Coronavirus Update – IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Dear Parents/Carers,

Coronavirus Update – IMPORTANT INFORMATION – please read

Many of you will probably have seen or heard the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday evening on the country’s approach to managing the coronavirus. A transcript of his speech can be found from the link at the bottom of this e-mail. The main points were:

1. To stay at home for 14 days if you, or anyone in your household, has one of the following key symptoms: a high temperature or a new and continuous cough. If anyone in your household has symptoms of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), then you are advised to stay at home and keep your child at home as well.

2. For everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel

If you are in any doubt as to whether to send your son/daughter into school, please call the Department for Education Coronavirus Helpline for advice on 0800 046 8687.

At this time, we have not been advised to close the school. However, the points above regarding attendance apply to staff too and are therefore likely to have an impact. We will be assessing, on a daily basis, that we have sufficient numbers to safely staff the school.

Therefore, we may need to implement partial closures if staffing is reduced.

We will endeavour to publish any partial closures on our website and through text the evening before but it may need to take action early in the morning when our staff attendance is established in which case we will make a decision and publicise the information by 7.30am.

We have also taken the decision to take some immediate actions in response to two of the points mentioned in his speech which we are asking for your support with:

1. Any planned school trips will be cancelled or postponed;
2. We will cancel assemblies for the foreseeable future
3. We have built in hand washing time to the school day; before school, before break and lunch times and at the end of the school day;
4. We have also taken the decision to try to reduce the number of non-essential adults and visitors in school;
5. We have enhanced our cleaning procedures and made anti-bacterial handwash available throughout the site; we ask that you also reinforce the importance of hand hygiene with your child throughout this time.

Please be aware that this is a rapidly changing situation and that whilst the information is accurate at the time of writing we would recommend that parents continue to monitor the situation for themselves by checking the relevant pages of the www.gov.uk website or by signing up to government email alerts for any updates and changes:

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

These are challenging times for everyone but I am confident that, as a community, we will continue to do what we can to support one another.

Kind regards,

Ms S. Kazmi

Link to the PMs statement on coronavirus: 16 March 2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-16-march-2020?utm_source=6ad7212f-5741-4a52-a3d5-d82b205c9aad&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate