A NUMBER of schools across Teesside and in North Yorkshire are to teach its pupils from home if the spread of coronavirus worsens in coming weeks.

Schools operated by the Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which runs primary and secondary schools, are said to be preparing for potential closures due to COVID-19.

In a letter sent to parents and carers of students at Outwood Academy Normanby in South Bank near Middlesbrough, the trust's contingency plans to continue to teach students were revealed.

In the letter, school principal Andrew Wappat, said: "As an entire trust of 32 schools, we have been through our emergency plans and developed contingencies should we have to close or partially close due to either government instruction or due to staff absence."

The letter continues to say that while the trust has "significantly" increased the cleaning of its schools, the trust was now preparing to provide work should schools have to close amidst the outbreak.

The letter continued: "We are now preparing to provide work for your children should we have to close the school for any length of time. We are well-prepared for this situtation."

The school said it had been developing its use of Google Drive, a cloud-based system where documents can be accessed remotely.

It said it would be working to use an "easy-to-use" tool that could help teachers manage work, replicate classes, distribute work, grade and provide feedback. 

The letter added: "We will use this system as the "one-stop-shop" for all work to be accessed. As we further prepare this resource and in the event of having to use it, we will send out more information."

The trusts' schools in the region

As of March 2020, the trust had nine sites across Teesside and North Yorkshire:

Outwood Primary Academy Greystone, Ripon

Outwood Academy Acklam, Middlesbrough

Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth, Stockton-on-Tees

Outwood Academy Bydales, Marske-by-the-Sea

Outwood Academy Easingwold, Easingwold

Outwood Academy Normanby, Middlesbrough

Outwood Academy Ormesby, Middlesbrough

Outwood Academy Redcar, Redcar

Outwood Academy Ripon, Ripon