Parents whose work is critical to the COVID-19 response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined below. 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.

 

Please, therefore, follow these key principles:

1. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
2. If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
3. Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
4. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.

 

If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision:

 

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.

If workers think they fall within the critical categories above they should confirm with their employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, their specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.

If your school is closed then please contact your local authority, who will seek to redirect you to a local school in your area that your child, or children, can attend.

We are grateful for the work of teachers and workers in educational settings for continuing to provide for the children of the other critical workers of our country. It is an essential part of our national effort to combat this disease.

Please visit the Letters to Parents page for the latest update.

If you think your child may be entitled to free school meals but have not yet registered please apply online through the Free School Meal Hub.

 

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

 

Please note this is not the same as Universal Free School Meals that infant pupils receive

Update letter available on our Letters to Parents page

A letter will be sent out today explaining how your child can access the online learning resources available. 

 

Please go to Letters to Parents to read the guidance for both schools.

17.03.2020

Dear Parents,

 

As you are aware the Government guidelines changed yesterday with the request that if anyone in your household is showing signs of the Coronavirus, then the whole household must self-isolate for 14 days. The symptoms are a new persistent cough and/or a temperature of 37.8 or above.

 

Alongside this there has been specific advice for adults with certain medical conditions which make them very vulnerable should they catch the virus, and those people have been asked to socially isolate themselves. This includes asthmatics and pregnant women.

 

As a result of this I have asked any vulnerable staff to stay at home as from tomorrow to protect themselves and others and so reduce the likelihood of them needing treatment and thus putting an extra strain on the NHS. This will result in some staff changes across both schools to enable us to remain open as directed by the government.

 

I am reviewing the situation daily and if need be will consider partial or full closure if the situation means I cannot staff the school safely.

 

We are also looking into providing food parcels to those people who may need them but I will let you know more about this when I have more details.

At the moment there are no staff showing any symptoms of the virus but we do have a number of families self-isolating as they are following the government guidance.

 

I will continue to keep you updated via the school website of any further developments or plans.

 

Best wishes

Mrs Sheila Pape

Please go to our Coronavirus Information and Advice page for up-to-date information from Public Health England, our Covid-19 school action plan and risk assessment.

 

 

We will be holding a non school uniform (sporting clothing) day on Friday and request that children donate 50p in support of Sport Relief charities.

 

The children will be running laps around the school field either by running/jogging or walking.

 

 

6 children are picked for this event.