Dear Parents and Carers

I have this morning sent the following message to your sons and daughters and thought I would sent it you in its entirety:

These are very interesting times for not only the school, but the country and even the world.  You may be feeling nervous; you may be feeling unsure about things.  Both are perfectly normal.  I and all your teachers are keeping our eyes and ears on the news and on the advice coming from the Government and we will do everything we can to help you stay safe while we all get through the Coronavirus epidemic.  If you want to read about it more, please look at official websites like the BBC or the World Health Organisation – their information is accurate and valid. 

Please avoid scaremongering amongst your friends: none of you is more or less likely to catch the virus and therefore we should all be supportive of each other.  Please remember to observe really good hygiene: wash your hands as often as possible, using soap and warm water.

You may know that we have moved into the ‘Delay’ phase of managing the virus.  As far as school is concerned, it means the following:

• Observe good hygiene – wash your hands often
• If you develop a cough, or have a temperature, you must stay at home, and do your best to self-isolate.  This means not going out, not meeting up with your friends, and staying well away from old or sick people. 

The Government has said that schools should remain open for now.  But as you will be aware from what we were doing on Thursday, we will be ready should the decision be made to close the school.  If we do have to close the school, the following will happen:

• You will be provided with a lot of work to do at home; this will either be in paper form for those of you without a computer or printer, or via Homework or 365.
• You will be required to follow your timetable whilst at home, sticking to the normal patterns of lessons as you would have in school.  Your teachers will be on hand via email to contact, and they will in turn be contacting you, to make sure you are doing the work you have been set.  It is really important to maintain the normal routines you would have at school, in order to be able to get back to normal as soon as possible after the virus has been tackled.
• Year 11 and 13 students – I hope you need no reminder to know that it is vital to continue preparing for your GCSE and A levels:  we are currently very confident that the exams will go ahead as normal, and that the grades your receive will reflect your performance.  Don’t let up, don’t allow yourselves to think you may not be sitting your exams:  you will be, and there is no indication that any special consideration will be given as a result of Coronavirus being present, at the moment.
• Please do note:  the work you will be given will be rigorously checked throughout school closure and when we come back:  if you have not done it, or have not done it sufficiently well, then the normal sanctions will prevail: detentions, isolation, compulsory homework sessions.
• By doing the above, we should be able to quickly get back into our normal routines, once we are back in school.

It is important to stay well informed: ask your teachers if you have any questions, check the BBC and WHO for the latest information.  Please doubt any rumours or talk on the street – some people are enjoying the drama and do not care about the impact of what they are saying!  Be your own detective!

We are closely following developments and will keep you and our students informed in the coming days and weeks.   The following web links might be useful to yourselves and to your children:

https://e-bug.eu/eng_home.aspx?cc=eng&ss=1&t=Information%20about%20the%20Coronavirus

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19

Please do follow the advice we have all been given:  if your child develops a new cough or has a temperature, please keep them at home and try to isolate them as best you can, for 7 days.  They should not go out with friends in that time, nor should they have any unnecessary contact with elderly or infirm family or friends.

As some of you will be aware we have 3 foreign visits planned and ready to go.  Government advice from 12^th March was that these visits should not now take place.  Be assured that we are now in close contact with our insurers and with the travel companies, and will do everything in our power to recoup the money you committed to these visits.

If you have any questions on any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.

Yours faithfully

Mrs L Beck
Headteacher