Dear Families,

Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most students

Following on from my last update, I am writing to let you know that we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children at the end of Friday 20^th March 2020 until further notice.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and vulnerable children.

We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what exactly this means, however, if you are a family where BOTH parents fall into any of the categories identified above AND you intend to send your child to school please get in contact via email on info@tytheringtonschool.co.uk by 3pm on Friday 20^th March.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday 23^rd March onwards.

Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. Whilst I appreciate that this is not ideal, if we do not follow the guidelines, we leave ourselves and our community in a vulnerable position. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know via text, the school website, twitter, PS Engage and all other communication avenues open to us.

Provision for Friday 20^th March

Over 20 members of staff are now self-isolating which means we cannot operate as normal. The school will remain open for all students apart from those in years 8, 9 and 10. Year 11 and 13 will have a leavers day assembly in the morning and will then be sent home.

Accessing work while not in school

We will do our best to provide work for our students using Firefly. We will try our best to provide as much work as possible, but you must bear with us during this busy period. During the closure we will contact you via email, update our website and provide further details of work for students to complete.

We are in the process of arranging a programme of phone calls for our most vulnerable families during this time. We will have regular virtual assemblies and I’ll continue with a blog throughout the period of closure. In addition, we will share resources to support the mental wellbeing of youngsters during these exceptional times.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sadness for our Year 11 and 13 students who face uncertainty about their examinations. They have worked so hard and this is a disappointment to us all. We will fight to ensure that they receive the fairest possible outcome. As we find out more, we will let you know.

Sky News will be filming tomorrow in school throughout the day to get a sense of how comprehensive schools are managing the situation. We will be on the Kay Burley morning show on Sky News.

Should you have any further concerns on this issue please do email me at ebotwe@tytheringtonschool.co.uk

Many thanks for your help and understanding during these exceptional circumstances. Stay safe and I will see you all soon.

Kind regards,
Mr Botwe
Headteacher