Dear Parents and Carers,
In accordance with the announcement from the government yesterday, I am writing to confirm that The Radclyffe School will be closed to the majority of our students from Monday 23rd March. In his announcement, the Prime Minister explained that all schools in England would be closed “until further notice” so it is not possible at this time to provide a date upon which the school may re-open. Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone.
As advised by the government, we will stay open for the children of ‘essential workers’ (e.g. NHS staff, Police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs. We are waiting for the government to publish more information on exactly what this means and will contact you again shortly to give you an opportunity to let us know if your child qualifies for and requires this ongoing direct education.
All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards (unless they belong to one of the categories above).
What we’ll continue doing while your child is at home
Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we will continue to support each student in a number of ways: –
- Work for all year groups and all subjects can be found on our Frog site
- We continue to have high expectations regarding the completion of work and our staff will still be operating to monitor the completion of tasks and to continually refresh the available curriculum as appropriate
- We will contact your family on a regular basis to ensure the welfare of all and to resolve any issues relating to the access and completion of school work
If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how these will continue to be provided, with support from a scheme that the government will shortly announce.
What we won’t be able to go ahead with
Unfortunately, we have had to cancel all school trips and activities planned for the coming weeks. The families of children signed up for the French trip have been contacted separately regarding the specific details of that visit. Other school events such as Parents’ Evenings have also been cancelled, as have all internal exams and assessments.
Further Information
I will contact separately the families of Year 11 students regarding the announcements made yesterday relating to GCSE qualifications.
If your child has been absent from school this week and has items in their locker that they wish to collect, they will be given the opportunity to do this next week – please check for text messages with details of this.
This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.
If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please don’t hesitate to do so via the school’s main office.
Please remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.
Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.
Yours faithfully,
Mr J Cregg
Headteacher
