Dear Parents & Carers

I am sure that you caught the broadcast from the Prime Minister which helps gives some clarity, but gives little time to prepare.

Please assume that school is now closed until further notice and we will be switching to on-line learning from Wednesday fully, with some materials available from Tuesday.

School will be open only to critical key workers and children with EHCPs, and the mechanics of the school day will remain the same (times/entrances). Children will remain within their year group bubbles, but may not be with their regular class teacher as staff will be required to support the on-line learning during the school day. Once we switch to on-line learning there will be an expectation that pupils engage with the work set.

We will re-issue the critical worker paperwork that we used last March, (parents/carers of children in years 4, 5 and 6 know whether they were able to access school places) but as circumstances may have changed, we will re-issue the forms and also to year 3 who are a new cohort to us. Given the extreme pressure on the NHS at this moment, we would ask you to consider carefully whether you genuinely need a place in school, as the more children we have in the building, the more potential there is for bubble closures should any cases emerge within school. This would then potentially create an even greater pressure on front line NHS workers. Whilst the severity of the new variant is not thought to be any worse, it is the rapid transmission which has triggered this lockdown.

For Tuesday 5^th January there is no need to advise school of non-attendance, as we hope that the vast majority of pupils will now revert to home learning status –we will mark pupils as though school is closed.

We will communicate further with you regarding other details which have not yet been finalised nationally or locally.