* UPDATE: 5.30pm Monday 23 November *
Dear Parents / Carers,
We have had five confirmed Covid cases reported to us at the weekend/on Monday morning: two in Year 7, one in Year 8, one in Year 9 and one in Year 11. All of the students identified as close contacts have been informed by phone and should also have received a school comms email today and a further formal letter by email confirming details.
As you can imagine, this has been a major task today involving a great deal of students across several year groups, so please bear with us if we have not managed to return a phone call or deal with a message promptly today.
Please note regarding the Year 8 case: there has been no action for us to take as a school as this student was already self-isolating in connection with another case and had not been in school last week.
To confirm:
- Year 7 students not affected as close contacts can return to school from tomorrow Tuesday 24th November
- Year 11 mock exams are continuing for those not affected as close contacts
- There are no 'closed' bubbles - we have not sent entire year groups home as the local public health team approach is to work on distance/proximity, which is why seating plans are so important (and why it takes time to identify everyone with 5 lessons to look at for each student across 2-3 days)
I appreciate that the number of cases here may cause you some concern but want to reassure you that we are satisfied that these are community transmission cases and have carried out a robust process today to identify the right students: talking to staff; double checking lists; looking at distances in classrooms again etc. We are doing our best to keep school open to everyone. Thank you as always for your patience, understanding and support.
Kelly Holbrook
Headteacher