Dear parents
Further to the Government’s announcement today that lockdown restrictions are being eased and that the social distance requirement of 2m is being reduced to 1m, I am posting to explain the impact that this will have on our current provision for key worker children, vulnerable children and year 6 children.
Children and staff are kept safe in school primarily because we are working in ‘bubbles’ and we have incredibly strict hygiene procedures. We have striven to adhere to the 2m distancing rule but this is simply not possible in our school setting. Children in classrooms and workspaces are currently spaced out as much as possible to ensure a 2m spacing; reducing this to 1m will have very little impact on our ability to increase the size of our bubbles and welcome more children back. We are also constrained by the Government guideline that no bubble will exceed 15 children.
Our situation will therefore not change in the near future. There may be small variations to our number but there will not be a wider opening as a result of today’s announcement. I reiterate that those children attending in YR or Y1 are only attending because they are key worker or vulnerable children. We have not approached anybody to widen this offer and nor would we do so!
The longer this situation continues, the more families need their children back in school so that lives can be restarted; there are many families desperate for their children to return to school and I am acutely aware of the ramifications of decisions I am regularly having to make.
I am very willing, of course, to discuss any request made for a space if one of the household is a key worker and I thank you all for your continued patience and support.
Mr Langford