Saturday 23 May 2020,
Dear Parents,
We have spent another week trying to make key decisions for our school to extend the opening and preparing for this and we are all desperate to get life back to normal. We have always believed that Monday 1st June was a provisional date for returning and we were awaiting further guidance from the Government and medical experts.
As an SLT, and with support from our Chair of Governors, we have taken the decision based on the Independent SAGE report published today to NOT re-open our school to Nursery, Reception Year 1 and Year 6 on Tuesday 2nd June.
The Independent SAGE ‘interim findings and concerns’ document released today states on page 2, “decisions on school opening should be guided by evidence of low levels of COVID-19 infections in the community and the ability to rapidly respond to new infections through a local test, track and isolate strategy. There is no clear evidence that these conditions are met. Until they are it is not safe to open schools on June 1.”
On page 3, the Independent SAGE document states, “Delaying a school re-opening by two weeks (to June 15th) approximately halves the risk to children, and delaying the re-opening to September is less risky still.”
A delay to Monday 15th June will significantly diminish the risk to our children, our staff and families. As these are the most important things in our lives, I am sure you will fully agree with this decision. This gives us further time to ensure our risk assessments and buildings are ready, so we can ensure the safety of all our children and staff when we do return.
We will continue to review the situation throughout the coming weeks and make further decisions once we have a clear indication that the rate of infection in our area is declining and continuing to decline.
We will continue to support Home Learning after half term and to provide the provision for key worker children and our vulnerable children so rotas will be in place for staff to support this. If you wish to book a Key Worker place then please find the booking form on the school website and email it to A2134@telford.gov.uk.
Thank you for your continued support as we try to make the right decisions for our community, which are all centred around keeping our children, staff and families safe.
My best wishes to you and your families,
Mrs Tomlinson Simon Taylor
Headteacher Chair of Governors
