Dear Parents and Carers,
Regrettably we can not open on Thursday as planned. We have currently have contractors working on the problem. They will continue to work through the weekend so that we can open on Monday 19th January 2015. We will continue to keep you informed.
You will understand that the safety of your children is our primary consideration. We are putting a range of things in place to ensure that your children are able to catch up with the lessons they missed this week. In the meantime the teachers are posting work for your children this week on their class blogs.
We have plans in place to ensure that regular, preventative maintenance is carried out on our sewer system in order to avoid this situation in the future.
We apologise again for the considerable disruption that this has caused.
I am so disappointed about this!
As regrettable as this situation is, I hope that there is a Plan B already place for Monday should the problem not be resolved – If the contractors are having to work over the weekend (!) then there must be a very real danger of them not finishing in time. I would like to think that the option of Portaloos or some other alternative has already been actioned….
This is unacceptable, it is my first week back at university and I have had to miss it as I am unable to find child care for my son. It was originally only supposed to be for Monday, then only till Thursday and is now for the whole week.
The children have only just come back from Christmas Holidays. I am very angry, and disappointed
Is there no option to use the schools federation status to use Selsdens facilities in the next couple of days?
By facilities I mean classrooms or other space rather than toilets of course – perhaps for at least some of the pupils?
Hello Lynn,
Thank you. Yes, we did consider this, however, all of the rooms are in use by the Selsdon pupils.
Best wishes
Susan
Hello Tynisha,
I am so sorry. We really have tried to hurry this process along as much as we can. This is a truly exceptional circumstance. I have worked in schools for 25 years and this is the first time I have known a school to close for such a long period of time.
I appreciate that to keep changing the days that the school was closed must feel very frustrating, however, we were trying to keep the school closed for as short a period as possible. The safety of the children is our priority and to have them on site in the current circumstances proves too high a risk.
I apologise on behalf of the school for the serious disruptiont that this has caused you.
Susan
Hello Lee,
We, along with the Local Authority, are monitoring the situation very closely. We fully expect the work to be completed by Friday evening. I wanted assurances from the contractor about the possibility of working at the weekend because in the unlikely event that they had to finish something off that they had a two-day period in which to do this to be ready for Monday morning.
Best wishes
Susan
Has it been suggested that children attend school during half term to make up for the loss of education this week?
Would you consider that? I’d be keen to know how our children are going to catch up on the work. Surely you cannot suggest a whole week can be caught up without considering something like the above.
I appreciate that this is entirely out of anyone’s control but some reassurance on the educational aspect would be helpful.
Kind regards
Bianca
Also, surely ‘regular, preventative maintenance’ was already carried out on your sewer system? When was the last time the sewer system was maintained?
Bianca
Hello, I understand this must be incredibly frustrating for the school as well as every parent. The fact that it is so close to Christmas has meant that me and my husband, who both work full time, have not been able to take time off work. The children have had to spend time with relatives and friends at a short notice. I understand the situation and that there’s nothing that can be done, however the amount of homework, at least year 4, have been emailed every day is unbelievable. I work all day, I cannot expect friends and family who fit my children in around their lives, at a moments notice, to sit and teach them all day long, as if they were in school. We have spent hours upon hours in the evenings, trying to catch up on all this work, but I find it a little strange that we should “homeschool” during this unfortunate situation, especially with such short notice. We will try and do as much as we can, but just needed to flag this up.
Hello Bianca,
Yes, it was. However, the system developed a fault which, combined with the age of the pumps, led to the total failure of the system. Having gone through this experience we are increasing the number of checks made on the system. So, with new pumps and more regular checks, along with the regular, preventative maintenance we are doing all we can to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
Best wishes
Susan
Thanks Susan, any thoughts on my comment regarding half term/education, and also the date of the last maintenance checks prior to the failure.
Glad it is all up and running.
Bianca
Hello Philippa,
I am so sorry about the disruption that this has caused. Please do not worry about the work that was posted on the blogs. We put this for those children and parents who wanted it; it is not compulsory. We have put plans in place for the coming two weeks to ensure that the children catch up on the lessons that they missed this week.
Apologies again.
Best wishes
Susan
Hello Bianca,
Yes, we did consider this. However, for various reasons it will not work. We have put plans in place to ensure that the children catch up with the learning that they have missed this week. We have prioritised the key aspects of literacy, mathematics and science that were missed this week. The teachers have rearranged their timetables and plans to accommodate this.
We apologise again for the disruption this has caused.
Best wishes
Susan