New Year Update

Dear Parents, Carers and Staff

The latest DFE advice on returning to school in the New Year has been announced today.

Alternative provision and special schools will all return to face-to-face education from the start of term as planned, with individual special schools being offered greater flexibility on face-to-face attendance of pupils and students in the first week of term. This will enable them to appropriately mobilise their mass testing programme.

We will be returning to school as planned with staff on the 4^th Jan for training and pupils on the 5^th Jan. The testing of pupils and staff will not begin straight away as we shall be working with Devon County Council and the Sentient trust to develop systems that work best for our school community. We shall share with you our testing procedures and protocols around testing once they have been finalised and you will be asked for your consent before any testing takes place.

In the meantime school will continue to run as it did before Christmas, operating the same stringent prevention and containment measures.

Please remember to inform us if you or anyone within your bubble are self-isolating, have developed symptoms, are awaiting test results or have tested positive for COVID 19 over the holiday period.

This will be a busy start to the New Year and I know many of you will be anxious about the new restrictions, tiers and testing. Please do keep in touch and discuss your concerns.

I wish you all a happy and safe New Year,

Thanks for your Support,

Stuart
Headteacher