CDN/tfn
22nd February 2008
Dear Parents
Re: School Closure
May I begin by thanking you for your patience and tolerance over what has been a very difficult three days whilst the School has been closed.
The decision to close the School is not one which we ever take lightly and without weighing up the implications of such a closure. The situation arose due to an emergency with our heating system which came to light on Monday 18th February. One of the major pumps within the School gave out and despite efforts to fix it on site on the Monday, this was not possible. The School would therefore have been in a position of having no heating, no hot water and no Canteen facilities and the health and safety of the students and staff would have been compromised until such time as it was either replaced or repaired. To replace the unit would have meant a 3-6 week wait due to the specialist nature of the pump so the decision was taken to have it repaired off site. This repair took two days and with Thursday being the day for re-installation and system testing, the earliest we could have re-opened was today, Friday 22nd February.
As a parent, I am fully aware of the situation in which many of you found yourselves and I am grateful for the arrangements you made to accommodate your children. I am also acutely aware of the impact of the loss of three days on examination classes particularly in Year 11. Whilst the maximum potential time loss for any one subject was three hours, we recognise how important that time is to their future success. We believe there is sufficient time remaining for them to be able to make up the time lost within normal lesson time but we are exploring alternative provisions for certain subjects such as after school sessions in addition to those we already run and Saturday mornings.
I did give careful consideration as to the logistics of a partial opening of the school to accommodate GCSE classes. Having borne in mind all the factors as to whether or not this was feasible I reached the conclusion that this would not have been a practical option.
I am in the process of discussing with the Leadership Team and Governing Body of the School ways in which this situation can be avoided in future. We will be considering the replacement of all the pumps with new pumps and using the old ones as back-ups and if this is the only option then the School will follow this route. Should such an operation be put into place then replacement will occur over School holiday periods in the form of a phased programme; all normal maintenance issues are dealt with in such a way and no work is undertaken which could impact on School opening unless an emergency arises, as was the case over the last three days.
Finally may I thank you once again for your forbearance over this period and should you have any further issues then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Mr C.W. Dean
Headteacher