Regular updates.
Dear parent/carer
As I am sure you are all aware, the Government have directed all schools to be closed form the end of Friday. We are still waiting for information regarding childcare for vulnerable children and children of ‘key workers’, we will be in contact with individual families when we know anymore. We also do not know how long the closures will be. My hope is that if everyone follows the guidance and limits social contact (and self-isolate if any family member has any symptoms) that the outbreak will be controlled and we can get on with our daily lives as soon as possible.
Please keep checking our school website for new information. We will also use our text messaging service to keep in touch with you.
In the meantime, we have made the following arrangements to support you;
· We have set up a temporary email address for you to contact us with ANY questions, queries or concerns about ANYTHING. This will be checked by Senior Leaders every day and someone will get back to you as soon as possible and if we don’t have an answer, we will find someone who does! contactus@stoneyholme-pri.lancs.sch.uk
· Your child’s class teacher will ring your child regularly to check in with how they are doing with their work etc. (this is in addition to the ongoing contact with the online learning)
· If closures go beyond the holidays, we will provide additional work for children to complete
We have made it clear to the children that this is not a holiday and that their home packs are a very important part of their learning. We really do want our children as fully prepared for the next phase of their learning and we are very grateful for your support with this. If you can, try to establish a daily routine. Some parents have told me that they have created a weekly timetable, which I think is a great idea! Again, if the school closures are to help minimise the impact for the whole school community, we need to look after each other by limiting social contact as much as possible (children should not play out.)
Please take care and I hope to see all of you safe and well in the very near future.
Mrs L Davison
Dear parent/carer
I am writing to you because a person in your household has had a cough and/or high temperature which means EVERYONE who lives in your house MUST self-isolate for 14 days. This was explained by our staff on the telephone, followed up by a text message and, is in fact, all over the news. Despite this, children who had been sent home have been out in the community, attending mosques etc which is very concerning. This is guidance from Public Health England (their website has more detailed information www.gov.uk)
Why staying at home is very important
It is very important that individuals with symptoms that may be due to coronavirus and their household members stay at home. Staying at home will help control the spread of the virus to friends, the wider community, and particularly the most vulnerable.
Those with symptoms and living alone should remain at home for 7 days after the onset of their symptoms. This will reduce the risk of you infecting others.
If you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms that may be caused by coronavirus, then household members must stay at home and not leave your house for 14 days. If possible, you should not go out even to buy food or other essentials, other than exercise, and in that case at a safe distance from others. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in your house became ill.
If not possible, then you should do what you can to limit your social contact when you leave the house to get supplies.
It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or may already be infected. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community.
Schools are following the advice from the Department for Education. At Stoneyholme, we are doing everything we possibly can to ensure the safety of children, families, staff and visitors and we are making sure our information and practice is up to date. We will text families and update our website should anything change.
In the meantime, we have prepared work for your children to help minimise the impact of not being in school on their education and to help keep them occupied while they are indoors. Completed work will be used as part of our assessments, so please encourage your children to produce their very best work and look after their pack ready for when they return to school.
I appreciate this might be a worrying time, however, if we all follow the advice given, it will help everyone to remain as well as possible (most people who go on to contract the virus will recover very quickly.) As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at school and we will do our best to help.
Wishing you and your families all the very best and hope you all remain in the very best of health.
Mrs L Davison
Dear parent/carer
I am writing to update you on our position with regards to COVID 19, Coronavirus.
As a school, we are governed by the Department for Education. As I am sure you are aware, at this moment in time, the government is instructing school to remain open as part of the strategy for limiting the impact of the virus. You may also be aware of some partial closures in some of our local schools. The reason for these closures are due to staffing levels (where staff have had to self-isolate or have an illness unrelated to this outbreak.) During these circumstances, school leaders have to ensure that there are enough staff, not only to teach, but to keep pupils safe. I am pleased to say, that currently, our staffing levels remain very high, however, this could change. In the event that we would have to partially close (or close completely) families will receive a text message and details will be put on our school website. I am aware that some false messages about school have been on social media. I would kindly ask that you do not rely on social media to get information about what is happening in school.
I take my duty of care for the children, families and staff of Stoneyholme extremely seriously and I would like to reassure you that I am following all advice and news on a minute by minute basis! I am confident that we are able to respond immediately to any advice and you will be kept informed of any changes as soon as possible. We have taken the decision not to take children out of school for the time being (trips, swimming, enrichment etc.) I need to be confident that our children have access to hand washing facilities and are in the cleanest possible environment. In school, we have revised our cleaning schedule to focus on very regular cleaning of surfaces, door handles, toilet areas etc.
The Government announced new guidance on Monday that if any family member develops a cough and/or temperature, the whole family must self-isolate. We have several families who have to follow this advice and there is a possibility that the number who need to do so will rise. I appreciate that this can be a worrying time for people, however, a large number of people self-isolating will not have the virus and of those that do, many will go on to make a speedy recovery. The main purpose of self-isolation is to protect vulnerable people within our families and communities, something which is all of our responsibility to do. More information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response
We would like to minimise the impact of absences from school of your child’s education. We have prepared packs of work for children to complete if self-isolating (or IF schools are directed to close in the future.) If you have access to the internet, teachers will comment regularly on the work your child is doing. If you do not have access, please contact school and we will make alternative arrangements. The work completed will form part of your child’s assessments so it is very important that they try their very best and return the pack in an excellent condition when they return to school.
As always, if you have any worries or concerns, please contact us at school. In the meantime, we will contact you should the advice to schools change.
Wishing you and your families all the very best and hope you all remain in the very best of health.
Mrs L Davison