Dear parents and carers,
Apologies for writing again so soon after breaking up but I am sure that you will have seen in the media that plans are changing for the new year and I felt that you would appreciate knowing as soon as possible.
The Government has, this afternoon, updated its guidance regarding the start of term in January and has advised that secondary schools in England should not fully re-open to all students and staff following the Christmas holidays until Monday 11th January.
However, Forge will still be open from 5th January, as scheduled, for students classed as vulnerable, for children of key workers, and for students in exam year groups (year 11 and year 13). Year 12 students involved in BTEC exams (Business on Wednesday 6th January) and H&S Care on Friday (8th January) afternoon) will still go ahead.
We will be writing again soon to ask key workers to identify themselves, we will also be writing to vulnerable families with details of provision.
All other students will receive their learning remotely for the first week of term (from 5th January 2021) and they will be expected to engage fully with this. Your support here is always appreciated.
Students will be set work to complete on Satchel One (SMHW) for the first week back and invited into live learning sessions. It is important that students check their emails in the new year for invites into sessions and add these into their Google calendars so they don’t miss them. For information on accessing live learning, please visit this link which we posted during the November closure: http://bit.ly/3nFoUEs
We appreciate that this change is short notice and may inconvenience you, but it is essential that we closely follow all Government guidance on COVID-19 in order to safeguard our students, staff and wider school community.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch – please use EduLink, Facebook Messenger or [email protected]. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing your child, either on their lessons on the remote learning platform from 5th January 2021 and then back in school from Monday 11th January; or on the 5th January 2021 if your child is classed as vulnerable, you are a key worker, or if your child is in an exam year group.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Lisa Mason
Principal
Ormiston Forge Academy