Dear Families
I had expected to be writing to you about moving into our new building, but as you are all aware this hasn't yet happened. I would like to take this opportunity to explain more fully the circumstances around this.
This building project has been commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE). They have a strict policy that says that they will not accept ownership, and therefore schools cannot take occupation of buildings, until the Building Control Certificate is in place.
I was notified at mid-day on Friday 12th that the DfE had not received the Building Control Certificate and, therefore, would not accept the building, meaning we would not be allowed to move in. The three reasons for the certificate not being issued were minor and not related to anything that would impact upon the safe occupation of the building. These were issues that arose at the last minute due to a burnt out motor, and two damaged deliveries. I spent the rest of the day liaising with the DfE, local authority and the build team trying to find ways around this. None of my solutions were agreed upon, and we were instructed to move back into the old building.
Not only would this have been unsafe, it was also impractical and would have caused longer disruption to pupils and families. We would have been closed to pupils not only on the 12th for packing, but on the 15th / 16th / 17th for reinstating the old school. We would then have needed to close completely for a further four days to allow for repacking, moving and unpacking again. This equals 8 complete school closure days.
The compromise solution we found was a partial closure for pupils over three days. This is a total of 4 complete closure days and 3 partial closure days equalling 7 days in overall.
The reason we have provided you with work packs and not arranged online remote education is:
- because at the time of making these emergency plans our ICT was not set up, and
- the feedback from families during the two lock-down periods was that many preferred work packs to online learning, and
- we are unable to provide enough ICT for the families that would require it to access online learning.
As a working parent myself, I know how difficult the chopping and changing of arrangements are, and I assure you that not only was this change unexpected, it was totally beyond our control. I can only apologise for the disruption caused to you, your child and your family.
Mrs J Rigby
Headteacher
