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Dear Parents/Carers,
​
I hope everyone out there is keeping safe and adjusting to this new way of living and working. The glorious sunshine is tempting everyone outside but its important to heed the advice and stay home. Its a good day to cut the grass!

As you know, the school is now closed except for a small minority of identified pupils. Our staffing levels have to reflect this and as such, the school office is now closed to phone calls. If you need to contact anyone in school, please do so via email which will be checked daily. If you phone the school, you can leave a message which we will also endeavour to listen to daily however, email will be the best form of communication for the time being.

For the parents of children attending our childcare provision, you have been sent a seperate email with a contact number you can use to reach a member of staff in school.

Thank you everyone for your understanding with this and thank you to everyone who has sent the school messages of support. I will still send you a Friday email to say hello and update you with any further information that I may have been sent.

Take care of each other

Claire

Miss Claire Britnell
Executive Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers

I have to inform you that due to extremely low numbers (and sometimes none at all) we are no longer able to offer After School Club provision from Monday 30th March and the 'gateway' has been closed down to reflect this.

I am very sorry for the inconvenience this causes - we will reassess the situation in a couple of weeks time.

Best wishes
Claire

Please Click here to read the school letter regarding booking a key worker child place ONLY through the school gateway.

Here are the instructions on how to access the home learning portal.  NOTE: The school password for the portal has been removed from this online version as it is for access by the school community only.  Check your email for the version with the password.  Click here for instructions

Here are the instructions for next week for the care of key worker children.  Click Here

Dear parents/carers,
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The government published its list of key workers at midnight and the messages are clear: As a country, we all need to do what we can to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
That is why the government has given clear guidance on self-isolation, household isolation and social distancing. And the most recent scientific advice on how to further limit the spread of COVID-19 is clear:

It is imperative we all follow this advice:

1. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
2. If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
3. Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
4. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.

Therefore, it is expected that if one parent is at home who is not on this list, then children should stay at home.
Here is the list of specified workers:

Health and social care

This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and childcare

This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.

Key public services

This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
 
Local and national government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.

Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).

Public safety and national security

This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.

Transport

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.

Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.
If workers think they fall within the critical categories above they should confirm with their employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, their specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.
Vulnerable children

These children can also attend school if they cannot be looked after at home:
Children who are supported by social care, those with safeguarding and welfare needs, including child in need plans, on child protection plans, ‘looked after’ children, young carers, disabled children and those with education, health and care (EHC) plans.

After School Club

We are offering after school club care for children who will be attending school until 5pm on Monday and Tuesday at a rate of £9.50. A snack will be provided but not a full dinner.

What to do now

Thank you to those who phoned yesterday but now we have the full guidance, we kindly ask that you contact the school today by 12 noon where you will be asked a series of questions to ensure that you fulfil this criteria. It will be helpful to know which days you require and if you will need a place in our After School Club.
This is going to be an ever changing situation and our provision is going to depend on safe staffing levels – no one can predict who is going to become ill and organising this may become a challenge.

We will review our childcare offer at the end of Tuesday, due to the impact on staffing capacity and will communicate any change by close of play on Tuesday. That is why, if you can keep your children at home, please do so.
​
With best wishes
Claire


​PDF Version CLICK HERE

Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils
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Following on from my last update, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday until further notice.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs. We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories and whether this affects both or one parent and you would like to send them to school during this time:

• NHS worker
• Delivery driver of essential goods – food/key resources such as medical products etc. (Please specify this and the company you work for)
• Social Care
• Fire Service
• Police
• Children with an allocated social worker

Children with an EHC Plan will also be invited to continue to attend school during this period.

Please contact the school by telephone to inform us if your child falls into one of these categories and you intend to send them into school during this period by 3.30pm today at the latest.

We’ll be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this does apply to.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.

Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is as soon as we know.

What we’ll continue doing while your child is at home

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn. Separate information will follow regarding how you can support your child with learning at home.

If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we can continue to provide this, with support from a scheme that the government has just announced.

Information about whether or not breakfast and after school clubs will open, will also be sent out in due course.
This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with us as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

Remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.
Best wishes

Claire
Miss Claire Britnell
Executive Headteacher