CV&CC Update: Site Closed w/b 8th February

Sunday, 7th February

I have written to all parents separately, and you may also have seen reports on “Devon Live”.

I have made the very difficult decision to close the site for this week. It will reopen during half-term, and I anticipate that we will resume our “KWV” provision from Monday 22nd February as if nothing had happened.

We have had six positive covid-19 results since Friday evening. This is clearly of great concern, and we wish my five colleagues and one Year 10 student a speedy recovery, but this is not the main reason for the closure. The difficulty is that there are 25 or so close contacts among the staff, leaving us with no caretakers, no First Aider, fewer cleaners, no AtHoS or HoS, just one of the Welfare Team, just two of the Senior Team, and with big gaps in our LFTesting team.

I am glad that we took the decision to have half of the staff, predominantly teachers, working from home. This means that we will be able to offer a full provision of remote learning next week, other than one or two teachers live rurally and might not be able to offer live lessons although other work will be set.

Parental support during this weekend has been overwhelming in the best possible way, and I am incredibly grateful and humbled by it. A school closure is a pain in the neck for the parents of the 15% of students attending, but everyone has accepted that it is the right decision. Thank you.

And, of course, we now have no need to worry about the Station Road road closure next week……