Wednesday 31st March 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

I had hoped that the staffing situation would be looking better today than yesterday, but it has got considerably worse. This time yesterday we had ten staff away from work due to covid. Today that has risen to sixteen. In addition to asking Year 8 to stay at home and work remotely tomorrow, I now have to ask Year 7 to work remotely on Friday of this week. We are hoping to be able to book more supply staff for next week as Cambridgeshire and Essex schools are on Easter holidays, so demand ought to be lower.

 Work will be set on go for schools for all classes for Year 8 on Thursday and Year 7 on Friday.

 Vulnerable students will be invited into school where they will be supervised while they complete the remote learning tasks. Parents or carers of those vulnerable students will be contacted directly to arrange that.

If parents have an urgent need to keep their child in school on either day they should contact Miss Powell with a request – jpowell@samuelward.co.uk

I apologise again for the disruption to learning and inconvenience that this will cause.

 Thank you for your ongoing support,

 Andy Hunter

 Headteacher