Partial School Closure 19th & 20th March 2020

This letter has been sent to all Year 9 & 10 today

Dear Parents/ Carers

 

The government’s decision that where one family member shows symptoms, all members of that household should stay at home for 14 days, has had a significant impact on our staffing. A growing number of our staff are now being required to self- isolate. 

 

Please be reassured that no confirmed cases of Coronavirus within our school community have been reported to us. It is purely because of staffing capacity issues that I have to take the reluctant decision that Years 9 and 10 should not attend school this Thursday or Friday (19th and 20th March). All other year groups will be expected to attend as usual. We are reviewing the situation daily, and I will notify you as soon as I can to say if this partial closure has to be extended. In any event, we have decided to postpone next week’s Year 9 exams.

 

We understand that for all of our sakes, it is vital that key NHS and other frontline medical workers are able to continue to attend work, so if you fall into this category, please send your son/daughter into school, in uniform, as normal. They should sign in at reception and gather in Room 10 when they have done so. Please stress this to them, they should not go to their form rooms.

 

In this unprecedented time, it is going to be absolutely vital that all of our students realise that they need to keep learning. This is nothing like the unexpected, time limited delight of a couple of ‘snow days’ where we can all relax. We are all heading into uncharted territory together, and I know we share the same passion that the education of Lakelands children must not be allowed to stall. With this in mind, I suggest that we all establish the following routines.

 

  • We all work best, when we have set routines to follow, so a daily work routine at home, with a quiet space to study and set times when your children sit down to complete the work they have been set, should be established from day one.
  • At the start of the day, all students should check Show My Homework to see what tasks have been uploaded. All Show My Homework tasks should be completed by the deadlines set. Pupils can contact their teachers directly through the Message function in Show My Homework, if they have a question or need some help. Please note, however, that there may not be an instant response, as available staff will be covering classes for absent colleagues.

Staff here are making sure that they have tasks and instructions uploaded to Show My Homework, and today we are working hard so that all members of Years 9 and 10 will have the hardware needed for them to access Show My Homework at home. Where families have no internet access, we will be doing our very best to provide paper copy tasks.

 

Finally, I want to reassure you that if your son / daughter in Year 9 or 10 usually has free school meals, we will be providing our own delivery service of packed lunches to you, for lunchtime. This has been made possible because of the support of Lakeside Coaches, and we couldn’t be more grateful to them.  You do not need to do anything to activate this, we are arranging it all from Lakelands. Please tell our deliverer tomorrow if you do not want us to deliver on Friday or – should we need to close year groups for longer – in the future. If we get no response when we call, we will assume that you do not wish us to deliver.

 

If you have any questions about anything I have said, please call us on 01691 622543, or email us admin@lakelandsacademy.org.uk

 

I will write again as we learn more, and I want to thank you for all the support we are receiving from you in these difficult times. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mrs Bellis

Headteacher

 

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