Dear Parent/Carer,
RE: INDUSTRIAL ACTION BY THE NEU - WEDNESDAY 15th MARCH and THURSDAY 16th MARCH
Further to my last letter, the next two scheduled days of industrial action by the National Education Union (NEU) are approaching on Wednesday 15th March and Thursday 16th March. Whilst the planned action is a result of a national dispute between the unions and the government, and not the Gosforth Group, it is important that we continue to respond accordingly.
We have put a plan in place to keep the school open to as many students as possible during the industrial action, prioritising those preparing for external examinations. Again, we do expect the action by the NEU to have a severe impact on the school and it is important that we are able to comply with our key priority of ensuring the Health and Safety of our students and staff.
Years 10, 11, 12 and 13
We will be focussing on maintaining as normal provision as we possibly can for Years 10, 11, 12 and 13. Therefore, we will remain open for students in Years 10, 11, 12 and 13, and we expect students in these year groups to come into school as they would on a normal school day. The staff that are in school will deliver normal timetabled lessons. When staff are not available to deliver normal timetabled lessons, students will undertake independent revision work in a supervised year group “study base” venue. It would be extremely helpful if students could bring work into school to support their revision and preparation for forthcoming examinations if they do need to go to their study base. There will also be Year 11 internal English examinations taking place and it is essential that Year 11 students attend school to sit these examinations. Further written information will follow about this soon.
Years 7, 8 and 9
The school will close for normal timetabled lessons in Years 7, 8 and 9 and students in these year groups are not required to come into school. There will be a very small number of students from these year groups contacted in advance to come into school on the day itself. Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 not contacted directly by the school in advance, are not required to come in on the day. Work will be provided on the Frog VLE by staff not involved in industrial action for their own classes. For those students entitled to a free school meal and not in school, we will be providing a free school meals voucher.
I will write to you again in advance of any future planned days of action by the NEU. On each day of industrial action, we will continue to focus on providing as much consistency as we possibly can for our students, balanced with ensuring the Health and Safety of everyone in school.
We understand the inconvenience this may cause you. Please be assured that we never take the decision to partially close the school lightly. With the exception of the industrial action days identified in this letter, our school will remain open as usual to all of our pupils on all other days. Thank you for your patience, understanding and continued support.
Yours faithfully,
STEVE CAMPBELL
PRINCIPAL