Further to my letter sent out yesterday (19.3.20), I am writing to inform you of the latest update. The government has made it clear that it wants children to stay at home, wherever possible and has issued the following key principles:
As you know, Fair Oak Junior School will only be open to children who are classified as Vulnerable or who are the children of Key Workers. There has been a lot of misinformation given to parents via various means, but, as I have always said, I will only give you facts. Therefore, I am now able to confirm the following classifications:
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Vulnerable Children
Please complete the questionnaire: |
Key Worker categories Only 1 parent needs to qualify as a Key Worker Please complete the questionnaire: |
*This includes Children In Need (CIN) Children who have a Child Protection Plan (CP) Children who are Looked After by the Local Authority (LAC) |
Health and social care This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
Education and childcare This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.
Key public services This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
Local and national government This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.
Food and other necessary goods This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
Public safety and national security This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.
Transport This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.
Utilities, communication and financial services This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors. |
If the above categories do not apply to you or your child, do not send them to school from Monday 23rd March 2020 until further notice. Firstly, I am so sorry. This seems like an incredibly unfair situation for you and your families, and I fully understand the impact of this decision, however, social distancing is an important part of our national effort against the spread of COVID 19. Please click here to see the Stay at home guidance from the government. If your child will not be returning from Monday 23rd March…fear not! We have plans:
Please do remember to collect your child’s PE kit, water bottles, books bags etc. at the end of school today.
FSM – children in receipt of the Pupil Premium Grant
As you can see, children in receipt of the Pupil Premium Grant are not on the list above. The school will continue to offer lunches to children who are not in school. How will this be done?
We are still waiting for guidance from the government regarding supermarket vouchers if the school kitchen closes.
The following points are required for those who are eligible to send their child into school from Monday:
People keep referring to this time as unprecedented and as uncertain. Whilst this is the case, we must all ensure that we look after ourselves as adults, so that we can look after our amazing children. As a school, we will try to innovate to make this challenging time…into an opportunity. I, like the rest of you, don’t know how long this will go on for, but what I do know is that I have huge faith in every member of the Fair Oak Family.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew De Silva
Head Teacher