Partial closure of the school – Monday 28th June

Dear Parent / Carer

Partial closure of the school – Monday 28th June

Firstly, I wish to apologise for the inconvenience that a partial closure of the school will cause for families tomorrow. I am asking Year 9, Year 10 and those Year 12 students not sitting assessments to work from home via their Chromebooks, following their usual timetable but with online lessons. Year 7 and Year 8 should attend school as normal.

Following are the reasons why the school is being partially closed tomorrow:

  1. On Friday we had a positive lateral flow test in Year 10, which saw 32 students and one member of staff identified as ‘close contacts’. The follow-up PCR test was positive and these ‘close contacts’ will self-isolate for 10 days.
  2. Over the last 72 hours I have received 11 notifications from colleagues who have been told to self-isolate by the NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app. These colleagues have not been ‘close contacts’ with the Year 10 positive case and are not aware of having any contact with a positive COVID case outside school.
  3. The notifications from the NHS contact tracing app need investigating further as the pattern of notification poses questions. I will be undertaking this with Public Health tomorrow.
  4. The total number of staff off due to COVID-related self-isolation currently stands at 15. With this amount of staff off, we cannot cover the full timetable tomorrow and there is a need to plan for the rest of the week.

I realise that this is short notice and thank you in advance for your patience and support.

Kind regards

Geraint Edwards