December 7th 2020

 

Dear Parents / Guardians

Thank you all for your continuing support.

We are writing in order to summarise the current situation at school. To date, 10 students and 3 members of staff have tested positive with COVID-19, though the very regular letters we have had to send you might well have given the impression that the number is larger.

A much larger number of students are self-isolating on account of their being identified as a close contacts of a confirmed case: either in class, at break or lunch, or on the way to and from school.

Please do ask your daughter or son to minimise the number of their social contacts.

In addition, 12 members of staff are now self-isolating following contact from NHS Track and Trace: these members of staff continue to teach their lessons via Webex direct from their homes to their school classroom, where another member of staff is in attendance with the students.

We are aware that there is potential confusion about the dates of periods of self-isolation we identify in our letters. Public Health England stipulate that the period of self-isolation should run for 14 days after the last contact with an individual, who has tested positive and we fix the date on that basis. This of course varies from case to case.

From tomorrow Tuesday for Year 11 students and Wednesday for Year 10 students, we will start sending Webex or Google Meet invitations for most lessons, so your child can ‘attend’ at least part of some of their lessons live. These same arrangements have already started for Year 9 and will continue.

School uniform will not be obligatory for the sessions, but students should be dressed appropriately and our normal ground rules will apply during the sessions. Students must be seated at a desk or table, activate their camera and show their full name for these live face-to-face sessions. At times during the lesson teacher microphones will be turned off and their screens will not be shared. At these times students should just be completing the work set for them.

We will not be recording these sessions and students must not either.

Students who are self-isolating in all other Year Groups should access work set for them in the Google Classroom. We recommend students keep to their daily timetable and use BBC Bitesize in their subjects in addition to and after completion of the work available in the Google Classroom.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

Sonette Schwartz                                                                                                       

Principal                                                                                                                      

 

Charles Joseph

Senior Vice Principal