Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Firstly, I am so sorry that we had to make the decision to close the school at such short notice this morning. As you may have seen from the videos on our social media, around half of our school building was flooded because of the burst water main – so we were really left with very little option. I am pleased to say that the water levels have now gone down, but the damage and mess that has been left is significant. It is clear that we will not be able to return to the building for the next few days – and we are starting to consider the possibility that we may need to look at other plans after that. We want to try and support our children and families as much as we can through this. It is important that we give you as much notice as possible so that you can start to prepare and make the necessary arrangements. That is why it is important to let you know that: • School will be closed tomorrow, and our teachers will be using this time to prepare to move to online learning. • For the whole of next week, online learning will be provided to all children. We might be able to accommodate a small number of children at school who have some very specific needs, but this is still to be confirmed. • There are a whole team of people looking at what our next steps should be after that. We are very grateful for their support. Our hope is that we should have an update by Monday, which is why we are proposing a meeting for parents at Christ Church Bentinck School, 39 Cosway Street, NW1 5NS at 5.30pm. At this meeting we will let you know what the plans are. Please know that we all want our children to be back together as soon as possible. As good as we will make the online learning – nothing beats having our children learning and laughing together. Finally, I also wanted to say thank you for your support over the last few hours. It is hugely appreciated!

 

Yours sincerely, Mr Duffy       Mrs Marius-Beeko

Executive Head Teacher        Head of School