Dear Parent/Carer

This has been a really tough week in terms of decision making. Our first priority will always be student and staff safety. In addition, I have to consider if we have safe student to staff ratios. We have reviewed the situation several times a day, each day this week. As you know, our most recent attempt to open was this morning with a planned 10 am start. However, a last minute decision had to be made to close due to unexpected snow whilst staff were travelling in to work. The conditions were extremely difficult and unsafe for staff to continue with their journeys. I was on the A53 at Flash at the time and I can say first hand how difficult the road conditions and visibility were. The A53 then closed again (and the Cat and Fiddle Road has remained closed all week).

I did manage to get to school this morning. On inspection, I do not feel the site and immediate roads around the site are safe for staff and students to access and in light of the temperature remaining significantly below freezing today, tonight and during the day tomorrow, I have made the extremely difficult decision to remain closed tomorrow. We have not been able to get gritters onto the school site during the latter part of the week due to the increased demands for them to treat the key primary and secondary routes in the area. I am hoping that in making an earlier decision about closing tomorrow you can better plan for tomorrow and the staff can use the time to set really high quality work, rather than being stuck in their cars.

The scheduled exams will still take place tomorrow (6th Form - IT and Health and Social care) and the students concerned are currently being contacted.

We have been setting, and will continue to set, work remotely this week. We do expect that students complete this work; please ensure that your child/children log on to Arbor to complete this work. We need to make the most of the situation and keep up with the learning that would have been taking place had we been open. Work will be set for each lesson on your child's timetable and therefore they should have plenty of work to be getting on with.

The temperatures are due to increase above zero over the weekend and we are confident that we will be safe to open and to welcome the students back to school from Monday. We are really excited to have them back with us and I look forward to all the great things we will be doing this half term.

Thank you for your patience and understanding this week; it really has been a tough week for everyone.

Take care if you are out and about

Mrs Sam Jones