Nurture Provision

As a school, Holy Trinity College is forward thinking and advanced in our core purpose of learning and teaching. In the current climate of Covid-19, we also have effective Health & Safety measures in place, such as the wearing of face masks, hand washing/sanitising stations, social distancing, one way systems, protective bubbles, designated year group areas for break and lunch times etc, to mitigate the risk of transmission of the virus. Wednesday 18th November, staff and pupils were extremely well prepared to welcome invited Ministers (Education, Deputy First Minister) to our Nurture Provision. Giving the times we are living in, we also had to address a number of positive cases at the same time. All staff swung into action in their various roles and by 11.00am school life was back to normal again. Disappointingly, the ministerial visit was postponed, but not by Holy Trinity College!. We truly appreciate the support of MLA Patsy Mc Glone and our Trustee Governor Fr Boyle for remaining with us during a busy morning.

Our self-funded Nurture provision provides a positive environment to teach social and emotional needs to small groups of children, about building trust, having a safe base, listening to each child and nurturing them for society. The children and staff were so looking forward to talking to our Ministers about this and to showcase the excellent work they do on a daily basis. Other points for discussion were pupil mental health and well-being, and Examinations. Our pupils had questions/concerns they were keen to address, eg Year 12 pressure of completing 2 years work within one year; are Exams a better form of assessment as opposed to Teacher assessed grades; no reduction in Maths specification; what contingency plans are in place for those self-isolating and therefore cannot sit GCSE exams next week; will exams be cancelled similar to Scotland and Wales?  We are proud that our pupils and staff took time to compose very relevant questions, but  regrettably they were not answered in person. 

Amidst all the flurry of the morning, school life continued as normal. Learning and teaching continued. School is the best place for our children.

Thanks for reading this. HTC