Following on from my last update, we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday until further notice.

 

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 children with certain needs.

We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories and if you would wish them to be in school, via email by tomorrow 20^th March, please.  Please give us your child’s name and class and the reason why you believe your child will qualify. Once I have all of this information I will be in a better place to make suitable arrangements for the children across all four of my schools, for example, if the demand is low then it might be that we could have one school open rather than all four to enable us to have more staff to meet need.  However, this is only a thought at the moment and no decision will be made without consultation with the CEO and chairs of governors. We’ll be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this will apply to.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.

 

Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is by our school communication service and updating the school website.

 

What we’ll continue doing while your child is at home

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn.

• Children have taken a blank exercise book home already, and we will be sending home a pencil case with other school supplies tomorrow.
• We will have already sent home extra reading books, and children will bring additional books tomorrow to supplement this.
• There will be activities, work suggestions and learning tasks on a timetable which will be added to the school website, these will be updated regularly by your child’s class teacher.
• There are a wealth of online resources that education companies are making available to parents free of charge.  We will collate a list of these and add to it regularly. You will receive the initial list tomorrow and it will also be on the school website.
• The school office will be manned as much as possible but we would prefer you to get in touch with us via emailing the school office or Dojo. Staff will be available during the normal school working hours to respond to any communication you send to us, although please don’t expect an immediate response as the volume of email correspondence may increase.

 

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.

 

This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please don’t hesitate to do so via our normal phone number 01572 787658, by emailing the office on office@st-peters-wymondham.leics.sch.uk.

And remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

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

Yours sincerely,

Mrs J V Hopkins
Executive Head teacher