STEWARDS Academy has informed parents, guardians and pupils that due to a Covid-19 outbreak, Year 8 pupils have been asked to work from home next week.

Dear Parents and Carers,

During the past week, we have communicated regularly with you regarding the various challenges that have come our way. Your support and patience have been invaluable as we work together to support our young people.

We are pleased that the recent fire in the locality is no longer affecting our ability to open school, but we continue to empathise with those in the community that have been affected by this event.

Following the three individual cases of COVID-19 in the academy, you will be aware that a number of pupils in Year 8 and Year 11 are required to self-isolate. The parents of these pupils have been informed via ParentMail. In addition, we have now identified a number of staff that will also need to self-isolate until Wednesday 25^th November.

Unfortunately, this means that it will not be possible to provide staffing for all pupils until after this date. Based on this, we have made the decision that all Year 8 pupils will need to stay at home next week and be educated via the Blended Learning route. Work will be set on ClassCharts by teachers following their usual timetable and pupils will be able to upload their work each lesson. It will not be possible to deliver live teacher sessions during this time, but teachers can be contacted by pupils via ClassCharts. This decision has not been made lightly and we understand that it is frustrating for staff, pupils, and parents alike.

We will continue to review the situation over the coming days, but we are anticipating that Year 8 will return to school on Monday 23^rd November. As we have learnt this week, the situation can change very quickly and moving forward it may be necessary to ask other year groups to remain at home and be educated remotely for a period of time. We very much hope that this will not be the case, but we need to be realistic about the situation we are currently facing.

We thank you for your support as we continue to work together during these challenging times.

Kind regards,

Helen Ginger

Headteacher