Dear Parent/Carers,

It is with regret that we need to inform you that on Tuesday 20 April Welling School will be closed to all students. This is because today we have suffered a significant failure on our school network which has impacted every aspect of our on-line provision. It has also resulted in staff being unable to access the resources they need to deliver lessons and take student registers. This system failure has also presented issues relating to health and safety particularly on the school’s ability to know where students are at all times. In the event of an emergency we are not able to access student information records.

As a result of the network failure the school has put in place its Business Continuity Plan which prepares for events like these. As a result of the significant disruption to Teaching & Learning and health & safety concerns which impact on the school’s safeguarding responsibilities to your child, the decision has been taken to close the school to students whilst we work to resolve this issue.

Home learning, supported via the Google Classroom platform, is unaffected and therefore we are confident that students will receive a better quality of education accessing and completing lessons from home. Online lessons will work in the same way as during the last lockdown with teachers online at the beginning of lessons to give an overview and offer.

I appreciate that this decision will have an impact for parent/carers and this decision has not been taken lightly. We are confident that this issue with the network will be resolved in a timely manner and expect to be open again to all students on Wednesday 21 April.

In the unlikely event that the school is not able to reopen on Wednesday 21 April we will confirm this decision to parent/carers by 2.00pm tomorrow. If you have any further questions regarding this letter, please contact the school on office@wellingschool-tkat.org.

With very best wishes.

Yours faithfully

Mr R Pett

HEADTEACHER