THE CHIEF executive of BMAT, the organisation in charge of Sir Frederick Gibberd College has given an update to parents and pupils regarding re-opening after the half term break.

Helena Mills said: “Over this past week and over this weekend, Department for Education contractors have been making, and will continue to make, improvements and upgrades to the school site. The objective is to make sure the site is safe for students and staff over the coming winter months.

Our current plan is to re-open the school as normal for face-to-face education on Tuesday 31st October. However, this is subject to a technical inspection by BMAT and the DFE on Monday morning.

We are sorry we cannot open on Monday, and we cannot at this stage give 100% assurance we will open on Tuesday. Everybody is working at pace to ensure the site is appropriate for teaching in the coming months. We shall update all parents on Monday afternoon about opening on Tuesday.

Several parents have raised specific concerns about the toilets. Substantial improvements are being made to those facilities. However, these can only occur over weekends and will be finished in the middle of November. I ask for your continued support and patience with us as we deal with what is an incredibly complicated and evolving situation as improvements are made to the entire site.

BMAT is also in communication with the DFE to organise a public meeting for parents, carers and staff so they can meet with representatives from the DFE. This will enable you to ask questions and to be given reassurances about the future of the school.

I hope all students and staff have been able to find time over the half-term break to rest up after what has been an incredibly difficult time for the entire SFG community. I would personally like to thank the parent community for their support for the SFG staff. As I set out last week, if you have any questions relating to the delay to the start of the second half of the term, please email [email protected].

“BMAT staff continue to work closely and productively with the DFE and local Government, including the local MP Robert Halfon and Harlow Council, to provide our school community with a safe place to learn. They have all been very helpful and we are thankful for that. The welfare of students and staff is our top priority”.