Important information on closure

Following the government’s announcement this evening that all English schools are to close from Friday 20th March onwards, Ipswich Academy will be closed to students from Monday 23rd March onwards.  

Arrangements are being made to provide free school meals to those students who are eligible, and to open for students who are vulnerable and students of key workers, as defined by government. We will communicate these arrangements as soon as we can.

I will provide you with further information as soon as I can.

Due to staff absences, I am sorry to inform you that from tomorrow, 19th March, the school will be closed to some pupils.

Pupils in years 7 and 11 must attend school as normal, unless they are unwell or self-isolating, in line with government guidance. Normal lunch arrangements will apply.

Pupils in years 8, 9 and 10 should not attend school. If your child is entitled to a free school meal, please contact reception or email info@ipswichacademy.org.uk to let us know whether you wish to collect a packed lunch. We will confirm arrangements for this with you.

If, however, you have a child in years 8 to 10, you need to go to work and you have no alternative, suitable childcare, please do send your child into school, as normal unless they are showing symptoms or are self-isolating. For those children, we will provide childcare – we will keep them safe and entertained and will provide as many learning opportunities as possible. Normal lunch arrangements will apply for those children. If you know you will be sending your child in because you have no alternative, suitable childcare and need to go to work, we would really appreciate it if you would please contact reception or email us to let us know in advance – so that we can make plans.

For children in years 8 to 10 who are not in school, their absence will be ‘authorised’ by the school – we will not take any enforcement action (i.e. fines or court proceedings) in relation to the days when the school is closed to those pupils.

We will be releasing some online work in the next couple of days for students so that they can work from home.  In the meantime, they should work on their knowledge organisers. We have hard copies of knowledge organisers which students can pick up from school or they can be accessed from the school website.

We are in the process of confirming arrangements to provide support to families whose children are eligible for free school meals, in the event of a prolonged closure – we will confirm these plans as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your support in these challenging times.

Yours faithfully,

Helen Winn
Principal