After the Prime Minister’s announcement of a delay to the further easing of covid restrictions, we have received a communication from the Department of Education regarding transition days. The guidance states schools ‘should complete thorough risk assessments before running transitional, taster and open days to ensure that they are run in line with the system of controls…. This means that traditional transitional and open days are unlikely to be feasible this academic year but we are keen not to restrict individual settings from designing events which maintain the integrity of bubbles or consistent groups, and adhere to the system of controls in place.’

At Brooke Weston Trust we always seek to put children first and plan around their needs. We know most parents and children looking ahead to secondary school in September will want the opportunity to visit their new school, meet key staff and learn all about what to expect. However, following our latest risk assessment exercise I regret to inform you that Brooke Weston Trust secondary schools will not be offering their usual transition arrangements for Year 6 pupils.

All Brooke Weston Trust secondary schools each receive children from a large number of primary schools, which means it is not possible to keep children in their Year 6 primary bubble.  Our most recent risk assessments indicate it would be potentially unsafe to mix so many different Year 6 bubbles from different schools at a time when the latest wave of infection is increasingly present among younger adults and children and is likely to be at its peak in July.  We are very concerned that running transition events could have a detrimental effect on all the schools involved and the wider communities we all serve.

During the last week we have examined various alternatives but given our Year 6 pupils come from so many different primary schools, we are not confident we have identified a solution that will be sufficiently safe, useful and enjoyable for children.

Each of the Brooke Weston Trust secondary schools will be writing to the families of children joining them in September with details of their alternative arrangements. These will include access to a range of online transition information and events. Each school will also be planning early opportunities for parents to visit school at the start of the academic year, subject to government guidance at the time, with further opportunities for tutor meetings and other events.

Best wishes

Dr Andrew Campbell

CEO

Brooke Weston Trust