Please follow the guidance in the Covid Reporting Letter if your child begins to show symptoms of COVID19 during the Christmas break.

The DFE announced that mass testing is being made available for secondary schools and colleges from next term.

You may have seen in the media the announcement that mass COVID19 testing will be available for secondary schools and colleges from January. We were only made aware of this on the 17^th December so I hope you will appreciate that we have to take time to digest this announcement. There is a significant amount of preparation required before this approach can be implemented, and we have not yet received any of the equipment or training necessary for this testing to take place. Therefore, the current approach to contact tracing, self-isolation for close contacts and remote learning will continue until such time that a testing approach is implemented. Until we receive the equipment and guidance, I cannot yet confirm a timescale for any changes. We will write to you with further information about the approach including consent, once we have more details, in the new year.

Staggered return in January for Secondary Schools and Colleges

We have received the announcement that secondary schools and colleges should stagger the return to school in January, providing remote education to some students at home.  

Examination years, specific groups and critical worker children will be provided with on-site learning, whilst other year groups are to remain at home with remote education for the first week. All students will be on-site from 11^th January. The press release from DfE can be found here.

Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students will learn remotely from home from the 4^th January for the first week. It is of paramount importance that students access live lessons and/or work set on SMHW to make a focused start to the new term. Please note that year 9 exams will still take place, commencing on the 11^th January when all students return to school. Year 11, 12 and 13 students will start the term on the 4^th January. Year 12 students are only expected to be onsite for their Pre-public examinations (further details for year 12 will follow).

These measures are designed to allow secondary schools and colleges time to prepare for the recently announced testing approach. We will provide further details on this as soon as we have more information.

A text message will be sent to all parents to confirm the start of term arrangements.