Chesterfield school cancels Christmas events as Covid-19 cases continue to rise

Tupton Hall School announced it had taken the ‘difficult decision’ on Tuesday evening (December 14) to cancel all events scheduled to take place outside of normal school hours leading up to the Christmas break.

It means that parents will no longer be able to attend the Christmas concert, which is due to take place on Wednesday, December 15.

Instead it will be recorded and shared with families of students involved, while the A-Level prize giving event on Tuesday, December 21, has been cancelled altogether and will be rearranged for a later date.

Posting on Twitter, Tupton Hall School said: “The school has made the difficult decision to cancel all events scheduled to take place outside of normal school hours leading up to the Christmas break. Cancelled events can be found on the accompanying image.

“Thank you for your continued support and understanding.”

The accompanying statement, titled ‘important Covid-19 update’, read: “Christmas concert scheduled to take place Wednesday evening on the 15th December will no longer be taking place in its planned format.

"The concert will now be presented to an audience in school, recorded and shared appropriately with those families of students involved. Parents who bought tickets via Paypal will be refunded and those who made cash payments should contact Mrs Priest to organise their refund.

"A-Level prize giving event scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening on the 21st of December will be rearranged and students will be contacted as soon as possible to advise of the new date for this event.”

The announcement comes just days after Boris Johnson told a press conference that, despite the introduction of new restrictions in England to help control the spread of the Omicron variant, the Government was not suggesting children should be taken out of school ahead of the holidays, or plays cancelled.

Giving his view on festive parties and school plays, he said: “They should follow the guidance, of course, but we are not saying we want kids to be taken out of school before the end of term – not that there is very long to go now – and we don’t want nativity plays to be cancelled.”

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