Month: January 2022

Dear Parents,

 

Due to the recent increases in the number of positive cases within the El Alsson community, including amongst our staff families, we have reluctantly decided to ask all students to work online Sunday 16th, Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th January. January 19th is a planned school holiday for Coptic Epiphany. All students will return to in-school learning on Thursday 20th January. All mid-term Ministry of Education Exams will run as planned next week. Further details can be found below.

 

This decision comes after careful consideration of a number of factors including:

• Household cases amongst our community, including high levels of staff absence across the school, both education and administrative.
• Our teachers are reaching their limits in trying to teach in school covering the 50+ colleagues who are absent today. This is not expected to improve until Tuesday 18th January at the earliest. Quality learning on campus is suffering as a result and we feel we can best serve the well-being and learning of students by reverting to a brief period of online learning.
• The need to maintain overall school health in advance of the upcoming exam season which impacts a vast number of students.

 

Students will continue to follow their usual schedules for the online period and your child’s divisional leadership will send a separate communication to confirm online learning details.

 

This is an opportunity for the school and our community to reduce the impact of Covid 19 on and within our community. We strongly urge all parents, students and staff to adhere to the following guidance during this brief online learning period:

• Avoid social gatherings (parties, play-dates, training, social activities within clubs, extended family gatherings, etc.)
• Maintain social distancing and wear face masks at all times when outside your home
• Consult medical advice if any member of your household falls ill.

 

We thank the vast majority of students, parents and staff whose diligent attention to safety guidelines have helped to ensure our school has stayed safe up to this point. We are very proud of our ongoing response to Covid 19, but reluctantly feel that given the significant increase in cases in our community, we have been left with little option but to move the whole school online for a brief period.

 

Ministry Exams

Please find attached reminders about the Ministry of Education mid-year examinations that will be held in the coming days. This letter is sent as a reminder as the details are unchanged from the letter that was sent in December 2021. G6-11/Y7-12 parents should pay special attention to the completion of the permission form for their child to be able to leave school after examinations on 20^th January. Students will not be able to leave school after their examinations unless this form has been completed by a parent. Phone calls to the Divisional Offices on the day to give permission will not be accepted.

 

Parents of G9/Y10 and G12/Y13 are reminded that they are not to attend school on January 20th as is outlined in the Ministry exam communication.

 

The G10/Y11 History exam will be held as planned on Sunday 16th (8:10-10:10). Further communication regarding transportation will follow for students in these year groups who use the bus. All other students may come and leave by their own transportation to sit the exam.

Students who are unable to attend their Ministry examinations because they have returned a positive Covid test, should not attend school and will be able to sit the examination when they return to school. Parents should follow the usual Covid guidance. As an update to our current Covid procedures, students are expected to fulfill a 7-day quarantine period should any household member test positive. They are only allowed back to school provided they submit a negative PCR or Rapid test.

Students sitting Edexcel external examinations in Years 12 and 13 in the British School next week will still sit these as scheduled.

We are confident that this short period away from campus, combined with a diligent approach to health and safety by all of our community, will allow us to return to school on the 20th of January and maintain on-campus learning for the remainder of this term.

 

Kind Regards,

Colin Rogers, Soumaya Amr, Karim Rogers, Allison Fleet and Matt Topliss

School Directors and School Principals