A Letter from the Headmaster

30th March, 2020
THE CRYPT SCHOOL

Dear Old Cryptians,
As you all may know, the School was closed on Friday, 23rd March due to the coronavirus epidemic and the need to limit each person’s social contact with others.

In the run up to the closure, the School had undertaken a significant amount of preparatory work to prepare for such an  eventuality, which was frankly looking increasing likely as the days wore on. Therefore, when the order to close came, we were quickly able to implement our plans to move to remote teaching and learning.

That move appears to have gone well, with students being asked to follow, as far as they can, a normal school day, albeit remotely from their own homes.

We have received tremendous support from our parents and students during this period and our teachers and support staff have been wonderful: they have individually and collectively risen to the challenge of working at home, continuing the education of the students and planning for the reopening of the School, whenever that occurs.
However, the School does remain open to the children of key workers, and to our most vulnerable students, and I am again grateful to my staff for volunteering to come into school to look after them and to keep the School functioning during this time.

At our last assembly, on Friday, 23rd March, The Crypt School came together in the Main Hall to remind ourselves of the values that inform and shape our school community, its ethos and culture and which will help guide our young people over the coming weeks and months. It was a very moving occasion, in which we proudly sang our School Song, listened to the Head Boy and Girl reflect on what their school means to them and then wished the leavers in Year 11, and the whole Year 13, our very best wishes for their future adult lives.

I am sure all OCs would have been immensely proud of their school had they been with us on that last Friday, and in the manner in which the School has risen to the challenge of this moment in time. The current generation of Cryptians and staff continue that great legacy of responsibility and resilience in the face of adversity that has always defined Cryptians over the generations: I could not be a more proud Headmaster than I have been over the last few weeks.

We know that the School will, with its deep sense of history and the fact that it has always weathered the storms it has faced in its long and illustrious past, be both renewed and strengthened by the manner in which it has responded to this crisis and will be able to look to its future with great confidence.

My thoughts extend out to our OC community at this time and I wish you all my very best wishes; keep safe and I look forward to seeing you, if not at Founders’ Day in the summer, then at one of our future School and OC events.

Yours sincerely,

Nicholas Dyer

Headmaster

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