Dear Parents,
Following my letter Tuesday evening, there have been new developments in the rapidly evolving Coronavirus situation. Yesterday the Secretary for State for Education confirmed that schools in England will close from the end of the school day on Friday 20th March until further notice to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. We will therefore be closing the school buildings from 4pm Friday 20th March until further notice except for vulnerable children and children of parents who are key workers.
If your child is vulnerable, or if you are a key worker, please complete this form so that we can ensure we have appropriate provision for your child from Monday 23rd March.
Provision will be made for our D2 students to complete Monday's proposed exams remotely and Mr Bowry will be in touch with these students and their families regarding arrangements for the mock exams and ongoing support for our D2 students.
Although our buildings will be closed, the learning will continue. We are currently following our remote learning protocol as set out in my previous letter, the only change from Monday 23rd March will be that all students, except those with EHC plans or whose parents are key workers, will access their learning from home. Further details about Lower and Upper School specific remote learning plans from Matt Parkin and Chris Beddows have been emailed out today. We will continue to set remote learning for all students until Friday 3rd April. We then encourage all students to take a break from their screens and their lessons during the Easter break. Remote learning will commence again on Monday 20th April.
In anticipation of a potential longer-term closure, we are well-prepared to continue with remote learning for as long as necessary. Apart from the health and safety of our community, our greatest focus is on mitigating any disruption to student learning. We fully expect that together with you, we will minimise any potential learning loss. We recognise that the new learning experience may require a small adjustment period for both students and teachers. Our innovative methodologies as IB educators only reinforce the strength of our practice in a virtual setting. We ask for your patience, collaboration, and constructive feedback as we head into an extended period of remote teaching and learning. In the week beginning March 30th, we will be sending a survey to children and parents to collect feedback to help us to continue to improve the remote learning provision.
Whilst school remains open until Friday afternoon, I would like to remind all parents who are choosing to keep their children at home to contact the Upper School or Lower School office to confirm this arrangement so that we can authorise the absence.
While the length of school closure is uncertain, we are committed to staying in contact with you via our weekly bulletin, email updates and dedicated website page. We will continue doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our community.
With this quickly evolving situation, I want to thank you all for your continued understanding and flexibility. I've written before of my gratitude to be part of such a compassionate and resilient community, and I can only reiterate that again now.
Kind regards |