20th March 2020
Dear Parent/Carer,
Re: Confirmation of School Closure
As a school, we want to get the balance right between social distancing and also supporting parents who are in key worker roles to continue to work. This must be considered very carefully to keep students, families and staff safe. It has been a very difficult time for everyone and we appreciate all the supportive messages that have come into school from parents and carers this week.
Our school will close indefinitely on Friday 20th March at 3.10pm. The advice from the government is that if it is at all possible for your child to be at home, then they should be, in order to limit the chance of the virus spreading.
From Monday 23rd March, school will be open in a limited capacity ONLY for those children who absolutely need to attend. Students who are from a single parent household where the parent is a key worker, or in other households where both parents are key workers, can access school provision from Monday. Many parents working in these sectors may be able to ensure their child is kept at home and for many students, they will be old enough to be left alone at home. If your work is critical to the Covid-19 response and you think you fall within the critical categories listed by the government you must confirm this with your employer based on their business continuity arrangements and inform the school if you intend to use our alternative, limited provision from Monday. In order to allow us to plan opening arrangements, please inform us if this is the case by 2pm today.
The Secretary of State has estimated that schools should expect around 10% of the student population at most to be attending school from next Monday. Please be aware that we will be open with significantly reduced capacity as we have an increasing proportion of our teachers and support staff who are self-isolating or social distancing. If we have more demand than expected from parents, we may need to prioritise which children we can accommodate.
For those students who do come in the arrangements will be:
Normal school hours apply (8.35am-3.10pm including 2.05pm finish on Tuesdays). The school building will not be open before 8.15am or after 3.45pm. We cannot facilitate students arriving at different times throughout the day.
Students will need to arrive and sign in through main reception.
A small number of teaching and support staff will work with students on their home learning tasks (the same tasks that students at home will be working on).
We will operate a non-uniform policy.
If your child will be attending on Monday, please ensure they bring a packed lunch with them (unless they are usually entitled to a free school meal). At present
arrangements for lunch time have not yet been finalised.
Absence will be reported if parents have asked their child to attend.
If any child behaves inappropriately during this time, parents/carers will be asked to collect them; we don’t have the usual support mechanism in place to manage this any other way.
There will be no lunchtime or after-school clubs or activities running.
Understandably, some families and students will find things harder with school being closed to them. We will provide more guidance in due course about how you can support your child’s education and wellbeing from home. We will also write to parents/carers of Year 11 and 13 students as soon as we receive clarification of what is happening around GCSE and A Level results.
Can I wish you all the best during this difficult period. Thank you again for your continued support. These continue to be challenging times; I urge you to follow government advice and keep checking our school website for any updates.
Yours faithfully,
Paul Quinn
Headteacher