9th March 2023, 20:17pm
Dear Parents, Carers, Students and StaffThank you for your understanding and cooperation today.We appreciate that we took a cautious approach early this morning due to the uncertainty around the weather. The forecasted weather conditions would have significantly jeopardised our staffing levels, challenged many of the student and staff transport routes and compromised our own site safety. As we could not guarantee any of these, we did not want to risk having your children make their way to school, to then be sent home again a few hours later. Moving to live online lessons meant that journeys would not be required, risks for students and staff would be vastly reduced and we could guarantee that more teachers would be available to teach their normal group and their own specialist subject at the usual times.My team and I have discussed the merits of making a decision now or waiting until the morning. Following this evening’s updated weather forecast for tomorrow, which maintains an ‘amber warning’ of freezing rain, ice and more snow until midday tomorrow. We have decided to make that decision now, in advance of tomorrow due to the complexity of transport provision and to help families plan ahead. Our concerns remain the same as today and we have made the decision to maintain online live lessons for Friday 10th March. Students and staff should not travel to the school site tomorrow and the online school day will commence with Period 1 starting at 9.10am.Heads of Year will be available via email between 8.40am and 9.10am if you have any concerns.Tomorrow, we will confirm final arrangements for industrial action days on 15th and 16th March. We are currently investigating ways to maximise the number of students we can have onsite with such reduced staffing levels due to the strike.Thank you again for your support and cooperation.Yours faithfullyMr S GarrityHeadteacherQueen Elizabeth’s Grammar School
