Dear Parent/ Carer,
As always, I hope you are all well and keeping safe in these challenging times. The end of term yesterday was another hugely uplifting moment with students and staff enjoying their last time together before the Christmas holiday period. I am incredibly proud of our entire team of staff who have worked tirelessly since September to keep school fully open on a full-time basis at all times for all bubbles- as you know, we have never closed our doors during the course of the whole pandemic and opened during all school holidays between March and September.
Following the end of term yesterday, we received updated guidance for the start of the Spring Term from the Department of Education at 6.25pm. As you may have seen in the news, the guidance is requesting that schools set up a regular Coronavirus testing programme from January to test both staff and students. The aim of this is to identify those carrying the virus without displaying symptoms, reducing the risk of transmission. Daily testing for those identified as close contacts of workforce colleagues or students that test positive is intended to ensure that students do not need to isolate and are able to continue to benefit from face-to-face education.
As the government has authorised the use of an additional training day to allow us to plan for the introduction of such an important system, Tuesday 5th January will now become an additional staff training day and the Spring Term will now begin on Wednesday 6th January at 9.15am for all students. Unlike mainstream schools who are being asked to only partially re-open at the beginning of term, as an Alternative Provision school with smaller numbers of students on-site, we will be fully open on a full-time basis for all students in all year groups. We will also remain open on Tuesday 5th January for the new starters and partner schools who have admission meetings booked in with us.
Further detail on the testing system will follow from us once we have had an opportunity to put plans in place. Needless to say, key staff will be working hard over the holiday period to ensure that everything runs as smoothly and safely as possible.
As always, remember if you have any safeguarding queries during the holiday period, the e-mail addresses for the safeguarding team, which are monitored around the clock, every day, are below:
The Edge Safeguarding Team – [email protected]
Adam Smith (Designated Safeguarding Lead) – [email protected]
A reminder too that you are also able to report any safeguarding concerns to the following:
Childrens’ Services 0121 303 1888
NSPCC 0808 800 5000
Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] if there are any further questions I can assist with in any way regarding this letter. Thank you all for your continued support.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Wakefield
Principal