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- September 27, 2023
Dear Parents and Carers
We are rapidly approaching the day when we finally move into the new school building. I write to you with the final arrangements for the move and the final details of the week that students will be inducted into the new school. The arrangements for the Induction Week I originally shared with parents back in April were provisional and subject to change. I can now confirm the final plans which have been revised.
Hand-Over of the New Building and Moving In
As previously published, School will close to Years 7,8, 9 and 10 at 3:05pm on Thursday 12th October. The DFE and Contractor will take ownership of the old school building on Friday 13th October and will require two full weeks to decant all the furniture, equipment, servers and other infrastructure into the new school building. Services including electricity, gas, water and data will also need to be disconnected and reconnected to the new and retained buildings. During this time, teachers will not be able to access either the old or new school and our IT and communications will be offline because the servers which power our IT systems will be removed and decanted to the new school. The DFE and the Contractor will legally hand the building over to Fred Longworth High School on Friday 27th October.
Provision for Year 11 on Friday 13th October
We have made arrangements for Year 11 only to attend school on Friday 13th October. They will access provision in the Maths and Humanities Block. Students will need to arrive in school for 8:55. The schedule for the day will be as follows:
- 8:55 to 11:00 – Maths provision
- 11:00 to 11:20 – Breaktime
- 11:20 to 1:20 – Humanities provision (either Geography of History)
All Year 11 students are expected to be in school on Friday 13th October.
From Monday 16th October to Monday 30th October inclusive, school will be closed to all students.
Phased Opening for Students – Induction into the new school building and campus
Bringing 1300 students into a new school is a significant logistical challenge. Students will be completely unfamiliar with the layout of the building and in order to maintain a calm, safe and orderly environment new routines will need to be established and modelled. To ensure that this is done effectively, we will be bringing in students in limited numbers keeping the total numbers on site to a minimum. This will give staff time to work with each Year Group to induct the students properly and drill them in our new routines. The final arrangements are as follows.
- Day 1. Tuesday 31st October. Year 7 and Year 11 only attend school from 8:35 to 3:05.
- Day 2. Wednesday 1st November. Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 only attend school from 8:35. Year 7 and Year 11 will return to school at 11:15 on 1st November. We cannot have Year 7 or Year 11 in school any earlier on this day whilst we complete the induction of the other year groups.
- Day 3. Thursday 2nd November. School will be open as normal for all year groups
We fully appreciate the disruption this phased induction into the new school will cause but I ask you to please bear with us. If we do not complete it in this way, students will not understand the systems and routines needed to navigate the building and this could lead to Health and Safety risks as well as the potential for behavioural issues, which in the long term will be even more disruptive to their education.
Please also note that we will be returning to school on a Week B.
Potential Changes to the School Day
As you are aware, from September 2023 we extended the school day by an additional 5 minutes. Once we have moved into the new school, it will be necessary for us to keep under constant review the timings of the current school day. At this stage, we do not fully know if there will be sufficient time for students to transition between lessons. This is because the new school site will be larger than the existing site and students will also have to negotiate more stairwells. Once we have moved in and assessed how the building functions with 1,300 students using it, we will then be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not we will need to lengthen the school day to facilitate transition times. If we do need to change the school day, we would do so as soon as possible, and it could be as early as January 2024.
Demolition Phase
Once we have moved into the new school building the demolition of the old school buildings will begin. As a result, some restrictions will be in place around the school site for a significant part of this academic year. We will start to gain space back as the old buildings are demolished and the ground re-developed. Until March 2024 there will be no visitor parking on the school site. Please bear with us during this time.
Despite the logistical challenges, we are incredibly excited about the future of our school and the opportunities that lie ahead. At a time when some schools nationally are facing significant disruption as result of the RAAC concrete issue, we feel incredibly lucky as a school to be the beneficiary of a £24 million rebuild which will provide us with state-of-theart facilities to educate your child and future generations of Tyldesley children. Whilst we fully appreciate that there will be initially some disruption, in the long term your child will benefit significantly from this new building and the facilities that the school will gain. I’d like to thank-you for your continued support and for your understanding as we navigate the complexities of moving school.
Yours sincerely
Mr P Davies
Headteacher