A feeling of optimism & positivity in the air as we all are looking forward to returning to school

Re-opening the School for Monday 8^th March has involved three main planning areas - testing, assessments and quarantine.

I am very grateful to our SMT and Estates team for all their hard work behind the scenes to get everything ready. Despite the hours of work involved, there is a feeling of optimism and positivity in the air as we all are looking forward to returning to some form of normality.

The Memorial Hall has been turned into an Asymptomatic Testing Site, and this has also involved training staff to prepare for all returning pupils to be safely and efficiently tested three times before the 15^th March. Home-testing kits have been ordered, and delivered, so as to continue home self-swab testing over the coming weeks.

There is now increasing clarity about how the exam year groups will be assessed. This is to be welcomed and I am confident that, given the wonderful professionalism of all our academic Heads of Department, each pupil will be supported to achieve the final grades that they deserve.

Finally, I am very conscious that most of our overseas pupils will only be able to return to King’s for the start of the summer term, and this will still involve several days of testing and quarantine. Hybrid live and remote lessons will have to continue and we will ensure that all absent pupils are kept involved with school and House life.

I am very proud, again, of how the whole school community have coped with remote teaching and learning, and I am conscious of the pressure teenagers and families have been under during this lockdown. Our Housemistresses and Housemasters will continue to support all the girls and boys in their care, as we all come to terms with the exceptional challenges that we have had to face over the past 12 months.

It is, thankfully, now time to get back to school, time to hear teenagers laugh and chat to each other around the campus, and time to start getting safely back to normal.

Ian Wilmshurst - Headmaster

I am guessing that over the last 100 years, the Memorial Hall has never been used as a medical testing centre. To get us back to school safely, we have set ourselves up to test all the 350 returning pupils. The community has pulled together, and staff have volunteered to help test the pupils before our return to school.

After hours of training and a trial run with intrepid colleagues, we are now ready to welcome our first pupils this Friday. The Head Nurse, Jo Burgess, said ‘It all looks very professional and the swab test is very straightforward’.

Our trial run with 15 members of staff went smoothly with no positive results!

Alison Grant - Deputy Head