Dear Parents,
I hope you have all had a safe and happy holiday. Last term was a challenging one for us all but we really appreciated all of your support.
As you know, we plan to open school on Monday 4th January. As a result of government announcements, we have been informed today that some teaching and support staff unions have advised that they do not feel it is safe for staff to return to school for the first two weeks of term due to a lack of scientific evidence around the new strain of the coronavirus, the fact that large parts of the county are in Tier 4 and that hospitals may be unable to cope as cases continue to rise, and also concerns about schools being able to staff and implement Government guidance around Health and Safety. These unions have instead advised that staff should teach remotely.
We are aware that a number of unions are currently liaising with the government around Health and Safety legislation. We are currently working hard to plan and prepare for re opening but this makes the situation difficult to plan for and pre-empt.
Currently we intend the children to attend school on Monday 4th January because we know how important it is for children to be in school; however, we are unable to guarantee that all staff will be in a position to return. We are not yet able to say what this will mean for a physical return to school for all children or for children whose teachers may be providing only remote learning. We can guarantee, however, that all children will be provided with work either at school or to complete at home.
I know how frustrating this will be for you all and that you need information in order to plan and prepare yourselves- I just don’t have it at the moment.
We understand that for working parents that this is very difficult. This situation is through no fault of the school or our staff team who are fully committed to the learning needs of our children. We will try and update you as best we can but would advise that parents may consider their own working circumstances. It would be helpful if parents could consider whether they would need children to receive their education in school due to their being no adult in the home as a result of work commitments. If this is the case, information from your employers would be useful and the sooner we can have this information, the better. I will send out information tomorrow about how to share this information with us. We will have to plan logistically for how to manage this learning supervision in school whilst also providing lessons for home.
Thank you for your understanding and I will be in touch as soon as I have more information.
Thank you Mrs Bradford
