Dear Parents and Carers

We have just completed a senior staff meeting to look at the logistics of opening the school safely tomorrow.

Unfortunately, as with many schools across Devon and nationally, the levels of staff absence are very high and so we will need to close the school to tomorrow to all Year 9 students. All other students are to attend as normal tomorrow provided they are not showing symptoms of coronavirus ie new, continuous cough or high temperature. We are conscious of the disruption this could cause to working patterns for parents and carers and so, to try and minimise disruption for everyone, we are intending to close the school to Year 8 students on Thursday. However we will expect Year 9 students, along with Year 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13 to return as normal on Thursday.

Wednesday 18th March:  Open to all years (7 to 13) as normal apart from Year 9

Thursday 19th March: Open to all years (7-13) as normal apart from Year 8

In order to give you as much advanced notice as possible we have modelled this on the number of staff we are expecting to arrive for work tomorrow and to ensure that safety and learning is maintained as best we can for each day. However this may change if there is a sudden surge of staff illness overnight.

We will continue to review this on a daily basis and communicate any changes to this plan as soon as we have further information. It is however entirely possible that we will once again have to close to Year 9 and/or Year 8 on Friday.

On each day, for students in receipt of Free School Meals, we have arranged for our Catering team to provide packed lunches that can be collected by parents and carers from our catering van which will be parked in the visitor car park at the entrance to the Gipsy Lane site between 11.00 and 11.30.

I am really very sorry for the disruption that this will cause to your child's education and working patterns. It is not a decision we take lightly but unfortunately we have exhausted all other options. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support under very challenging circumstances for us all. My thanks also to staff, both support and teaching, who are absolutely going above and beyond to continue to provide education and care for your children for as long as we possibly can.

Regards,

Andrew Davis - Principal