Shrewsbury school announces partial closure
A secondary school in Shrewsbury has announced a partial closure because of staffing levels.
Meole Brace Secondary School said that from Wednesday, all students in year nine would be asked to stay at home for the forseeable future.
In a letter to parents, Alan Doust, headteacher at the school, said: "Due to the introduction of more stringent measures by the government on Monday, aimed at containing the spread of Covid 19, I am writing to let you know that as from tomorrow, Wednesday 18th March, we are going to have to introduce a partial closure to the school because of staffing levels.
"Despite the rapidly changing climate and the growing concern in communities around England, we are still following the directive from the Government / DfE that schools are to remain open as they are the best places for children to learn.
"However, due to the numbers of staff needing to self-isolate, either because they fall into one of the high risk groups cited by the government, or because they live in a household where there are some concerns, from tomorrow we are asking all students in Year 9 to stay at home for the foreseeable future.
"Whilst none of our staff have been diagnosed with the virus, the availability of internal and external cover is no longer adequate to supervise all the classes and so we are starting the first phase of our contingency plan to partially close the school to some students."
Mr Doust said they were aware of the impact the move would have and said they would be setting work for pupils at home.
He said: "We apologise for the short-notice. Ideally we would have given you more warning. We have not taken this decision lightly, and it might be necessary in future days to extend this partial closure to other year groups. In all likelihood, we would next ask Year 8, then Year 7, to stay at home. We are very mindful of the impact that this partial closure will have.
"Work will now be set using Show My Homework for Year 9. Year 9 students should stay at home or at another suitable place of safety. Under no circumstance should they be on or near school site.
"My apologies for the inconvenience this will cause, and my thanks for your understanding and support."
