Dear Parents,

 

Firstly I hope you all have had an enjoyable Christmas and all your families have kept safe and well.

 

As reported in the media, the majority of primary children will remain at home and begin remote learning until Friday 8th January, with a return to school on Monday 11th January.

 

The staff will use Monday 4th January to prepare for the online learning, so there won’t be any level of childcare in the nursery or primary on Monday. All class work will be posted daily on Seesaw, from Tuesday 5th January. Therefore it is vital you check the app for the work your child needs to complete at home. The teachers will be available all day Tuesday to Friday to give support and advice.

 

The nursery will open for all children on Tuesday 5th January as normal. Any child who has a Statement of Educational Needs, Mrs Power and Mr Burke’s classes and the children who are in Little Seeds are also encouraged to attend school as normal on Tuesday. 

 

In terms of the primary, if any parent who is a key worker requires childcare, it is imperative that you ring the school office on Monday between 9a.m and 11 a.m to let us know, so that we can make arrangements for staff cover. (A list of those jobs classified as a key worker role is attached below)

 

There won’t be any breakfast club or after schools provision next week and children will finish at their normal home time. Dinners will be supplied as normal and those who take a packed lunch will need to bring one each day they attend. 

 

This is a situation we did not wish to see happen again, but as we all know the infection rate of this virus has taken hold in our communities and we all must play our role to try and stop cases impacting on our school family and that our children and staff can return safely to their classrooms. 

 

We look forward to seeing all our children on Monday 11th January and we appreciate your understanding during this challenging time. 

 

Kindest regards

 

Claire Robinson 

 

The definition of a key worker is as follows:

 

Definition of key workers:

 

• Health and Social Care.  This includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, home carers and staff required to maintain our health and social care sector;

• Education and childcare.  This includes pre-school and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who will remain active during the Covid-19 response;

• Public safety and national security.  This includes civilians and officers in the police (including key contractors), Fire and Rescue Service, prison service and other national security roles;

• Transport.  This will include those keeping air, water, road and rail transport modes operating during the Covid-19 response;

• Utilities, and Communication.  This includes staff needed for oil, gas, electricity and water (including sewage) and primary industry supplies to continue during the Covid-19 response, as well as key staff in telecommunications, post and delivery, banking and waste disposal;

• 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);

• Food and other necessary goods.  This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution and sale, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (e.g. hygiene, medical, etc.);

• Retail. This includes those workers who have been working throughout the pandemic in food retail, for example, and will now extend to those working in other retail businesses permitted to operate by the Executive  from June 2020;

• Other workers essential to delivering key public services such as the National Crime Agency; and

• Key national and local government including those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response.