8th June 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

I understand that at the moment parents and children are deeply frustrated as to what is happening with schools, particularly when there is a differing outlook, not just around the country, but also around the north west too. As it currently stands, the R value in the north west of England is still above 1 which is worrying from a safety point of view. We want to reassure our parents that the message we give to you is as transparent as possible and aims to give you a clear understanding of which classes we are likely to be opening up to. 

We are currently only open to pupils of Critical and Vulnerable families which have been identified by the school and we are gradually phasing in Bubble Classes over the course of the next few weeks. Our intention at the moment is to try to also bring back Year 6 in the last week week of term, but this is not guaranteed and will depend on the risk assessments taking place along with discussions with our Governors and school adviser.

There is an expected announcement from Lancashire today with advice to the majority of Lancashire schools, but our school operation at the moment is very different from most, since the KS1 building will be out of operation and will not be finished until the end of July.

Unless there is a statutory requirement for our school to receive more pupils or there is a relaxation from the DFE on social distancing, it is unlikely that the school will open up to more pupils other than Year 6 for the last week of term, by which time we would already have 5 Bubble Classrooms operating in school. 

Following the LCC advice today and after speaking further with our Governors, I shall give you a further update on this situation. 

Our Class teachers are now going to be placing a short video message each Friday on their website pages to make further contact with you all and let you know that we are missing you greatly and to offer a personal message to their classes.

Keep safe everyone.

M Proctor

Headteacher

Since the message above, we have received further updates from Lancashire which states:

"I am writing to let you know that our Director of Public Health has reviewed his guidance that schools should not welcome more pupils and has determined that it should not change.

Although the number of new cases has decreased, Lancashire and the North West has a high number of cases compared to many other regions in the country.

Similarly, although the weekly death count in Lancashire is showing a downward trend, a consistent decline is not being seen in all areas, and in recent weeks we have seen an increase. It has also been widely reported that the R value for the North West is above 1. "