Coronavirus: Worthing headteacher urges parents to support their schools after closure announcement

Yesterday (March 18), Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a press conference that all schools in England would be closing 'until further notice' at the end of Friday.

But he added that children of emergency service workers and other key workers, such as police officers, supermarket staff and delivery drivers, and vulnerable pupils would continue to go into school.

Further details on the closures, including what professions qualify as key workers, is expected to be announced today.

Reacting to the news, Pan Panayiotou, headteacher at Worthing High School, said: "We are doing the very best we can to make sure that all our students have adequate provision in these testing times."

He added: "Headteachers understood it was going to happen at some point, but I appreciate that the Government has taken the decision to do it sooner rather than later. If we had more notice I think we would have been able to communicate it better to our students, parents and staff."

The announcement yesterday has led to some confusion about how the planned closures will work in practice.

Pan said his current understanding was that each school 'would would work with other schools as and when required'.

He also said all his teachers would continue to come into school to teach the remaining students, unless they had to self-isolate.

He said: "We will make sure we stay open as long as we can, allowing for staffing."

The headteacher said surveys had been sent out to parents and he expected those to be returned by the end of today, which would give a clearer idea of parents' professions and circumstances, and therefore how many students would have to carry on going to school.

He anticipated that the school would continue to support students who had free school meals.

As part of the closures, GCSE and A-Level exams have been cancelled. Pan said he expected Year 11 students to be given grades based on their predicted grades and mock exam results.

Worthing High's Year 11 prom had also been postponed - but he made the assurance that it would go ahead at a later date.

He said: "That is their right of passage and we want to celebrate it. We will not forget them."

With a daughter in Year 11 himself, Pan said he understood parent's concerns and was trying to make sure his own daughter did not become 'deflated' by the latest developments.

He had this message to all parents: "We are trying to facilitate remote learning as much as possible and we are communicating the variety of different platforms there are.

"I would ask parents to be making sure that their child is following their normal timetable that they would have in school as much as possible and that they do the work that is set, and also: to make sure they read.

"All our students are going home with a book out of the library and they will be encouraged to read for an hour a day.

"I ask parents to support our schools and be understanding of the challenges that we are all facing."