th September four of our students attended a workshop run by Canterbury at Twickenham Stadium. Students were given an insight by the Canterbury design team, as to how rugby jerseys are designed and produced.