STUDENTS across York have been dealt another blow as school leavers' proms become another casualty of the Covid restrictions.

Almost all secondary schools in the city have cancelled their end-of-year parties following the Government's decision to delay the easing of restrictions and concerns about increasing transmission rates of the Covid-19 virus.

The change to the roadmap has also forced head teachers to amend or cancel many other events - notably, all secondaries have abandoned the traditional face-to-face transition days for Year 6 pupils.

Proms have become a rite of passage, with many schools holding them for Year 11 leavers and Year 13.

The news, which has been confirmed by many head teachers, comes after an unsettling time for students who have spent months at home through the lockdowns with further spells of home schooling during periods of self-isolation.

All Saints RC School in York wrote on their website: "We are sorry to announce that we are not able to proceed with our school proms or our whole school trips to Lightwater Valley, Flamingo Land and Scarborough; we have also had to change our transition events for Year 6 and Year 11 to virtual offers. We are seeing if sports day can be modified to suit."

In a message to parents, Archbishop Holgate School's head teacher Andrew Daly said: "The ongoing impact of the pandemic has meant that despite our very best efforts to keep moving dates backwards, the Y11 and Y13 Proms (like most across the country) have now had to be cancelled.

"Unfortunately for schools, whilst the restrictions lift in society in a further four weeks’ time, they remain in place for all schools until the end of term.

"We explored numerous alternative avenues before reaching this impossible decision."

He added that due to social distancing and ‘bubble’ restrictions, they were also unable to offer their planned induction package for Year 6 pupils preparing to join ABH from September.

"This is a unanimous decision across all the secondary schools in York and no other school will be offering a July transition day.

"The safety of all our students, families and staff is of utmost importance to us."

At Tang Hall Primary, the delay to the roadmap means the school sports days, Year 6 summer production and leavers assembly will still go ahead - but families will not be able to join in.

The school is making plans to record the events to share them virtually.

Joseph Rowntree School had been due to hold their face to face year 6 transition day on Wednesday, July 7, but said on their website: "We have a large catchment of 24 schools, so to maintain social bubbles within this group would not be possible with the current layout we have in school for our students.

"We also do not want to put into jeopardy any of the activities or events that our partner primary schools will have in place to celebrate the end of KS2 for these students.

"While we know students and parents / carers may be disappointed by the news, we will be holding the day virtually on our website."

Huntington School had rearranged their Year 11 and 13 proms for July 19 and 21, but head teacher John Tomsett wrote to parents on Friday, June 18, warning that they may not go ahead.

"We are desperately keen to hold the proms as we know so many students have been looking forward to them…but we may have been a bit rash in our enthusiasm to rearrange them on the new dates.

"The thing is, we face a serious problem: we may not have enough members of staff to supervise the events.

"The issue facing us is that since there will be no social distancing at the proms, if just one person goes on to contract Covid-19, everyone at the prom will have to self-isolate at home for 10 days, including staff.

"There are three implications:

  • We could lose a number of staff for the remaining days of term;
  • All students will have to self-isolate and that means that any family holidays that have been planned for the following week will have to be cancelled;
  • Some staff have also booked summer holidays, which would have to be cancelled because they would have to be at home self-isolating.

"On a very personal level, I certainly cannot attend the proms as it could mean I spend the last few days of my career at home self-isolating."

He added: "My advice is not to spend any more money on preparations for the proms at the moment.

"York High is the only other school in York planning a prom: all other schools have cancelled theirs.

"I am sorry to say that the odds of the proms taking place is no better than 50:50 at the moment."

He said they would decide this week after completing a full risk assessment.