19^th March 2020

  

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

Re: Coronavirus update

 

Following on from my last update, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed by the Government to close the school to the majority of children after this Friday until further notice, children who don’t fall into the category will need to stay at home from Monday onwards. Please note that this is a national closure, so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We will re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is by Parentmail and the school websites.

 

Key workers and children with certain needs

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 for children with certain needs. The Government will be issuing further details of who falls into the key worker category and children with certain needs category. We will share this information with you once received and arrangements for attending school.

 

Learning

Your child’s learning is important to us, so during the closure please access the home learning section of the website where you will find age appropriate learning, ideas and resource activities.  Pupils attending school will be accessing the online area of the school websites and undertaking the same activities as those available to all children.

 

Safeguarding

During this period, please be mindful of Safeguarding implications regarding your children and other people’s children.  Be vigilant around people offering childcare, teaching services online or face to face. Also, be mindful of on line safety whilst your child is using IT. If you have any Safeguarding concerns relating to children whilst the school is closed, please contact the school services team at the Local Authority on 020 8303 7777.It is everyone’s responsibility.

 

Communication

As you can appreciate, this is a very busy time for the school office; we are receiving a high number of telephone calls and face-to-face enquiries.  Please be patient, further updates will be shared with you as soon as we receive them.  For the foreseeable future, telephone calls will not be answered, but messages will be picked up twice a day to be dealt with and followed up as appropriate. Where possible enquiries should be via email to the school.

 

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

 

We appreciate the closure will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from an ideal scenario, but we’ll keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

  

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

  

 

Yours sincerely

 

Mr A. Hogarth

Executive Head Teacher