Thank you so much for all of your support and calm responses at this very complex time. As always, the health and welfare of our students, staff and the local community are at the heart of our strategy and plans moving forward. The official advice from the government is still that schools should remain open, wherever possible to avoid disruption and provide the best standard of education possible to students. Unfortunately, due to staff shortages, it is with a heavy heart that we have had to take the decision to close the school to Key Stage3 students for one day each this week (Year 9 on Wednesday, Year 8 on Thursday and Year 7 on Friday) to provide the required level of education. We have avoided year 10 and year 11 as these year groups have important exams coming up and we are keen to minimise disruption as much as possible.
The staff shortages have been caused by precautionary self-isolation and we are happy to say that we have had no confirmed cases amongst either staff or students. We are also taking other precautionary measures to protect students and staff, such as a new deep cleaning schedule, new hand soap dispensers and suspending the use of fingerprint scanners in the canteen.
Year 7 parents evening will be postponed until further notice, as will all school trips until the Easter holiday at the earliest.
Best wishes,
Will Thompson.
Principal. The Brittons Academy.
