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09 December 2020
Dear headteacher,

You are receiving this notification as Ealing Council emails are not being delivered to your inbox at present.

Sent on behalf of Julie Lewis:
 

End of term arrangements 

On 8 December, the government suggested that schools may wish to make Friday 18 December a non-teaching day. The rationale for this suggestion is to avoid schools having to be on-call up to and including 24 December for contact tracing purposes.

Ealing’s guidance to schools sets out a framework for schools from which 5 days should be taken as training days for teachers and it also allows for 3 occasional days holiday for pupils and staff to be set in consultation with each school’s governing body. Read more about school term dates(link is external).

“schools must meet for at least 380 sessions or 190 days during any school year to educate their pupils. If a school is prevented from meeting for one or more sessions because of an unavoidable event, it should find a practical way of holding extra sessions. If it cannot find a practical way of doing this then it is not required to make up the lost sessions.” Read more about the School attendance guidance(link is external) (GOV.UK)

Schools in Ealing already have different arrangements in place for the end of term. Some are using Ealing occasional days as set out in our local agreement. It is therefore entirely reasonable for governing bodies to close the school for pupils on 18 December based on the short-notice guidance issued and choose one of the following options:

  • Option A make use of an Ealing occasional day on 18 December enabling staff to take the day as a holiday
  • Option B convert 18 December into an INSET day and make further changes during the school year to provide extra sessions for pupils if it is practical to do so*
  • Option C stick to the current end of term arrangements

Either option A or B are recommended by the LA. Options A and B mean that arrangements for responding to positive reported cases need to be in place up to and including 23 December.

Option C means that arrangements for responding to positive reported cases are in place up to and including 24 December.

*It may not be possible to communicate any planned changes to INSET days in 2021 at this time to parents/carers. Schools may state that they will review the impact of changes in the New Year and then notify parents of any adjustments to dates for the rest of the year if this is deemed practical.

In the case of option a or b, schools should announce that the short-notice change to the end of term date for pupils is based on DfE guidance and the role they are asking schools to play in supporting Public Health over the Christmas break.

 
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Ealing Grid for Learning

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