Communication
See below for all the information you, as a parent, need to know about how we respond to Covid.
04/01/2021
Dear Parents and Carers,
I am sure that you will have heard Boris Johnson’s announcement this evening that we are entering a new National Lockdown beginning tomorrow. I know that you will be busy organising things around your own childcare and working arrangements now but, in advance of more detail to come tomorrow, I want to offer some clear messages about what we know now:
- Northowram Primary School will be closed to the vast majority of pupils tomorrow. As we were informed, like you, of the new arrangements at 8pm tonight, we need some time to allow us to make arrangements so that our online learning offer and our face to face school offer for vulnerable and children of key worker families is the very best it can be. We ask that wherever possible, even if you are a key worker, believe your child to be vulnerable or have a child with an EHC plan that all children are kept at home tomorrow. If you believe you are a key worker and you absolutely cannot make arrangements for your children to stay at home tomorrow (in advance of us formally allocating places on Tuesday), school will be open and there will be school staff to provide care for your children from 9.00am-3.30pm. Please access classrooms in the normal way using the one way system.
- From tomorrow, we will switch to online learning for most pupils. Live lessons will begin on Wednesday. On Tuesday, children can access the lesson content from Oak Academy which is currently accessible in their Google Classroom. You have all received information on how to connect with Google Classrooms and from Wednesday, we will provide 3 live lessons with teachers per day. These will be exactly what is covered in school for vulnerable and children of key worker families so that all children will continue to receive a good quality curriculum of daily Math’s and English lessons plus one lesson per day in another subject area.
- A form to request a key worker place in school to attend from Wednesday will follow this email and you will receive communication to confirm whether you have been allocated a school place during the lockdown period tomorrow.
- If your child has an EHC plan or if your child has a social worker, they will be automatically allocated a school place and should attend from Wednesday
- Children attending school need to wear school uniform. We advise that they dress warmly and bring additional layers (jumpers/hoodies etc) to keep them warm as windows continue to be opened to provide ventilation.
There will be further communication tomorrow once we have digested and processed this new guidance and I thank you sincerely in advance for your patience. Despite the national situation, we, as a school, are much more experienced and confident about managing this period of school closure and remain very hopeful that hope is on the horizon and that, following this tough period for us all, we have a great deal to look forward to.
With all my very best wishes to you all,