Sunday 10th May Parent/Carer Update
Sunday 10th May 2020
COVID-19 Update
Dear Parents/Carers
I am sure that you have heard the news from the government tonight about their plans for the next stage in tackling the COVID-19 outbreak. As I have said previously, we do not receive any advance notification in schools, so I heard the news for the first time this evening just as you did.
At present, we know that schools will continue to be open only to the same limited groups of children as they have been since 23rd March. This will continue until at least 31st May.
The government has said that it hopes it will be possible to begin a phased return to primary schools after the half term holiday and it has named Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 as the possible year groups. However, no further information was given tonight about how we will manage this safely.
The Prime Minister indicated that there would be further details available tomorrow and a fifty page document was referred to. I will therefore be reading this document and discussing it with the senior staff and governors over the coming days, so that we may start to plan how the government’s intentions may be implemented. I will, as always, communicate with you, as soon as I am able to.
I would like to reassure you that all of the team at St Mary’s is committed to bringing the children back to school as soon as it is safe to do so. Like you, we currently have many unanswered questions about how this will be done, especially with such young children who have limited understanding of social distancing. My number one priority is, of course, the safety of St Mary’s children, parents/carers and staff. I can therefore assure you that in the days ahead, I will be doing everything possible to carefully plan the next phase of our response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Yours sincerely,
Geraldine Denham-Hale
Headteacher