I stress that it is the building which we have lost, not the school. As Tim Young said, it is the people – children, parents, staff, governors – who are the school and we can give thanks that no-one was hurt in the blaze.

We have also had fantastic support from county council staff and from our partner schools in the town and villages and I should like to thank them too as well as the firefighters and police officers who were on hand at the time of the fire.

A recovery plan has already been outlined and every day more detail is being added to it.

Letters will be going out to all our children and to their parents this week, and we will keep everybody as well informed as we can. Staff came back from holiday for a staff meeting last Friday and have begun to revise their plans for the start of the new year.

We expect to open with only a short delay on Monday September 8, initially in classrooms made available to us in our partner schools. But as soon as possible we aim to gather the whole St Felix family together in good quality temporary accommodation on the St Felix site.

We achieved our best ever SATs results in 2008. There will be no let up in our drive to give our young people the best education we can.

With your continued support we will succeed.

Thank you all once again.

Tony Bavington

Headteacher