Dear Families,

I hope that you are well and staying safe. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for the many messages of support. We miss the young people a great deal and we are looking forward to welcoming them back when it is safe to do so. You may have already seen that the Department for Education last night released some new guidance relating to schools potentially re-opening for some students in June. The guidance states: ‘For pupils in year 10 and 12, we are asking schools and colleges to supplement remote education with some face to face support for these year groups from 1 June.’ The government have also released some additional guidance for parents and carers. I have included the link here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-forparents-and-carers/reopening-schools-and-other-educational-settings-from-1-june

The guidance does raise a number of questions and we are looking carefully at all the possible implications. Despite the ongoing uncertainty, we had already been considering various options before yesterday’s announcement. Now that we have some more detailed information from the government, we can start to firm-up those plans. As a parent myself, I do appreciate that there will be some anxiety about exactly what this all means for Year 10 and Year 12 students. The government have said that there will be further guidance for schools sent out later this week so I will be in touch as soon as possible to keep you updated.

I am also conscious that this is a very worrying time for families of students in the other year groups. The announcement does suggest that they may not return to school before the next academic year although this has not been confirmed. With this looking like a strong possibility, you will appreciate that we will need to update our online learning strategy. I will be in touch with you very soon about this. Please keep an eye out for the Headteacher’s Notes on Fridays which is my usual means of updating the community about our school. Please be assured that we will be doing everything we possibly can to balance the safety of staff and students alongside the need to get young people back into education. We really do appreciate all the support and understanding you have shown us during this time.

Yours sincerely

Mr Botwe
Headteacher