Impington Village Virtual College
Firstly, I would like to publicly thank all of the parents and guardians who have been in touch to share positive feedback on our transition to remote learning once again – we have been overwhelmed by positive messages and appreciate reading that all of our students are engaged with their learning from home.
As always, our focus remains to keep our staff members and students as safe as possible, while delivering the highest quality education. We have taken the following steps to ensure this:
- All students now have access to the appropriate technology, such as Chromebooks
- To mirror the school day, timetabled lessons will take place every day, as per the normal College timetable. Each lesson will be live for 50 – 55 minutes
- Lessons will be calendared at least 24 hours in advance so that students have plenty of time to arrange access
- Students will have access to daily tutor time and will continue to undertake iCAS@Home sessions on Tuesdays, offering enrichment opportunities; parents and guardians should have received some ideas on activities that can take place during this time
Please remember that attendance is compulsory. For all online lessons, expectations for behaviour will be the same as in the College, if students do not meet teachers’ expectations, then they may be removed from lessons.
Keep your eyes peeled over on our social channels in the coming weeks where we will be sharing some top tips on how you can keep your children motivated and engaged with their learning during this challenging time. Once again, thank you for all of your support to date.
Site update
While the College is mostly virtual at the moment, our site team is working hard to continue making improvements to the College environment. Our Humanities classrooms are currently getting a bit of a facelift, with some fresh paint and repairs to the glazing in the computer area. We are also planning to install more workspace in the central area, and to add some more computers for student use, as well as creating a new staff work area. We are sure the students will notice a big difference when they return! Over Christmas, we also had the Carnegie Room (our Grade I listed staffroom) re-carpeted, along with the Bauhaus corridor.
Learning independently, not alone
As we have transitioned once again to remote learning, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight Vice Principal, Jo Sale’s, article titled Learning independently, not alone. While we are 10 months down the line from when this article was originally posted, the content could not be more relevant and I am very proud to see our Sixth Form students settling back into learning from home. This quote from the article particularly resonated with me: “When everything we hear is about physical distancing, it is hugely important to remind students that, while they are on their own, they are not alone and are part of a large, supportive network.”
Read the article here: https://www.impingtoninternational.org.uk/learning-independently-not-alone/
Student shoutouts
I am so proud of all of the achievements of our students at IVC and I am pleased to share some recent highlights that are very worthy of a mention.
One of our incredibly talented Year 11 students, Cat L., has been using her time in lockdown to write, produce and record her very own EP! Titled, Sweeter Here, the EP is available to listen to on YouTube, Amazon Music, Apple and soon Spotify. Please support Cat L. by listening to her music, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qtQyI9LTPs
Year 8 student, Anya M., has also been busy in her spare time collecting over 50 computers from donations in the local village, and delivering them both to the Histon and Impington Junior School and us here at IVC, so that all students have access to appropriate technology. Anya M. also worked hard to fix all of the computers so that they now run-on Windows 10!
Great work Cat L. and Anya M. – I look forward to reading more inspiring stories from our students. Please do keep sharing them with us.
January 12, 2021
