COVID-19
Please find all the information published by the school in relation to actions taken and guidance followed to keep our school community safe and healthy during the Covid 19 pandemic.
School is now open as per government guidelines.
The school site and classrooms have been organised and set up to ensure that every care is being taken to ensure the continued health and wellbeing of pupils and staff during these challenging times.
Dear Parents and carers,
As-salamu Alaykum. We hope that you and the family, have all been keeping safe and well.
It has been a challenging and concerning few weeks, with the rapid spread of the Omnicron variant across our country. Alhumdulillah, our school has been able to continue with teaching and learning with good overall attendance of both staff and pupils. There has been some impact in the last week with higher than average absence in some year groups. We hope and pray that the upcoming school holidays will provide an opportunity for all to rest and recoup so that we can insha’Allah return in good health for the Spring term. Our last day for this Autumn Term is on Friday, 17th December 2021. Pupils will be returning to school on Wednesday, 5th January 2022.
Parents would have heard or read in the media that England’s Covid rules were strengthened in response to concern over the Omicron variant.
What are the new measures?
From Tuesday, 30th November 2021 face coverings were once again made compulsory in shops and on public transport. We strongly urge all of our parents to wear a face mask when coming into school to drop off or pick up your children. This will ensure we are taking every extra precaution to keep our school community safe, insha’Allah.
All contacts of suspected Omicron cases will also be required to take a daily lateral flow test for 7 days, regardless of a person’s vaccination status.
The Senior Leadership Team would like to assure parents that the school will continue to remain vigilant and take every possible step to ensure that children remain safe throughout the academic year. Alhumdulillah, our overall attendance for the period from 6th September 2021 to 16th December 2021 has remained at an outstanding average of around 93%. We thank all parents and pupils for their commitment to maintaining a high level of attendance.
We are constantly looking at ways to maintain an outstanding standard in all aspects of our school practice. To this extent the senior leadership team and school admin officer are currently working with a specialist web designer to completely refresh and enhance the Orchard School website. We will update you further on this, in the weeks to come. This forms part of our aim to ensure that there is a robust and effective communication system between school, parents and the community at large. Thank you to parents for sharing what works well and also any areas we could further develop. We welcome your comments.
Kindly do continue to keep our greater ‘Orchard family’ in your Duas, thoughts and prayers. As always, our doors are open should you have any queries, etc. Please contact the Admin team if you require any assistance.
Salaams and kind regards,
Mr Hoosen Randeree
PS: We are prepared for all eventualities and should the school be required to close, our online learning portal is easily accessible via the 'Online Learning Hub' button on the main page.