23 February 2024
Dear parents and families,
As you are aware, our colleague Mr Craig Manning passed away earlier this month. His funeral service is taking place on Friday 01 March, and – understandably – many staff would like to attend to pay their respects. As a result, we will close the secondary school to students at 11.00am on this day. The SPACE sixth form and the Cedar Centre base will remain open all day as normal.
On Friday 01 March, the students should come to school at the usual time and go straight to their first timetabled lesson, not their tutor period. We will teach lesson 1 and lesson 2, and then close. The work for lessons 3, 4 and 5 will be set via ClassCharts for students to complete at home. If your child does not know their ClassCharts login, they should ask their tutor to look it up for them in the week ahead, so they are able to access their work on Friday. The work will be set as ‘blended learning’, which will distinguish it from usual homework.
The school buses will run as normal in the morning, and then collect from school at 11.00am for the return journey. They will come back at 3.30pm to collect the Cedar Centre students and any students remaining in school at parental request (see below).
The school kitchen will prepare take-away packed lunches for students eligible for free school meals. These will be available to collect at 11.00am and should be taken home to be eaten at lunch time. There will be no other food service available on this date.
We are able to supervise a small number of vulnerable children, to complete their remote learning in school. If you think your child qualifies for a place, and you would like them to remain in school until 3.30pm, please complete the places request form by 3.30pm on Tuesday 27 February. We can also accommodate some Year 11 students to complete their remote learning, at parental request. If you would like your Y11 child to remain in school until 3.30pm, please complete the places request form. Place request form 1st March.
If you have requested a place for your child, but then change your mind, please notify the attendance team. We will take a register of those we are expecting to attend and will follow our usual safeguarding processes if they are not present.
We have begun a book of condolences for Mr Manning’s family, with tutor groups and staff leaving their messages. If your child would like to leave their own personal message, it would be lovely if you could sit with them and support them to find the words, then add them to the book by following this link: Book of Condolences. If you have older children, family members or other friends of the school that would like to leave a message, please feel free to use the link to add their messages as well.
Whilst we appreciate that any disruption to the normal routine of the school can be inconvenient for families, we do appreciate your support at this difficult time. We have taken all reasonable steps to continue to provide education for our students on this day, at the same time as recognising how important it is to allow the staff that wish to do so, to be at this service.
With thanks for your continuing commitment and support.
Mrs H. Jones
Principal
