Dear Families,

As promised, I am updating you with the current picture with regards to Covid-19 cases in Year 12. As expected, over the half-term we have had further reports of cases. We have also been made aware that the Delta variant is in the community. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of cases for this age group both locally and nationally.

As a result of the number of cases that have been identified, you will appreciate that I will need to take a range of additional measures to play our role in reducing the spread of Covid-19 across the community. These decisions have not been taken lightly and have been done so in consultation with the local authority and Public Health:

• School will be closed to all Year 12 students on Monday 7^th June and Tuesday 8^th During this time, lessons will be online for Year 12. Across the start of the week we will be inviting Year 12 students into school to take onsite Lateral Flow Tests before they return to school on Wednesday 9^thJune. Timeslots will be sent to students over the next few days.
• We will identify the siblings of Year 12 close contacts at Tytherington and ask them to take an onsite Lateral Flow Test.
• On the advice of the Director of Public Health, all students and staff will be required to wear masks in all indoor school venues (apart from PE). This includes classrooms. We have maintained a list of students who were exempt from mask wearing and they will not be required to wear a mask. This will be kept under a weekly review.

All mitigation measures such as year bubbles, enhanced cleaning, handwashing, etc remain in place. School remains open for business for all other year groups on Monday and Tuesday.

I expect that between now and the end of the year, we will need to close school to some students owing to positives cases, so we will be relaunching our IT initiative to ensure that every student can access online learning if necessary.

This course of action will please some and I understand that it will not go far enough for others. I’m conscious of the need to balance government national guidelines with the practicalities of our own school context.

Students should continue to test twice a week at home. Should a positive result emerge then please make contact with the school via e-mail on confirmedcase@tytheringtonschool.co.uk

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries. Thank you for your patience and support.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Emmanuel Botwe

Headteacher

ebotwe@tytheringtonschool.co.uk