Coronavirus COVID-19
School will remain open for children of key workers as well as children with particular educational needs. These parents will have had communication from the school office to inform them of the child care arrangements. Note - no parent or carer should bring a child into school without prior authorisation. We will continue to support you for as long as it is possible, however to give us the best chance of being able to sustain this please read the following;
ONLY SEND YOUR CHILD IN IF IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!
IF YOU CAN PROVIDE CHILDCARE THEN YOUR CHILD SHOULD NOT BE IN SCHOOL.
THE SAFEST PLACE FOR YOUR CHILD IS AT HOME.
THIS IS TO KEEP NUMBERS OF CHILDREN DOWN TO CONTINUE TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF THE VIRUS.
PRIMARILY THIS IS A SERVICE FOR KEY WORKERS IN ESSENTIAL ROLES (see the official list at bottom of this page).
The most recent government guidance states that:
“‘The government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and asked schools to remain open only for those children who absolutely need to attend. But the fewer children making the journey to school, and the fewer children in educational settings, the lower the risk that the virus can spread and infect vulnerable individuals in wider society. Schools are, therefore, being asked to continue to provide care for a limited number of children - children who are vulnerable and children whose parents are critical to the Covid-19 response and cannot be safely cared for at home.
Vulnerable children include 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. Many parents working in these sectors may be able to ensure their child is kept at home. And every child who can be safely cared for at home should be.’”
For those attending, please note our advice is that those with either a new, continuous cough or high temperature should self isolate for 14 days. If your child is showing either of these symptoms, please keep them at home and contact the school office with the reason for absence.
Latest Update - 28.03.20
Our school continues to remain open for a very small numbers of pupils to ensure they are happily occupied, safe and well fed. You will have been informed if your child is eligible for a place but government advice continues to strongly advocate children staying at home if it is possible and safe to do so. Our school staff will be checking in with some of our families to support them during this difficult time and those coming out of isolation will receive communications if they are eligible for childcare over the coming weeks.
Please be assured our school and local authority continue to monitor the changing situation with regard to Coronavirus COVID-19.
Updates and further information
For updates and further information please check the Public Health England (PHE) website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public
Department for Education Coronavirus helpline - this helpline has been set up to answer questions about the virus related to education.
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)
SEND Support During the COVID-19 Crisis- Minister Ford's Open Letter
Home Learning Support
We have sent details our regarding home-learning during school closure. They currently consist of:
Topic work as outlined on the topic sheets – these have been sent home already.
Tasks will be placed on the class blogs – located on individual class pages on our website. Parents are advised that these should be checked daily;
Daily reading;
Daily access to Times Table Rockstars;
Year Six also have folders of practice test papers;
There are a number of websites that are offering free access to resources for learning at home and will be signposting to them on our class blogs; and finally
We are investigating online learning platforms that can be used in the event of a prolonged closure and are trialling this with a small group and class this week. We will of course give parents more information once we have confirmed details.
We, as a school, understand that every home is different and that children will be accessing the work in different ways and at different times to their peers. We understand that this can put pressure on families. Again, we would like to reiterate that as a school we would be happy knowing a child has made a reasonable attempt at a task and appreciate that support a parent may be able to give is limited.
The Official list of critical key workers published is:
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 distributers 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.
In the event, that we do not have the number of staff to run the facility due to self-isolating or illness then we may need to limit the places we offer or work with the LA on combining schools.