March 17, 2020

17^th March 2020

Dear Parents and Carer

IMPORTANT INFORMATION CORONA VIRUS

I am writing with updates to the situation in school with Corona Virus and the way we will manage the children’s learning going forward.

The current advice is for anyone with a temperature (hot chest or back +37.8 degrees) and/or  a persistent cough to remain away from school for 7 days. Members of their family should then self-isolate for 14 days. This guidance is changing all the time and it is important to stay updated through the government website.

The school will remain open currently until instructed otherwise by the government/Public Health England  or if we are unable to keep the children safe through staff  shortage. In the latter case it is always at the Head teacher’s discretion. We will advise you by text and email if this is the case. Staff at the school who have underlying illness have been advised to stay at  home so we are already understaffed. This means that clubs and extra curricular activities will not take place after this week.

If you choose to withdraw your children, it is expected that they will be at home until this situation is resolved.  Unfortunately, we cannot plan for children coming in and out of school. It does look likely that all schools will be closed at some point but what this looks like, for how long  and when remains to be seen.

When the school closes, staff will issue work weekly. You will receive an email on how this will happen. We will give each child an exercise book to record their learning. Please note that staff are unable to produce work if you have already chosen to withdraw your child as this will increase their workload.

The school office will NOT be attended as of tomorrow. Issues with hot school meals should be referred directly to Thornford. If you decide to cancel your hot meals for April and May, you need to do it before midnight tomorrow 18^th March. It may be that if Thornford cannot provide meals, we may be asking parents to provide packed lunches. We will look to support those children on free school meals if possible (NOT KS1 meals- only those on pupil premium).

Clubs will be cancelled as of next week.  

Can I thank everybody for their support. We are in this together and rely on your continued cooperation and understanding  to help us all stay safe and well. We realise that this is a very unsettling time for all of us and we will try to help as much as we can. However, the government guidance is very clear.

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

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Take care of each other and very best wishes.

Emma Grunnill

Headteacher