Plans in the Event of an Emergency School Closure

Re: Plans in the Event of an Emergency School Closure

Dear Parents and Carers

As you will be aware, the recent coronavirus outbreak is continuing to grow in terms of both the numbers and location of confirmed cases. This is having an increased impact both locally and nationally with many events and activities being cancelled.

The most recent advice (as of 12^th March) from the UK Government is that schools should remain open unless directed to close for specific reasons by Public Health England (PHE). Our school will continue to follow this advice and remain open but we will communicate any changes to you at the earliest opportunity.

If the school was forced to close, our priority would be to continue to provide learning opportunities for our students, particularly those preparing for GCSE examinations this summer. To support this, our staff have recently renewed the materials on our online ‘Frog’ learning platform to ensure that students can access up-to-date resources for their class or year group in all of our subject areas. This includes specific revision materials for GCSE groups. Detailed instructions of how to access these in the event of a closure can be found here.

The other relevant change coming from the government yesterday is that they now advise against schools taking part in international trips. Unfortunately, this is likely to have an impact on our planned school trip to France in the Easter holidays. We are currently in discussion with the trip company (PGL), the local authority and our insurers regarding the consequences of this change in advice. We will communicate directly with the families whose children were booked onto this trip as soon as possible regarding the next steps in this process.

I thank you for your ongoing support during these challenging times. If you have any questions relating to any of the topics outlined above, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours faithfully,

Mr J Cregg

Headteacher