COVID-19
20 March 2020
Dear Parent
As you all know the government announced on Wednesday evening that all schools will be closed as from today until further notice. The purpose of the closure is to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and limit the number of fatalities. The government recognises that there are a number of key frontline workers who are essential in ensuring the safety of our citizens. Therefore, schools have been asked to stay open to these professionals to allow them to fulfil essential roles.
As a school, we are keen to support our key workers and have agreed to stay open over the Easter holidays to families who have no alternative care and are required to continue working. We understand that for those parents who do not fit the criteria of key worker, this is a very stressful and anxious time. However, please understand that we are unable to make any exceptions, despite the difficulties that we know many parents will face, and I sincerely apologise for this.
We must stress the importance of limiting the number of children that attend school and any child that can possibly stay at home, must do so.
In order for your child to attend school you must fit the following criteria:
- You must fit in to the category of Key Worker in one of the roles listed below
- If there are any other adults in the home that are not in full time employment, your child will not be able to attend school
- If you are a single parent, but do not fit in to the category of key work, we are sadly unable to allow your child to attend school
From Monday 24th March, we will not be able to offer early breakfast or after school provision, so all children must be collected at 3.15pm unless they have permission to walk home (KS2 children only). From Monday, the school will open to eligible children from 8.30am and breakfast will be provided. Provision will be made for children on free school meals who are unable to attend school, but we are still waiting to receive information on how this will be done. We will inform you as soon as we hear anything.
We understand that many parents will only want to bring their children to school on days they are actually at work. This is fine as long as we have the days they will be attending at least a week in advance to organise staffing. As you will appreciate, the majority of our staff have young families and face the same issues with child care and vulnerable family members, therefore, we need to ensure we are also supporting them to fulfil their roles as key workers whilst allowing them to take care of their families.
Work packs have been prepared for all children who are unable to come to school from Nursery to year 6 and can be collected from the main office.
The school will be open to all parents who require any advice or support in the coming weeks and we will keep lines of communication open with regular updates. Please be assured that we are keen to get all our children back as soon as we possibly can and sincerely apologise for the stress and pressure that this will cause many of our families.
Warmest regards
Key Worker List
Health and Social care
Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Paramedics, Social Workers, Care Workers and Frontline staff, medicine dispenses
Education and Childcare
Nursery and Teaching Staff, Teaching Assistants, Caretakers, school admin staff and specialist educational professionals
Local and national Government
Only those essential administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of COVID-19 response
Essential Public service works including payment of benefits and government agencies
Public Safety and National Security
Police and support staff, Armed forces personnel, Fire and Rescue service employees, National crime agency staff, Border control, Prison staff, Probation staff, national security
Transport
Water, road and rail passenger, freight transport workers
Utilities, Communication and Financial Services
Bank, building society and financial market infrastructure. Oil, gas, electricity and water service workers. Waste disposal (Council Refuse Workers) Civil Nuclear and chemical plant workers (essential plant workers only). Network operations and telecommunications (field engineers, communication call centre staff, 999 and 111) IT and Data infrastructure linked to the communication network. Postal service and delivery
Key Public Services
Undertakers, Journalists, Broadcasters, Justice System, Religious leaders, Frontline charity workers (Red Cross, Salvation Army, Samaritans etc.)
Food and Necessary goods
Food production, processing, distribution, sales and delivery. Also, those responsible for provision of other essential goods (hygiene products and veterinary medicines)
