March 18th 2021

Dear Parents / Guardians

Thank you for all your support of us. All has again run smoothly with Lateral Flow Testing today and we have now tested Years 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 & 8 for the second time.

We have been informed of the closure by Public Health England of the whole of Year 11 in another Kent School, following one student testing positive outside school, after their parents had withheld consent for testing in school. We very much wish to avoid any similar issue arising here and are once again urging the 4% of parents who have not yet consented to Lateral Flow Testing in school to do so.

This week we are emphasising to students our expectations around uniform and the requirement to have mobile phones turned off and in bags during lessons, along with our general in school routines.

In respect of Years 11 & 13 we are committed to securing the best possible outcomes for the students and given the requirement for us to fully justify our Centre Assessed Grades            we do not currently foresee an earlier end to the school year for them than Friday, July 16^th.

We have made a number of important changes to our calendar on the school website.

Please see our Summary of Changes to the Calendar

Students must not come into school if they are exhibiting symptoms need to self-isolate under current guidance. Anyone self-isolating with symptoms must access testing away from school and engage with the NHS Test and Trace process. If a symptomatic student comes into school or develops symptoms whilst in school, parents/carers will be contacted and the student will be isolated until they are picked up.    If you have not already ordered your test kits for members of your family, please do so. Order Rapid Lateral Flow Tests

We will test students once weekly as per the schedule below until at least the end of this term. Please test your child at home 3 or 4 days apart from each in school test.

Year Group	In school test	At home test
Years 13 & 11	Monday AM	Wednesday Evening
Years 12 & 10	Tuesday AM	Thursday Evening
Year 9	Wednesday AM	Saturday Evening
Year 8	Thursday AM	Sunday Evening
Year 7	Friday AM	Tuesday Evening

 

Yours Sincerely,

Sonette Schwartz

Principal 

 

Charles Joseph

Senior Vice Principal