Dear Parent/Carer,
On Tuesday, we made the decision that for continuity, places would be offered on a full time basis. Our aim was to ensure that teachers could provide quality remote learning which children could work through both at home and at school. Staff within class bubbles would then be able to work together to ensure each class teacher could be released to prepare and deliver lessons online.
Unfortunately, we have created a situation which is now not sustainable. Due to the expansion of the Critical Worker criteria we now have almost 50% of children in school. This has meant that teachers’ working hours are unmanageable as essentially they now have two full time jobs.
At this moment we have to pause and remember that the Prime Minister has closed all schools to try to stop the spread of infection. The instruction is to stay at home. The more children we have in school, the greater the potential for the infection to spread.
On Tuesday, we confirmed for many of you the offer of a critical worker place in school.
However, at this point I must ask you to now consider exactly what Critical Worker places are for. Many people are entitled to the provision, but in supporting the national lockdown and the NHS, they have chosen not to use it as they are working from home. Does this make it challenging for them? Absolutely. But they recognise that the only way to stop a virulent strain of this virus is to limit contact.
In the last 72 hours we have had a surprisingly large number of people request Critical Worker provision. You will have noticed at drop off and collection how busy it is already. I am asking you to reflect on the following:
Do you absolutely have to send your child into school?
What you can and cannot do during the national lockdown…
Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly across the country. You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. (GOV.UK)
It is important to stress that the facility for sending your child into school during this lockdown is only to be used for emergency childcare for critical worker families when they really require it.
This is not what I wanted to have to do or a message I wanted to send but I am so fearful that this request for places is threatening the whole of our critical worker provision in school and, more importantly, risks bringing too many children and adults into our school site.
I know the work pressures people are under and I also know that the expectation of children continuing their education at home remotely makes things incredibly difficult for working parents. This is why we have significantly increased our offer from school for remote learning.
Although we expect children to engage in home learning we recognise that, for working parents, this may mean flexibility in the timetable we have set or in supporting with access to technology. There are other ways we can support education at home beyond just sending children in to school. We will work with you on this if it is needed.
If numbers do remain too high, we will be faced with the unwanted task of prioritising using the following criteria. This may mean your place is no longer available.
The criteria we would prioritise by is:
1. Vulnerable children
2. Children where both parents are critical workers or children with single parents who are critical workers. NHS and education critical workers to take priority if needed
3. Children where only one of two parents is a critical worker. NHS and education critical workers to take priority if needed
I have already had some parents contact me and decline the offer of a place, as they have reflected and seen ways they could change work arrangements recognising the need to stay home and stay safe and to look after the NHS. I am hoping that after the initial shock of lockdown that you can think carefully about not whether you can access a place but if you truly need to, and considering the larger numbers, if you really want to.
Again, this is a virulent strain of the coronavirus and there is a reason that primary schools closed so suddenly. Let us not under estimate the difficult job we need to do together to prevent transmission.
However, if you are a critical worker, in need of our support, at what must be an incredibly stressful time, know we are here for you. I can only imagine how challenging this time is for our NHS colleagues. I ask you to please consider your place under these extremely difficult circumstances.
