I thought I would take this opportunity to write to you all, ahead of tomorrow’s usual newsletter.
Over the last few weeks, our school community has been responding to the challenge presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s now five weeks since the government closed all schools across the country until further notice. During this time you have all done an incredible job supporting your children in their learning and have continued to work with us.
We also recognise that your families will be challenged by lockdown in different ways. Many of you will have loved ones that you are concerned about, as well as the difficulty of getting to work and shopping for food and other essentials. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you who are struggling at this time. Again, please let us know if we can help.
Thank you for your feedback and for bearing with us as we find our way through this unprecedented challenge. As many of you are aware, we only hear government announcements at the same time as the general public. We’ve been working very hard to respond as quickly as possible to new developments, such as holiday opening and free school meal vouchers. Inevitably, it takes time to implement any new requirements, especially when we are dependent on national schemes to deliver government initiatives.
At the moment, it's only safe to have a handful of staff and children in school each day. The time will come when it is appropriate to increase that number, and that will of course be a national decision. Our task is to make sure we are ready when the time comes. At the moment, we don’t know the timing of re-opening. It may be that re-opening will be phased for different year groups, or that children only attend part-time on a rota. As some students and staff will still need to self-isolate for longer, it’s possible that the disruption to normal routines will continue into the autumn term.
There are so many scenarios that we can’t realistically plan for them all. But we can anticipate the need to be flexible, and to quickly adapt to changing circumstances. We can’t predict the future, but we will continue to work with you to make the best decisions possible to support our children when they learn at home and when they start returning to school.
Thank you for your continued support.
Yours sincerely
Matt Condon
Headteacher
