Tuesday 24th March 2020 (12.30pm)
Dear Parent(s)
Re: COVID 19
I trust each of you are slowly beginning to adapt to the new way of life, and the previously unused terms of “social distancing” and “self-isolation” are becoming an embedded part of everyone's vocabulary. Above all, of this, I hope you and your family are well and will remain so throughout this period.
All of us are no doubt swamped with the hourly updates from the media, along with the evening briefings from the Prime Minister, and the daily publications via GOV.UK so I will not attempt to compete with or interpret the wealth of information that is out there. However, I did want to make a few points to the Highams Park Community.
· We apologise, for Firefly crashing this morning. This is a National issue and we are in contact with the company who are doing all they can to increase the capacity of the system and get it back up and running again as quickly as possible. Firefly have released this following statement:
“Due to the significant increase in usage nationally, Firefly is increasing their capacity so students will have noticed times when it is not accessible - it is important that they continue to check Firefly as these 'down-times' are only temporary. Do encourage your children to continue to develop independent working skills so that when instructions aren't immediately available, they look to other resources such as bbc.co.uk/bitesize or bbc.co.uk/teach for example.”
· As well as work for particular lessons, colleagues have also put some generic wellbeing suggestions onto Firefly – obviously, do please sense check these against the ever-changing regulations that are being imposed upon us to restrict contact between groups. The link can be found here: http://highamspark.fireflycloud.net/wellbeing-and-safety/covid-19-support-1
· The school remains open, overseen by skeleton staff to provide supervision for the children of Key Workers only. I would like to express our collective thanks to my colleagues who have continued to oversee this provision thus placing themselves and their families at increased risk. Please can I stress that this provision is only to be used as an absolute last resort for the children of Key Workers only. We are working hard to ensure that the students that we have coming to school maintain the practice of social distancing. Any parent wishing to use this service must contact my PA, Ms Gina Breyer at
· Year 11 and Year 13, A Level and GCSE examinations. At the weekend, the government made an announcement regarding the allocation of grades to students in each of these Year Groups. At this moment, it is unclear how the grades will be allocated. We are currently liaising with the Department for Education (DfE) and exam boards to ensure that students receive the grades they deserve. The grades will be evidence based; however, the final decision will rest with the DfE. No student/parent/carer should approach teachers directly in reference to any grades. We will be in contact as and when we have more information.
· Free School Meals are available for any student entitled to them. These will be available from the school canteen between 1.25pm to 2.10pm. Students do not need to wear school uniform, when coming to school for their food but must sign in at reception and continue to follow the rules of social distancing, throughout their visit. I would ask parents to contact our Catering Manager, Ms Julie Kelly directly via email to enable her to ensure sufficient food is provided. She can be contacted vie email at
· Any student entitled to Free School Meals whose family are self-isolating should contact my colleague, Ms Halkes via email at
Can I say, a huge thank you to the many of you, who have contacted the school expressing your gratitude to the staff for their efforts to provide as much support as possible to students, in what proved to be an unplanned and very rushed, end to the school term. Your understanding and willingness to take time, to say as much at such a difficult time, has been greatly appreciated.
We will endeavor to keep you updated, on how schooling will progress both in the short and medium term, as more details become available. We will continue to send out information by parent email as well as posting messages on our school website under the banner Coronavirus updates. Link provided here: http://highamsparkschool.co.uk/index.php/coronavirus-updates
I wish you and your families every success during these difficult times.
Yours faithfully
Phil Grundy
Principa
