Letter to Parents 20th March
20th March 2020
Dear Parents and Carers
Re: COVID-19 – school closures across England
As you may be aware already, the UK government has chosen to close schools in England from Monday 23rd March until further notice. The government has been very clear that “every child who can be safely cared for at home should be.” Schools will be open only to the following groups:
• Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan who cannot be safely cared for at home and are not displaying symptoms of Corona Virus
• Children who have an assigned social worker, a child protection plan, a child in need plan, disabled children, those who are ‘looked after’ and those who are young carers who cannot be safely cared for at home and are not displaying symptoms of Corona Virus
• Children of key workers who cannot be safely cared for at home and are not displaying symptoms of Corona Virus
In addition to the list above, if the Principal feels that this provision would be right for your child, you will be contacted to decide together what is best for them.
The official government definition of which roles are considered key workers was updated on 20th March 2020, and this definition appears overleaf. If you are a key worker and your child(ren) cannot be safely cared for at home and is not displaying symptoms of Corona Virus your child is welcome to attend school. Please request a school place by following this link and completing the short form. (Please note – if you have already contacted us by email, or spoken to a member of staff you do not need to do this again.)
If you are unable to follow the link, please send an email to [email protected]
In general terms, the government has requested that all UK citizens do the following:
1. Work and learn from home where possible
2. Practice social distancing, avoiding unnecessary social contact
3. Practice good hygiene, washing hands regularly and avoiding touching your face
4. Self-isolate the whole household for 14 days if you or a household member becomes ill with symptoms including a cough or a temperature
5. Self-isolate for a period of approximately 12 weeks if you are over 70, have an underlying health condition, or if you are pregnant.
Please do take note of these requests and adapt your daily routines accordingly, as this will help to delay the spread of the virus and will save lives.
In terms of your child’s education, these measures will have a significant impact. We recognise that you or your child may be feeling anxious about the impact of school closures for them. As a trust and as a school, we are working hard to ensure that as far as possible your child is able to continue to engage with learning in a different way, and your support in this is appreciated. If you have concerns or queries, you should contact the school by emailing [email protected]
Free School Meals
If your child currently receives a free school meal, we will still be providing a free school meal for them. This will be a hot meal, that you or your child will be able to collect from the green gate (next to the main staff car park). This will be available to collect between 12pm and 1pm each day.
We may need to contact you during the period of school closure. It is vital that we have up to date telephone numbers, addresses and email addresses for each of our students and their families. If you are in any doubt as to whether we have the correct information, please contact the Academy to update us. In the meantime, links to the school website and the Department of Education helpline are provided below. Thank you for your continued support of your child and of our school during this unusual time.
Yours faithfully,
Jon Angell
Principal, City Academy
The department for Education helpline to answer questions about COVID 19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:
– Phone 0800 046 8687
– Email [email protected]
– Opening hours 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)
The Academy website has a page dedicated to providing access to Public Health England advice, thisis updated daily. https://www.clf.uk/coronavirus-advice/
The guidance from the UK Government on which roles are key workers was updated on 20th March 2020:
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.
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 COVID19 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.
