When and why might we be closed?

The school of course may be shut at any time owing to an emergency, for example: an electricity, heating, industrial action, extreme weather, infectious disease or water failure which would mean staying open would breach Health and Safety requirements.

In the past, the majority of school closures were in relation to the national COVID restrictions. With respect to COVID, the government in its guidance, sets out regular updates to its contingency planning.

The government has made it a national priority that education and childcare settings should continue to operate as normally as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Measures affecting education may be necessary in some circumstances, for example:

· To help manage a COVID-19 outbreak within the school

· If there is extremely high prevalence of COVID-19 in the community and other measures have failed to reduce transmission.

· As part of a package of measures responding to a dangerous Variant of Concern (VoC) and to prevent unsustainable pressure on the NHS.

· Due to industrial action or other external events.

In the event of any future concerns relating to Covid-19, the school has a detailed outbreak management plan, which can be found by clicking here, outlining how we would operate if any of the measures put forward by the DFE were recommended for our school. This includes measures such as testing, use of face coverings and shielding.

Attendance restrictions will only be put in place in extreme circumstances and as a last resort, as it was during the pandemic, where government or local Public Health instruction would be followed. If some attendance restrictions are needed, the school would close to individual year groups as outlined in the outbreak management plan, however we would review each scenario on a case by case basis. In the event of any closure we would always prioritise vulnerable students.

Pastoral and Senior Staff would be fully involved in monitoring and supporting remote learning completion.
 

Government Emergency Planning Guidance

Timetables in the event of full or partial closure

Students will follow their normal timetable remotely, which can be found by clicking here.

Please note that in the event of a full closure, tutor time will take place for all students from 8.40am to 9.00am, including Years 8, 10 and 11.