Term to end on Thursday 17 December
Firstly, we want to start by thanking all the students, parents and staff for all their hard work and support this term. Despite having to make major changes, it has been great to see students in school and some return to normality. We have had to make some difficult decisions this year but the support to the school has been overwhelming, so thank you.
End of Term Arrangements
As you may be aware, the Department for Education has announced that all schools can take Friday, 18 December 2020 as a training day (ie. INSET). This is because schools are required to continue to contact trace for Public Health England for six days after the final day of teaching. We are sure nobody wants to get a phone call from us on Christmas Eve telling their child to self-isolate.
Throughout this year, we have followed the Department for Education guidance during the pandemic, working hard to support our local community as well as the wellbeing of our staff and students. As such we support this change, although we apologise for the very short notice.
As a result, we have decided to close the school to students on Thursday 17 December 2020 at 3:15pm instead of closing on Friday lunchtime as planned.
If you have a problem with childcare as a result of this short notice closure, please contact a.mitchell@rvhschool.co.uk as we will be able to provide support in school until 12:15pm on Friday. Please note, however, that there will be no school service bus provision or school meals.
Christmas Jumper / Non-Uniform Day
Our Christmas Jumper Day will now be held on Thursday 17 December. Students can attend school in either a Christmas jumper, fancy dress or other non-uniform, with a suggested charity donation of £1. We are raising money for Overgate Hospice and Unicef, charities close to our heart.
We are encouraging cashless donations via Justgiving or ParentPay, though we will have cash buckets too.
www.justgiving.com/rvhs-unicef
www.justgiving.com/rvhs-overgate
Reporting a Positive Test over Christmas
If your child has a positive test result for Covid-19 over the holidays you must let us know via the button below.
Public Health England require us to continue to contact trace until Wednesday 23 December. Using the Department for Education guidance, we will identify close contacts of any cases that have been in school and advising by text and email all those who need to self-isolate.
In accordance with the guidelines, if your child tests positive and their symptoms started on or before Saturday 19 December then you must let us know. After this date, you should follow the usual Test and Trace system provided by Public Health England.
We are aware of the short notice of this change, and appreciate this will be tricky for some of you to manage. However, we hope you will appreciate that schools were only informed of this by the Department for Education yesterday, so we are acting as quickly as we can.
Following the Christmas break, school will reopen on Tuesday 5 January from 8:30am.
Thank you again for all your support this year. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and share our optimism looking forward to 2021.