In March the government announced the closure of all schools to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and our Academies closed their doors to all but the children of key workers and vulnerable students. Since that time, we have provided places for the children of key workers through term time and most holiday periods. On  June 15th 2020 we re-opened our Academies more widely to offer face-to face weekly provision for our Year 10 students and from 29th June 2020 we have made face-to-face provision each week for another Year group. We have not been able to have more than 25% of the Year 10 co-hort, plus another year group, on any site at any time, in line with government direction. However, we know what a difference this provision has made to our students and their families. We have focused on supporting self management, well-being and study skills and got our students ready to return full time in September. Our staff have appreciated the messages of thanks received from parents for supporting their children in this way and we have been impressed at the purposeful and mature way in which our students have used their time back in school.

Throughout this period we have been very conscious of the challenges and concerns around this wider opening and have invested considerable time and effort in preparing for this. We have worked to  health and safety advice from H&S experts and from guidance issued by the government, NHS and the unions which support our staff.

We know that many parents, students and staff will be anxious about a full return in September , but we equally know that we are public servants committed to educating young people – we want to support their learning and do our best to help them catch up on their time out of school. We are very much look forward to seeing our students in our academies again in September.

We have developed a central and Academy specific planning framework for responding to COVID-19 which we continue to work to and develop constantly and which is robust and detailed. Please see below our current Risk Assessment documentation and Equality Impact Assessment documents for your reference and reassurance. We are currently getting these ready for September. We will be finalising arrangements and keeping parents updated as we make final preparations for the start of term.

We are also very proud of the hard work and commitment of our staff and school community in rising to the challenges of these unprecedented times and hope that the summer break will allow us all to recharge and prepare for the autumn term.