Letter regards School and College Reopening in September 2020

2nd July 2020

Dear Parents/Carers

I hope you and your families are all well.

 

Return to school in September
As you will be aware the Government has announced that schools and colleges will open to all students in September. Following further information announced today, we are in the process of planning for the Autumn Term. Our aim is to keep all of our students and staff as safe as possible, and we are working on plans which include:

 Grouping students and staff together in bubbles by department
 Providing a staggered start and end to the day to relieve congestion at entrances
 Arranging separate lunch breaks
 Continuing to encourage regular handwashing and wiping down of equipment
 Students and staff who display symptoms to stay at home
 Working with public health regarding test track and trace in the event of there being a case in school
 No assemblies or big group events
 Modifying the curriculum to reduce community visits to enclosed public spaces
 Re-organising the school to ensure specialist rooms are allocated to bubbles.

We will also have to prepare contingency plans in the event of a local lockdown.

One of the difficulties we face is managing transport of students to school. Our aim is to teach students in ‘bubbles’ throughout the day and we are working with Trafford transport in the hope that these groupings will be replicated on school buses. However we will be asking parents and carers if, in the first instance, they can transport their son/daughter to school themselves. Obviously this is by no means possible for many parents and carers and we will do all we can to work with transport to ensure all students can get to school and college.
I fully understand the anxieties that parents/carers and students will have regarding a full return to school and college and we want to support you with these issues. We are happy to try to answer individual questions – please do not hesitate to contact school to raise your concerns.

INSET Days
We had planned to return to school on 7th September, and we were hoping to have 4 INSET days during the week commencing 31st August. However, we have decided to change these plans and we will now have just two INSET days on 1st and 2nd September and students will return to school on Thursday 3rd September. This is because we will be unable to carry out much of our training due to limits on staff gathering together and social distancing preventing staff from carrying out some training. Also, we feel it would be more beneficial for students to return to school earlier than previously planned after such a long break. We will have to take these INSET days at another time, and will publish the dates as soon as possible. If you have pre-booked holidays which mean you will be away on 3rd and 4th September, these will be classed as authorised absences.

Holiday Clubs
School and College are not opening for educational purposes during the summer holidays, but we will be working with the Manchester United Foundation to provide a holiday club to some of our students. The club will be run on a smaller scale to that previously planned as we will need to organise the students in bubbles. Therefore I am sorry if you replied earlier in the year requesting a place. Holiday club places will now be offered to some students who meet the following criteria:

 Those whose parents are frontline workers
 Students eligible for free school meals
 Students who have not attended school through lockdown.
Places are very limited and letters for holiday club will be sent out to those students who we have identified as qualifying for a place in the next few days.

Over the coming weeks I will continue to keep you informed of our plans for September.
Kindest regards
Jude Lomas
Headteacher
Brentwood School and College