Schools are facing significant staff shortages which are likely to get worse, and any places that we can offer for critical childcare will be subject to further prioritisation by Wednesday, according to staffing rations.  We will be dramatically reducing the amount of staff that we have in school at one time and also cancelling all breakfast and all after school clubs.  School will be open from 8:45am until 3:15pm.

The government have made it clear that the intention is to reduce numbers of children and staff in schools to the absolute minimum. To that end, if you have been defined as a critical worker or your child is vulnerable, and you only need to send your child in for a specific day then do so – this is contrary to what we have said previously but we need to keep child numbers down as much as possible to reduce the potential spread.

The Local Authority advice is also that schools should only remain open if they can do so safely – if not, they should close. Currently we have enough staff to remain open to care for those children where parents have indicated child care is a necessity. We will be looking closely at the key worker criteria next week and may have to take some hard decisions regarding spaces. Priority will be given according to strict Local Authority approved criteria.

If you are a critical worker or have a vulnerable child and need childcare at school, please can you confirm that you wish to take up a place for your child/ren, by emailing office@clenchwartonprimary.co.uk before 6pm on Sunday evening with the header “Critical Childcare”. We also need to know which days you require.

I will take a decision about how best we continue this offer on a day by day basis bearing in mind the rapidly changing situation and staffing numbers. We hope that keeping childcare going on our site remains viable and we will keep going for as long as we can keep your children safe.

In summary:

• If you are a critical worker or have a vulnerable child and you have no other option but to send your child to school, you should but only on the days that you need to
• All after school clubs are cancelled
• School will open from 8:45am and close at 3:15pm
• There will be a dramatically reduced number of staff in the building and your child will not always be supervised by their regular teacher but there will always be a member of Walpole staff there.
• We will be reviewing the critical worker list during the week
• Critical worker or parents of vulnerable children who are coming to school need to email office@clenchwartonprimary.co.uk before 6pm on Sunday 22^nd March 2020.

These are most challenging times; however, we must work together to reduce the infection rate of the Coronavirus in order that we can safely return to the position we were in before it affected all sections of society.

We will continue to keep you informed.