Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Dear Parents / Guardians

In this letter, you can find information about how we are managing the current situation and the support available to students and staff. We will keep this updated and will let students and staff know by email and on social media when we have made updates. The health, welfare and wellbeing of our students and staff is our number one priority. Due to the current unprecedented situation with coronavirus, we have had to put the following measures in place today:

• Extended tutor period, whilst the school’s senior leadership team assess staffing levels and pupil absence.
• Students have been grouped according to available staffing levels and given alternative activities linked to the curriculum wherever possible.
• Several school events have been cancelled; these have been communicated separately.
• After school clubs have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, including library provision at the end of the day.
• Our school remains open and we are continuing to operate as well as we can with the staff available.
• Attendance:
•  I would ask that parents and students follow the self-isolation directives.
• We ask parents of student’s with critical medical conditions or those in the vulnerable category to ensure that they have sought medical advice on their child’s attendance in school. If the advice is that the student should be self-isolating, please be assured that this will not have a negative impact on their attendance record, and we will support this advice/decision.

Steps the school may look to take if the staffing situation is unsustainable:

• Partial school closure to be communicated on the website, email and text.

School Closure:
The school, on guidance from Public Health England, will remain open and operational until instructed otherwise.
Safe staffing levels will be monitored, and school provision adapted within the guidelines provided by the DfE. We still await further clarification regarding overseas trips and public examinations and are actively seeking answers to these concerns.
Please continue to refer to the DfE daily e-mail for further updates.

We are grateful to our parents/carers, staff and students for all their cooperation, help and support at this challenging time.

Yours sincerely

Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

We are contacting you to make you aware that at present the trip to Córdoba on 18^th May has not yet been cancelled by the tour operator. The travel company, Glo-Ed , are awaiting further advice from ABTA who have currently only issued guidelines for trips between now and the end of April. Please be informed that due to the current uncertainty surrounding trips abroad after April, the proposed information evening regarding the trip to Cordoba on April 21^st will be postponed until we have further information from the travel company. Thank you for your patience and please be assured that we will keep you up to date with news as soon as we receive it”.

The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, is still a rapidly evolving situation.

Based on current evidence, Novel Coronavirus (2019N-CoV) presents with flu-like symptoms including a fever, a cough, or difficulty breathing.

If you or someone you know plan to visit, or have visited China in the past 14 days, please read the PHE advice here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china/health .

If you have visited anywhere within mainland China and develop any of the following symptoms: Cough, fever or shortness of breath you are advised to stay indoors, avoid contact with others and call the NHS 111 number.

Further general advice about the virus can be found here: https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know/

• Updates on COVID-19
• Public Health England Coronavirus Information
• Public Health England Travel advice

Department of Education Coronavirus helpline:

The Department of Education has launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

Year 9 Parents Evening on Thursday 12^th March.

Colour Run Letter & Reply Slip

No pupil will be able to participate unless they have returned a signed parental consent form.

Please note the following information in relation to our trip to Spain in May and concerns about the corona virus:

• Currently Spain is not stated as a country that is unsafe to visit (Foreign Office).
• If the Foreign Office  state that it is not safe to travel to this area, then it is thought that the travel insurance would refund the price of the trip should it be cancelled.
• However, if it is the parents OWN decision not to allow their child to travel  even if Spain is considered safe, then this would NOT be the case.
• The school will of course be monitoring the situation carefully and should any changes happen, parents will be informed in due course.

Year 7 Parents’ Evening – Thursday 6th February 2020, 4.30pm – 7.15pm