Highfields will close to students and staff in response to the coronavirus pandemic - with a remote learning programme now being launched to enable the school’s curriculum to continue from home.
The school will shut at 3.15pm on Friday 20th March and will remain closed until further notice, as part of a nationwide shutdown announced by the government.
Despite the closure, Highfields will support remote learning for students from all year groups through our HP Streams and range of digital applications to allow learning to continue with minimal disruption.
All students will have work set via the Show My Homework app for every lesson, which will be monitored by teachers throughout the school day.
A range of activities, resources and online applications will be available, with students expected to be online and working from 9.00am and 3.00pm on school days to complete the work and online tests that are set.
Headteacher, Mr G Tate, said: “We have been working on contingency plans whilst closely monitoring the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, and are fortunately in a position to offer a remote learning programme, which began for students in Years 9 and 12 earlier this week.
“Following the announcement of a nationwide school shutdown from March 20th, we will be rolling this remote learning programme out for the rest of the school from next week.
“I appreciate this may cause you some inconvenience, but we are operating in a unique set of circumstances, and remain committed to allowing our students’ learning and progress to continue from home, with as little disruption as possible.”
Despite the blanket school closure, Highfields will be making provision for students whose parents and carers are key workers and cannot remain at home.
Mr Tate added: “Although the government now believes this is the right time to be closing schools in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, they have also rightly asked us to make provision for the children of key workers.
“Whilst I appreciate that many of you will be happy to have your children working from home I can also see that some of you might prefer to have onsite physical supervision for younger students.
“We are currently waiting for more detailed government guidance on the categories of key workers who will be able to access this, and I look forward to providing you with further details as soon as they become available.
“Could I take this opportunity to thank staff, parents and students for the exceptional way they have worked together in these difficult and unprecedented circumstances.”
For more information about our remote learning programme, click here
Further individual technical support is also available by emailing digitalsupport@hswv.co.uk.
