6 January 2021

 

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Critical Workers

 

Happy New Year! I hope that all of our school community had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Our celebrations were cut short by the announcement on Monday night by the Government for a National lockdown. This is needed because of the rapid rate of COVID cases and the concerns the new variant brings. With the national lockdown comes lots of anxiety for everyone in the school community. Staff have been working tirelessly since the announcement to prepare for the reopening of school on Thursday 7^th January and for the start of the Remote Learning package for those children who are at home. School will continue to support all of our families with remote learning.

 

This lockdown is different in terms of the Education offer we have for children working at home and at school. The education the children will be receiving at home will be the same offer children have at school. There will be daily remote sessions for our children who are working from home with their class teacher. We want our children’s learning to continue to progress as it has done in the autumn term. We will work closely with parents and carers to ensure the children at home continue to be engaged and motivated. More details of remote learning will be sent to parents and carers later today.

 

Yesterday a text was sent out asking parents who were critical workers to inform usif they required a place in school. We have been inundated with requests from parents. If we were to accept all the requests as well as the vulnerable children we have asked to come into school, we would have more than 50% of the school population attending school. This goes against the National Lockdown of ‘Stay at Home’. We have to open school to ensure our frontline critical worker parents can work but we also need to keep those in school safe. For this reason, I am asking parents to reconsider their request for a school place. I am asking parents to complete the attached form if you feel you are a critical worker and return it to the school office by email at olol@bury.gov.uk. We will look at all the applications and confirm places this afternoon. We already have a list of our vulnerable children and we have offered places directly to those parents, they do not need to complete the form.

 

I would ask for your complete honesty when applying for a Critical Worker place. If you are working from home or have another adult in the household who is not a Critical Worker, I would expect your child to access remote learning from home. The Government has also introduced ‘Support Bubbles’ and ‘Childcare Bubbles’ since the first lockdown which again are options you may be able to use. Lockdown is to strictly limit interactions with others and so we would only expect to have a small number of children in school.

 

If your child is offered a place, the expectation is that they would attend full time. The children will be in full school uniform, the school catering service will continue to operate. Ollies Before and After School Club will not be open.

Please consider this information carefully and return any forms by 1pm TODAY. We will get back to you this afternoon with confirmation of a school place.

 

Thank you for your continuing support.

 

Kind regards,

Mrs JE Davies

Executive Headteacher

 

Updated Government guidance for your reference:

You will note the term ‘Critical Workers’ has replaced the term ‘Key Workers’ and the criteria has been tightened to limit the number of places to parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

 

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE REGISTRATION FORM HAS BEEN EMAILED TO YOU THIS MORNING