All the principals, teachers and staff across our 37 schools and the central Ark team have been working hard to support our pupils. They continue to balance the challenges of maintaining our community classrooms, (which have remained open for children of key workers and vulnerable students), with delivering extensive home learning for all other students, whilst also managing their own family commitments.

At the moment, the Government is hoping that primary schools can begin re-opening from the beginning of June, starting with children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6.  For secondary students, the hope is that pupils taking exams next year will get at least some face-to-face time with their teachers before the summer holidays.  All re-opening plans are conditional and depend on the Government confirming that schools can re-open in June on May 28th

We know that our pupils learn best when they are in school and that is where we want them to be.  The safety and welfare of all staff and pupils is absolutely paramount, we are carrying out detailed risk assessments in each school and putting in place the measures that will ensure it is as safe as it can be when they do re-open.   We want our staff, students and their parents to be reassured that our schools will only re-open when was are confident that it is safe and sensible to do so.

The uncertainty makes planning difficult, but we are working with The Department of Education, the unions and local authorities to develop and implement our detailed guidance to safely manage reopening, so that students can begin to return to their classrooms in June.