No News ...

An update from Principal Sami Cohen

Swine flu' is clearly a case of no news is good news, and I am glad to say that I have nothing of substance to add today to what we have said in recent days.

Of course we continue to follow very closely the latest guidance as it emerges from public health authorities, both locally and nationally, from the Independent Schools Council and from the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families). We all know from the press that there have been a few more confirmed cases of swine flu’ in the last few days, and that a few schools, mainly in the London area, have had to close. We also know, where people in this country have contracted the disease, the symptoms have so far been relatively mild.

This is all good news – but of course a flu’ pandemic can gather pace very quickly and so, while remaining calm and carrying on with business as usual, we have to be prepared and to have procedures in place that we can activate – and communicate – quickly should things take a sudden turn for the worse.

For this reason, we urge you to keep looking at these pages on our website. We will use them to communicate information, updates and instructions to parents, staff and students if there should there be any significant developments at any point.

In the meantime, you will almost certainly have gathered from the press that the government is working with the examination boards to formulate contingency plans to deal with a situation where a school had to close either during or in the immediate run-up to GCSE, AS and A level examinations.

In essence, the intention is that students who are unable to sit public examinations due to swine flu’ (either because they are personally affected or because their school has had to close) will be entitled to ‘special consideration’. This allows an awarding body to award a grade to a candidate who is unable to sit an examination for a bona fide reason, provided that there is sufficient evidence to make a reasonable judgement. Such evidence may come from marks awarded for coursework or for units taken in previous sittings.

This, incidentally, is no different from what would happen normally where a student is prevented from sitting one or more public examinations by an illness or an accident.

– Sami Cohen