AVS Newsletter January newsletter

AVON VALLEY SCHOOL January Issue MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD TEACHER Dear Parents and Carers, It is with great sorrow that I find myself writing to you about the tragic loss of one of our colleagues. As you already know, Clive Moore was found dead early on Tuesday morning by a member of staff. It is a desperately sad situation. You will already have heard much about this on social media, by word of mouth and on the news. You have probably already realised that you are hearing many different versions of the story. We have in our school community several members of Clive’s close and extended family and so I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that speculation is destructive to the people most concerned and that Clive’s family and close colleagues need our respect and compassion at this time. As you can imagine the close colleagues who found Clive are deeply distressed and along with the family need our support. Across the school staff and students have been affected in different ways but as I said to the school on Wednesday morning, the most important thing for the school is that we support each other and share this pain. Talking about how we feel is an important part of the healing process and we have had several counsellors in school this week who have spent time with staff and students that have felt overwhelmed by their distress. A sudden death can bring up emotions from the past and there will be those amongst the school community that may not have known Clive well, but may still be deeply affected by what has happened. We are here to support all our students and staff and will do all that we can to help to manage this sad situation over the days ahead. The Avon Valley School has always been a special place to be – because our students, staff and wider community, including you our parents and carers, make it so. Once again I ask that we come together to do the best that we can for our students and our community. We need to be there to support each other. It is at times like these we realise how sometimes we let smaller issues get in the way when actually what we need to do is support each other through difficult times. This is an incredibly sad situation, but if it makes us all value each other more, and be a little kinder to each other, then there is a glimmer of light within it. Yours sincerely Alison Davies Headteacher Don’t forget to follow @AvonValleySch on Twitter and AvonValleySchool on Facebook for up-to-date information and news