We are drawing ever closer to the reflective period of Holy Week which leads us to draw inspiration through Jesus’ trials and suffering as we look forward to His triumph through the Resurrection.

Over Easter, daily lessons will pause as teachers need a little downtime to spend quality time with their own families. On Monday 6th April they will be putting various learning opportunities on class pages linked to Holy Week for you to dip into as and when you can. Alongside this, children can still continue to enjoy the ebooks and other online programs. We do ask that during this week you don’t email as teachers’ accounts will be suspended for a week. We hope you understand and the children too will need a little break themselves. Daily Learning will then resume on Tuesday 14th April.

Within school, we are currently operating with a decreasing number of Teachers and Teaching Assistants. This has worsened this week with now 2 teachers and 4 teaching assistants self-isolating due to symptoms. I know a small number of you have accessed EMERGENCY CHILDCARE and I would ask you going forward to really consider if this is essential in line with Government advice as we do not want to be in a situation where we could not support those families who really need this provision. We urge everyone to explore all avenues before requesting this service and would ask if you are working from home to keep your children with you. The government has clearly said that home is by far the safest place and we can only agree with that.

It is clear that whilst schools are being asked to provide an important service at this time, social distancing is now being emphasised as vital for children too. Therefore, the key message is please only take up this place if you have no other alternative to ensure it is there for those who desperately need it to continue their essential work. We will only be able to provide childcare for the times when both parents are needed to be working as critical workers away from home. Anything we can do to keep the group of children as low as possible is crucial to longer-term sustainability.

As a school, we are trying to fulfill our duty both to stop the spread of the virus whilst providing essential childcare. We all have an important role in this. We will do our best to continue to provide this care for a small number of children going forward but as a headteacher, I also need to protect my staff and ensure everyone’s safety. Therefore once school opens again on Tuesday 14th April we can at the moment only provide limited places.

To those of you carrying out this work know, we are there with you, we will support you and try everything we can to care for your children whilst you care for us.