Dear Parents,
As you are no doubt aware after the Prime Minister's announcement on Sunday, if all proceeds well, the Government are planning to open up schools for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 in certain settings from June the 1st, 2020.
I am currently working with the Governing Body, other headteachers and staff in initialising a risk assessment and a feasible plan to make this happen safely at Buxworth School.
Below is the link to the latest Government advice.
Therefore there will be a detailed plan for this phased return to be implemented. This will of course be shared with you as parents, in order to get our children back into school in a safe and calm manner.
This phased return will be implemented from no earlier than 01/06/2020 and will dependent on the country hitting certain criteria set by the Government. However, once this plan has been enacted and a phased return has been implemented, we will be welcoming the children in those particular Year Groups (Reception, Year 1 & Year 6) back to school in some format or another. What this format looks like in reality (timings and locations of drop offs and pick ups, structure of the school day etc) will be released later to you after advice has been taken and health & safety consultation has occurred. A point to note is once the phased return has been implemented and if your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 6 and if your child is unable to attend school for whatever reason; the Government advice states that-
"Families should notify their nursery/school/college as normal if their child is unable to attend so that staff can explore the reason with them and address barriers together. Parents will not be fined for non-attendance at this time, and schools and colleges will not be held to account for attendance levels."
Therefore if your child is in the aforementioned three year groups (R, 1 & 6) and unable to attend for whatever reason, could you please let us know at school via e-mail as this will aid with future planning and risk assessing numbers etc.
The Government advice also states that the reopening is just for those three year groups mentioned alongside key workers' children. So unfortunately, other children from Year Groups 2,3,4 & 5, will not to be accepted back at school, even if they are siblings of children who are in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. For those children not coming into school we will continue to supply work online, as we have previously been doing.
This is of course all provisional at the moment and is based around current advice and it may well change over the next couple of weeks, dependent on evolving national issues. However I feel, moving forward, that it is important that we get ahead of the curve in planning an exit strategy for the lockdown and for getting the children back into school safely. Part of this is giving as much notice as possible to all stakeholders so that risks can be managed and strategies implemented coherently. Therefore, I will endeavour to keep you informed in the process of the reopening of the school every step of the way.
Thank you for all your efforts over the last couple of months and it is great that we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Best Wishes and keep safe
Mr Bertram