Dear Parents and Carers,
I am writing to explain how our school is responding to the COVID 19 national lockdown that begins on Thursday 5th November 2020.
In line with government guidance, The Bromfords School and Sixth Form College will remain open to all students and will continue to operate with the current arrangements that are in place. This includes the use of muster points and staggered start and finish times to maintain year group ‘bubbles’, an enhanced cleaning regime and the mandatory wearing of face coverings in corridors and muster points by both students and staff. I would like to remind parents/carers that we are unable to provide students with face coverings and ask you to ensure students have a face covering with them at all times and that If your child is using the disposable style face covering that they arrive in school with a number of spares for day. We hold a small supply of disposable face coverings for emergencies only which can be purchased from Student Reception. We are asking parents/carers to consider the environmental impact of disposable/single use face coverings and where possible for students to opt for reusable face coverings. This means that all students will still be able to access their full educational provision.
There are some changes to the arrangements for Sixth Form students and these have been communicated home in a separate letter from Ms. Petch. Please continue to support us by ensuring your child arrives at school with a face covering as part of their daily equipment.
Please also note due to cleaning, there will be no access to the school building for students with an 8.30am start time prior to 7.45am.
The current arrangements for visitors to our school aims to keep our school community safe and minimise risk. These arrangements have been reviewed following the announcement on 31st October 2020 outlining new national restrictions from 5th November 2020. We have had to plan carefully to minimise the number of visitors that are present on site during the course of a working day. That means meetings with parents/carers, external agencies and other school-based events have had to be reviewed, postponed or cancelled. Therefore, commencing from 5th November 2020 through to 2nd December 2020, in the first instance, there will be no ad-hoc or unscheduled access to the school for parents/carers. Visits to the school will be by appointment only and only when your visit is deemed essential by the school. It will not be possible to facilitate meetings with a member of staff that have not been prearranged. All parental communication must be either by email (office@bromfords.essex.sch.uk) or telephone (01268 471 201) in the first instance and if further conversations are needed, scheduled telephone calls will be arranged. Where the school judges a face- to- face meeting to be required, this will be booked in advance and where possible, on-site meetings will be scheduled after 3.30pm. On-site meetings will also be subject to restrictions in terms of number of attendees. Parents/carers will be required to wear face coverings on site and may be required to do so during the meeting.
The most up to date guidance issued late this afternoon from the government on shielding is that students should attend school unless they have been identified by their medical professional as clinically extremely vulnerable. Therefore, the guidance is that if students live with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, but are not classed as this themselves, the student should attend school. I appreciate this may cause a degree of anxiety and worry in some family situations therefore I would ask that if you have any concerns you contact us to discuss these.
Unfortunately we have been advised that all after-school clubs must be suspended during this second lockdown. The only exception to this are the existing arrangements for homework club for Years 7 and 8 and any after school classroom-based intervention.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing to work so positively with us in such extreme circumstances. I remain committed to keeping you regularly updated with any changes here in school and urge you to contact school whenever you need to. In the meantime, stay safe and well as we continue to work together to support each other.
Yours faithfully
Neil Dunn
Headteacher