A Report on the Transition School for new Year 11 GCSE Students at the Plume Academy, Maldon – by Ash Stoneman, Assistant Vice Principal and Fambridge Road Campus Lead.

As a direct result of the rapid escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the closure of schools to the vast majority of students across the country in March 2020, many Year 10 GCSE students faced the prospect of heading into Year 11 having missed a great deal of actual face-to-face teaching.

As the impact of the pandemic grew and the lockdown period continued, it was clear that the vast majority of our students were not going to be returning until September 2020. This led to Plume, Maldon's Community Academy, taking extraordinary and bespoke steps to ensure they offered as much support as possible to all students, but particularly to Year 10 in their first GCSE year and as they progressed towards Year 11.

In the first instance, at the start of June 2020, all students in years 7-12 were set up with a virtual learning experience that saw them receive live, daily remote teaching and assemblies. This continued throughout the summer term. However, the Principal, Mr Wakefield and the Fambridge Road Campus Lead, Mr Stoneman, felt that the students of Year 10 would benefit and thrive from the opportunity to attend a 'Summer Transition School' (STS) to further support their ongoing education as they progressed towards Year 11 and to ensure that 'gaps' in their learning caused by the pandemic were identified as well as proactively challenged.

Therefore, by the first week of July, when the STS plan had been devised and shared with all stakeholders, dozens of committed staff immediately signed up to support its full delivery as well as almost 200 students, two thirds of the year group, who were willing to give up a part of their summer holidays so as to ensure they were ready for the most challenging year of their education thus far.

An exceptionally pleased Mr Stoneman then got to work alongside Mr Beckett, the academy's Director of ICT Systems, in ensuring that every student who signed up to the Transition School received 20 hours of high-level, bespoke and varied curriculum teaching that covered the very broad spectrum of subjects the academy offers at GCSE.

The ensuing timetables enabled students to have a strong focus on Maths, English and Science whilst also ensuring that opportunities were provided in their varied option subjects of Spanish, French, PE, RE, Resistant Materials, Engineering, Drama, Art, History, Graphics, Food Technology, Music and Creative Media.

With timetables now in place, on the week commencing 24 August 2020, we are now in the second week of a fortnight's Year 10 Transition School with over 100 students already successfully through the first week; the second cohort of nearly 100 students has just started. The student's application, approach and maturity has been outstanding and their thirst for learning has been exceptional.

Mr Stoneman, the Summer Transition School lead, said:

"A huge amount of time and effort has gone into setting up the 'Summer Transition School' for Year 10 students - however, the commitment, communication and positive engagement of all the academy's stakeholders has made the process incredibly fulfilling and hugely positive. Parents and carers have also been extremely appreciative and have fully supported the academy throughout the lockdown. Therefore, when the proposition of the Summer Transition School was shared with them, they once again showed their collective community spirit in supporting the academy to host the opportunity. The sign up was astonishing considering it is our families' and students' summer holidays, as well as our staff members' time to rest and recuperate after such an unprecedented period of time..

"The Summer Transition School has been a real success thus far and the opportunity for staff and students to be back in a classroom setting, experiencing face-to-face teaching, will without doubt prove hugely beneficial for the students who signed up to attend upon their return to the academy in just over a week's time. The full raft of safety measures have, as expected, all been in place and fully adhered to impeccably by the students and staff and this in turn helped to create a positive and vibrant learning experience for all.

"I genuinely hope these students get the opportunity to sit their examinations next summer as they will no doubt surpass all expectations and come away with a superb set of results as a direct result of their diligent and exceptional approach to their academic studies as well as academy life in general."

Transition School has provided a significant number of our Year 10 students with an exceptional, unique opportunity and will no doubt have made a hugely positive impact upon the students' mental health and wellbeing as well as their academic performance come September when they return for Year 11.