School closure dates                                  

As you know, we are expecting handover of our new permanent site on Tuesday 17 July. Once we have possession of the new building, there will be a huge amount of preparation required to get the new building ready to open for the children when the new academic year starts in September. Some examples of this are:

• Meeting building contractors to handover all aspects of the new building
• Sourcing contractors for site preparation and visits (health and safety, fire safety, compliance regulations, etc.)
• Setting up rooms and offices
• Transitioning furniture, staff resources, children’s resources, etc. to the new building
• Inducting and training new staff

These are just some of the obvious examples; there will be many other tasks to be completed as the building will be completely empty upon handover.
As a result, and in agreement with school governors, we have decided to schedule a number of additional days of school closure to ensure all the key works are completed and both the children and parents are able to begin on the first day back confident in the knowledge that the school is ready.
The closures will take place on:

Thursday 19 July and Friday 20 July
In effect, school will close two days early this academic year. The last day of the summer term will be Wednesday 18 July.

Monday 3 September until Friday 7 September
This means that the first day back after the summer holidays will be Monday 10 September. We are usually closed for the first two days back in September for staff training, so this is in effect three additional days.

I can assure you that my staff and I have also scheduled additional days over the summer holidays when we will be in school as the process will be time consuming and there will be many things to do.
It is common for schools moving into new buildings to schedule additional school day closures in order to get ready, and we hope we have your support in this endeavour. A benefit to parents will be that return flights from abroad are often cheaper in the first week of September than they are in August.
I am communicating these dates to you now so you can prepare your own summer holiday preparations in good time. I will be sending out a full yearly calendar to parents with all key dates for next academic year later this term.

In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions. We will do all we can to ensure that our new building is ready to receive all of you on the first day back in September.

Yours sincerely

Raheel Akhtar
Headteacher
School contact number: 01708 932 710
School email: [email protected]