Dear Parent Carer,

I am writing to you today to notify you, with regret, that from tomorrow Thursday 26^th March Worthing High school will be closed until further notice.

The school including Governors and Trustees have had to take this decision with a very heavy heart and also with the knowledge of how supportive our students, parents and staff have been. We have no students now attending the school from keyworker or vulnerable students groups. We have put in place arrangements to support all our students including those from keyworker families and vulnerable families.Should the family circumstances for any student change, please email Covid19@worthinghigh.net and we will work to provide the necessary support.

The school will now operate in our new virtual world. Work is on line, students can use their timetables as a guide to what they should be doing and if they have any issues of problem to contact their teachers via email etc. This support extends through the Easter holiday period. Our Progress Leaders and Pastoral team are also available to parents/carers and we all appreciate you are entering a brave new world of educating your child at home, as best you can. 

That is exactly the point, you are doing the very best you can. It will not be perfect, it might not work first time, but it will improve and for you as Parents and Carers you should not be too impatient with what your child is doing or how they are doing it. As I said, we will probably be in this virtual school mode, as the Government are forecasting, for 12 weeks. This is a marathon of an unprecedented  scale and we all need to pace ourselves and look after one another.

Please continue to use workfromhome@worthinghigh.net for any support you may need including forgotten passwords. 

Show my Homework

Work will continue to be set for all students on Show My Homework and SAM Learning. Instructions will be given with each piece of work as to how students should submit it; this may be through Show My Homework, email or through Microsoft Teams.

Yr9 Options

We will be updating year 9 parents/carers on option choices after the Easter break. If there are any issues around choices, we will speak to those affected by phone before this.

Safeguarding

We will continue to provide support to any child or family member if you have concerns of a safeguarding nature. Please email reportabuse@worthinghigh.net if you need any help or wish to report anything of concern relating to one of our students,

FSM vouchers

All uncollected FSM luncheon vouchers are now being posted to parents and carers which will last until Friday 3 April. We are having difficulties obtaining further vouchers due to the national demand. We will therefore communicate with FSM parents/carers next week with an alternative option for getting payments to you.

Student laptops

We have been able to order sufficient laptops for all those students who have requested them. However, many have not yet arrived. If you are one of those students still waiting we will contact you as soon as the laptop is available and we will arrange for you to collect or we may be able to deliver it to you. It is unlikely we will be able to obtain any further IT equipment now so if you have not previously requested support we may not be able to help. 

I am using this time to reconnect  with my own children. All the things as a parent/carer you wanted to show or share with  your child and never had the time, now is the time to evaluate what we do and teach our children the life skills that in the future they will become more reliant on.

I also wanted to take this time to thank you all personally for your incredible support at every level and if any of you have any worries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact the school directly on the emails listed above.

I will continue to email parents with any updates or information. Thank you once again and when we are in a position to reopen fully I will obviously be in touch sooner rather than later.

regards

Pan Panayiotou

Headteacher

Worthing High School