24 October 2018 Dear Parent/Carer Unavoidable Partial School Closure for necessary repair work to be carried out You are probably aware that some planned maintenance work has been ongoing at school recently. Unfortunately, an issue with the frames of two of the school buildings was noticed as the work was being carried out. The buildings are the current East and West four storey blocks, which contain many of our classrooms and dining facilities. The safety of pupils and staff is paramount to us, so we've taken the decision not to use these two buildings at all whilst repair work is carried out to them. Regrettably, this means that not all pupils will be able to return to school next week. We’d like to reassure you that this decision has not been taken lightly. This has been done on the advice and in conjunction with Lancashire County Council, Local Education Authority and Asset Management teams. As a result, we are unable to open the school fully from Monday 29th October to Friday 9th November inclusive and need to implement a programme of partial openings for some year groups. We have tried to use our reduced building accommodation capacity to ensure that all pupils receive some days of education over the next fortnight, with the emphasis on those pupils in years 11 and 10 closest to their GCSEs whilst also accommodating our youngest pupils in year 7, where supervision/childcare is potentially more problematic. This does, however, mean that years 8 and 9 are most affected. Year 11 Mock exams will continue as planned. It is essential that your child attends school on the day(s) specified as below:
Date Year group in school Monday 29th Oct Year 11 only th Tuesday 30 Oct Year 11 only st Wednesday 31 Oct Year 11 only Thursday 1st November Year 11 only nd Friday 2 November Year11 only th Monday 5 November Years 7, 8 & 11 only Tuesday 6th November Years 7, 9 & 11 only th Wednesday 7 November Years 7, 10 & 11 only th Thursday 8 November Years 7, 10 & 11 only Friday 9th November Years 7, 10 & 11 only Below is the same information in Table form: = Attend School
Week 1 Mon 29th Oct Tues 30th Oct Wed 31st Oct Thur 1st Nov Fri 2nd Nov Week 2 Mon 5th Nov Tues 6th Nov Wed 7th Nov Thur 8th Nov Fri 9th Nov
= Do not attend school
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
We will do our best to keep any disruption to a minimum whilst this repair work is undertaken, and should more accommodation or alternatives become available to us sooner than anticipated we will of course bring forward opening to more year groups on more days. We will notify you by text, website and social media.
As the building works have affected our Kitchen and dining facility, in the West block, we are only able to provide sandwiches, soup and other light snacks during this period. A range of sandwich fillings will be available for all dietary needs. You can of course choose to send your child with a packed lunch if you prefer. I fully appreciate that this will be very disappointing news for you. I'd like to reassure you that we've done everything possible to avoid the school closing totally. The reality is though that we have had no other option but to take this action. We continue do our best to keep disruption to a minimum whilst this repair work happens. The contractor will make every effort to make sure that it is completed as soon as possible, so that pupils can return to school as normal. I hope that this explanation helps set out the difficult situation we faced. Please get in touch if you have any further questions. Rest assured that we’ll keep you updated with the progress of the work. Yours sincerely Andrew Williams
Bob Allonby
Headteacher
Chair of Governors