Dear Parent/ Carer,

Once again, thank you all for your incredible support in the opening days of Spring Half-Term 2, it has been appreciated by us all as a team of staff. I hope you are all well and that you continue to feel well supported by us; we have been delighted to see 90% of our students attending school during the lockdown period and we are delighted that we can now work towards a full reopening.

First and foremost, I am writing with details of how our fuller reopening will work from March 8th when attendance becomes mandatory again. In order to bring our examination year groups back to full teaching as quickly as possible and in order to minimise safety risks by testing every student before their return to class, students will return on the following timeline:

Day Activity
Monday 8th March ·         Year 11 students come to school to be tested for Coronavirus only and return home once they have had test.

·         Year 10 students do not attend work experience placements this week so work remotely.

·         Year 8 and 9 students continue to work remotely.

Tuesday 9th March ·         Year 11 students in school for full teaching.

·         Year 10 students come to school to be tested for Coronavirus only and return home once they have had test.

·         Year 8 and 9 students continue to work remotely.

Wednesday 10th March ·         Year 11 students do not attend work experience placements this week so work remotely.

·         Year 10 students in school for full teaching.

·         Year 8 and 9 students continue to work remotely.

Thursday 11th March ·         Year 8 students come to school to be tested for Coronavirus only and return home once they have had test.

·         Year 11 and Year 10 students in school for full teaching.

·         Year 9 students continue to work remotely.

Friday 12th March ·         Year 9 students come to school to be tested for Coronavirus only and return home once they have had test.

·         Year 11, Year 10 and Year 8 students in school for full teaching. No enrichment sessions for this week only so school finishes at 12pm.

Monday 15th March ·         Full teaching for all year groups, all day, every day. All work experience placements fully resume also.

 

For the remainder of this week, we remain open for all children of keyworkers and all students classed as “most vulnerable”. If your child fits into one of these categories and requires a place in school for any of the times not covered above in the w/c March 8th, please e-mail our Senior Safeguarding Deputy Jas Greene by the end of this week at [email protected]

Safety continues to be the top priority in all areas of our work and I am pleased to confirm that our Coronavirus “lateral flow” testing programme in school continues to run successfully. At the time of writing, we have had no positive staff or student Coronavirus cases since 2020. It is important that all parents/carers return the stamped addressed envelope we have delivered to homes to us with the completed consent from enclosed so that we can further expand our testing programme. An electronic copy of the form is available at:  https://www.theedgeacademy.co.uk/coronavirus-lateral-flow-testing-documentation/ should you need one. We will send you a separate letter in the coming days outlining how the “lateral flow” testing programme will run from the w/c March 15th and how the transition to testing at home will work.

In terms of other safety precautions, you may have also seen in the news that the latest government guidance recommends that all students and staff should now wear face masks in classrooms as well as when moving around the school. This guidance remains in place until the Easter holiday and which point the government will review recommended safety measures. If you have any particular questions or concerns around this issue, please feel free to contact me directly. The full government guidance for parents and carers on face masks is available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/965446/Face_coverings_in_education_-_March_2021.pdf and should you wish to refer to it, the latest wider safety guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-parents-and-carers-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/what-parents-need-to-know-about-early-years-providers-schools-and-colleges-during-covid-19 . We are updating our school risk assessment to take the most recent guidance into account and will update you as soon as it is complete.

Finally, I also wanted to reassure you that we will now be visiting the homes of every single student in person to talk through the content of this letter. Staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have and will be able to give you the detail on any points that you may need clarifying. Please also feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] if there are any further questions I can assist with in any way.

 

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Wakefield

Principal