11th September 2015
Dear Parents,
Red Hill will be travelling to France on September 28th with a group of Year 6 children and the children’s safety and welfare is our primary concern.We will be using the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle service between Folkestone and Calais. This is the train service for vehicles, coaches and cars to get to France using the tunnel. You will have seen extensive media coverage on the difficulties being experienced at the channeltunnel during the Summer holiday and at the beginning of term. The French authorities are constantly updating their security measures at the tunnel and will do so again following the recent breaches.
We have contacted ‘Manor Adventures’ who operate the activity centre ‘Chateau Du Broutel’in France and they are keeping us updated on any potential issueswe may encounteron our journey.
Some of the steps we have already planned for on our return journey to the UK are that,the children will board the coach at the Chateau and the coach will travel non-stop until we arrive at the Terminal in Calais.If we are delayed boarding the train the coaches have DVD facilities to entertain the children, we will carry additional water and snacks for the children to eat and the coaches have toilet facilities. If the Tunnel is temporarily closed to traffic at Calais and we miss our departure, the Chateau and the coach company will work with us to make new travel arrangements.
We have also contacted the Local Authority and they are aware of our travel plans to France. We enquired about any further guidance or recommendations that we would need to follow because we intend to use the Eurotunnel. There are currently no additional recommendations from the Local authority for school parties using the Tunnel other than to continue to monitor the situation and to keep in touch with our coach company and the Chateau. We have made adjustments to our risk assessment to take in to account a possible disruption to our return journey.We will keep you well informed whilst Y6 are away through the school Twitter feed and the school website.
Please feel free to ring the school if you have any further questions.
Yours sincerely,
Miss Butcher
Headteacher