September reopening of Abbeywood Community School

I hope this message finds you and your family well. Can I reiterate my thanks to all of you for the wonderful support you have shown our school community to help us successfully navigate this difficult time. 

It has been wonderful to welcome back many of our Year 10 and Year 12 students for face-to-face contact over the past month – and we are, of course, hugely looking forward to seeing all students back in the new academic year. This is a brief update, but I wanted to write to you to let you know where we are with our plans for re-opening in September. 

You will now be aware that the government has released guidance for the planned return of all students to school in September. We are working hard to complete risk assessments based on this guidance to ensure that Abbeywood Community School is as safe as possible for our students and staff. As you can imagine, we have a significant amount of detail and logistics to work through – and it is important that we take time to consider the implications of re-opening.    

We are working closely with our colleagues in Olympus Academy Trust to ensure we develop robust and equitable plans. We are hopeful that we will be able to establish a new routine to facilitate the return to classroom teaching and learning for all students. This could mean changes to how our school normally operates – such as arrival and finish routines, movement around our school, lunch and break times, practical lessons, and our enrichment offer – but as always, the safety of students and staff will be placed central to all decisions made. It is possible that the first two days for students in September (Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September) will be reserved for our new Year 7 intake (and Year 12 students) only to support their transition into secondary school.      

I will write to you via email again soon to outline more detailed plans for reopening Abbeywood Community School, but in the meantime, if you have any concerns or queries regarding September arrangements, please email info@abbeywoodschool.com. 

Yours sincerely

David Howe, Headteacher