

As parents will have no doubt seen, the Government has today (Thursday 17th December) announced a change to the arrangements for secondary pupils returning in January.
The timing of the announcement was very late, and has left little time to respond to the announcement, notify parents and reassure students. While the detail has yet to be fully given, from what we have been made aware, the following groups will return to school as normal on Monday 4th January:
During the course of the first week back, we will be putting in place arrangements for Covid testing. All other year groups are currently expected to return as normal on Monday 11th January.
We will update over the holidays as and when we get further details. We are very sorry for any disruption this causes.
The year 13 mocks will go ahead as planned in the first week back. Arrangements will remain the same for these.
For students who normally use school transport and are expected in school week beginning 4th January, this will be running as normal.
Getting ready for the festive season and beyond.
Staff and students have worked tirelessly this week to organise our foodbank facility so that food, toiletries and cleaning products are on hand to put into our Christmas food parcels.
To date, we have sent out eighty-nine packages to people who need an extra helping hand in our community. In the run up to Christmas, not surprisingly, our Chase Terrace families have been under additional pressure. This week alone we have managed to send twenty-four substantial food hampers with a wrapped gift for every child in the household that we are helping.
This week
A massive thank you to Angela Bradley from Kean Styles, who came up trumps again this week, supplying the foodbank with enough fruit and vegetables to provide every single hamper with fresh produce. We have had anonymous donations of packages full of boxes of tissues and others that contained Uncle Ben’s rice! Donations are wide and varied, but importantly our students continue to bring contributions to our now easily recognisable desk at the front of the Dining Hall. Thank you all.
Help has come in so many different guises. Without the site team, our admin. team, the teaching staff, the Sixth Form and our younger students the smooth running of this initiative would not be happening. Please keep sharing information about our foodbank from the school Twitter and Facebook account. These platforms are invaluable to us. You are letting people, who need a little help, know what we can do to help. You are making this happen and Christmas may be a little better for us all.
To complete the 2020 Foodbank initiative for this year, we would like to remind you about our foodbank morning. Please see the information below.
Foodbank Morning
This will take place on Monday 21st December 10.30 – 12.30. We will be laying out our foodbank and Christmas gifts in the Sixth Form Common Room. Entry will be via the Sixth Form entrance which is by the school swimming pool. There will be a staff member there to signpost you into the building. You are welcome to come along and pick up those essentials that you need for the Christmas period.
You will be required to wear a mask, sanitise hands on entry and exit and follow the one way system around the building. We are looking forward to seeing you and sharing good tidings together.
Although we were only going to run until the end of this term, we are going to continue to collect food and essentials in January and to support those in need throughout this month. We know that this can be a bleak period after Christmas.
Our foodbank is now depleted we need to make a plea for the following items when your child returns in January:
Thank you so much. Donations will continue to be received every morning in January by the Dining Room entrance.
It is most important that those families who are need contact the school. We have a good selection of items and your calls are confidential.
If you require a parcel please contact us on:
Email: office@chaseterraceacademy.co.uk
Phone: 01543 682286
Please find our latest Chase Terrace Academy Newsletter attached below. It features staff, students and former students as well as the local community and highlights many of the fantastic achievements that have taken place since September. Thank you to everybody who has supported us this term.
Please see our Autumn Careers Newsletter attached. It features staff and some amazing former students successful careers journeys.
The community who keeps giving
This is my thirty second year as a staff member at Chase Terrace Academy. Our school name may have changed over the ages but our community spirit never has. Although I, or many of the staff do not live in the local area we are proud to be involved with such supportive and caring people who live in the Chase Terrace and Burntwood community. While Christmas is getting closer you are still taking time to send thoughtful food items and children’s gifts into school via your own child.
This week
We have received over 15 full bags of donations from our local area. They have been from a single item donation up to a full bag of contributions that would be a normal household weekly shop.
We would like to mention the community of Armitage this week who have been sending in, via Ms Wilson (senior leadership team) bags full of food essentials for the past four weeks. Some of these mums have sent a message to say that they will not be buying and sending Christmas cards this year, instead they will be using that money to buy gifts for our foodbank. Thank you so much.
On Friday last week Angela Brady delivered and left 3 large boxes of fruit and vegetables from her shop in our school entrance with a note offering more help in the future. It was amazing to give our families fresh items that will be used to provide a healthy plate of food. Items included: tomatoes, avocado, cabbages, carrots and many more nutritious roots and greens.
We have delivered over 50 packages in the last four weeks with the support of Ann, our volunteer Covid trained driver, which is quite unbelievable!
Our Achievement For All Students remain engaged in organising our daily donations and helping to create our food parcels on Friday mornings. We are so pleased with their efforts especially as some give up their lunchtimes to help out too. The school leadership are now involved in wrapping the presents that you have provided for our age 5-16 students. We hope to place these in Christmas hampers next week.
Foodbank Morning
This week we would like to advertise and invite you to a Chase Terrace Academy foodbank morning. This will take place on Monday 21st December 10.30 – 12.30. We will be laying out our foodbank and Christmas gifts in the Sixth Form Common Room. Entry will be via the Sixth Form entrance which is by the school swimming pool. There will be a staff member there to signpost you into the building. You are welcome to come along and pick up those essentials that you need for the Christmas period.
You will be required to wear a mask, sanitise hands on entry and exit and follow the one way system around the building. We are looking forward to seeing you and sharing good tidings together.
Please keep sharing information about our foodbank from the school Twitter and Facebook account. These platforms are invaluable to us. You are letting people, who need a little help, know what we can do to help.
We are still collecting food and essentials and would like to make a plea for the following items:
Thank you so much. Donations will continue to be received every morning of the week by the Dining Room entrance.
It is most important that those families who are need contact the school. We have a good selection of items and your calls are confidential.
If you require a parcel please contact us on:
Email: office@chaseterraceacademy.co.uk
Phone: 01543 682286