Parent Update - 3rd January 2021
3rd January 2021
Dear Parent / Carer,
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and blessed year ahead.
Further to the messages previously sent I would like to update you with the following information regarding our school’s partial closure.
As you know Monday and Tuesday are INSET days, so school is closed to all children on these days.
In line with DfE advice, issued on Wednesday 30th December 2020, St Luke’s Primary School will be closed to all children from Tuesday 5th January except children of critical workers and those that are invited to attend. Please see appendix 1 for the DfE criteria for critical workers. If you are a critical worker and there is no one else who can look after your child/ren, please call the school office on Monday from 8.45 to 12:30 to speak with a member of the Admin or Senior Leadership Team about your role and to have your worker status ID verified.
I acknowledge that this response may not meet the needs or expectations of all of our families, but I hope that you can all appreciate that we have been placed in an extremely challenging position with just two days’ notice.
Online learning will start for all children on Wednesday morning. If you have questions or need help with Google Classroom and home learning, please email admin@st-lukes-primary.lambeth.sch.uk
If you have questions or need help with a child who has special needs or if you think your child needs additional academic or emotional support, please email admin@st-lukes-primary.lambeth.sch.uk
It is expected by the DfE that all children must continue to access their education during this period of lockdown and schools are also expected to monitor that this is happening. The teachers and the Senior Leadership Team will be registering the attendance of all children at 8.50am each morning and monitoring that the work is being done. Your children and staff worked so hard last term catching up on missed learning during the previous lock down, we really do not want them to fall behind again. Any lessons requiring teacher demonstration will be pre-recorded so that they may be accessed at any time by children and parents. Having received feedback from the first lockdown, there will be an opportunity for your child to interact with their teacher on Google Classroom when completing the work.
Our year group teams are currently planning their remote learning timetables, and full
details of these will be sent to you by Tuesday 5th January. As the aim of closing school buildings to children is to reduce transmission of Covid 19, if there is an adult at home who is able to provide childcare, it would be preferable for your child to join in remote learning rather than attend school in person.
For all queries, please make sure that you include your child’s name and class so that your query can be passed to the correct member of staff and responded to as quickly as possible.
On Site Provision
Having discussed the matter with our Senior Leadership Team and reviewed our risk assessment and taken into account new government guidance, we will be able to offer limited on site provision. This provision will be organised within individual classes so that the teacher and a teaching assistant can work together teaching in class and delivering the same core lessons online. The maximum number of children per year group that we can safely accommodate on site is 10. The prioritised order for having an on-site place for your child is also different from the first lockdown, based on the reclassification of key workers as now critical workers and the reclassification of children classed as vulnerable. Therefore, applications will be assessed and places will be offered. Please ensure that you have requested a place via the questionnaire https://forms.gle/Lsh9KpZdL1ArUASE9. We will contact you on Monday regarding spaces for Wednesday.
Invited children and those of critical workers who do attend school will be doing the same online learning in school. Kindly remember that if your child is displaying any symptoms of Covid-19, they must not be sent to school. The office must be notified as soon as possible.
As we are not able to access hot meals from our catering company we will be providing vouchers, as before, to all children entitled to Free School Meals. All children attending school should therefore bring a packed lunch from home. Mrs Atkins will write to you in due course about FSM vouchers.
Please note that there will be no provision for Breakfast or After School Clubs whilst the school is closed to the majority of pupils.
As acknowledged at the start of this letter, I totally accept that there are going to be some families extremely inconvenienced, upset and maybe angry about this situation. All I can do is apologise in advance for any of this. I also know that the vast majority of you will be able to empathise with the challenge facing the school and its staff team. In thanking you for your support and understanding, I would just like to express my gratitude and respect for all those working together to help us get through this difficult period.
I would also like to reassure you that the St Luke’s team is still very much here for all of our children and every one of you too, so if you need any help or support please ring or email the school office.
At the moment, the plan is for all children to return to school on Monday 18th January. We will of course keep you updated with any further information as we receive it.
Thank you as always for you continued support.
Please take care and stay safe.
We are thinking of you all,
Kind regards
Nicky Zeronian-Dalley
Executive Headteacher
Appendix
Vulnerable children and young people
Vulnerable children and young people include those who:
- are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
- have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
- have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
- children and young people on the edge of receiving support from children’s social care services or in the process of being referred to children’s services
- adopted children or children on a special guardianship order
- those at risk of becoming NEET (‘not in employment, education or training’)
- those living in temporary accommodation
- those who are young carers
- those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)
- care leavers
- others at the provider and local authority’s discretion including pupils and students who need to attend to receive support or manage risks to their mental health
Critical workers
Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections.
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 distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
Education and childcare
This includes:
- childcare
- support and teaching staff
- social workers
- specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (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
- 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 coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), 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 coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
- 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 and border
This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure 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 coronavirus (COVID-19) response
- 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
- waste disposal sectors