St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School
An update on the closure of our school – 19.03.2020
Dear Parents and Carers,
I thank you for your patience whilst we try to convey the most accurate and up to date information to you. In light of the announcement made by the Government last night, St Vincent’s will close to the majority of pupils tomorrow at the usual times at the end of the day. After School Club will be provided until 5pm tomorrow to allow members of staff to organise their own families. I know you will appreciate that staff have been working tirelessly here to ensure the smooth handover from on site to virtual learning, and will need time to put things in place for their own families.
Provision for vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers
As advised by the government, there will be an offer of care provision for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and vulnerable pupils as defined by the government. We expect the government to publish more precise details of those who are considered key workers later today and will update you as soon as this happens. It would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories and you require this service, by completing the attached form:
Please note that:
In order to comply with the government’s objective of minimising the number of pupils in schools to limit the spread of infection, this service is only available to these groups
This will be a care provision and not an opportunity for one to one tuition or in any way resemble a traditional timetabled day
It is highly probable that your child will not be supervised by their class teacher or their one to one support. Not all staff will be able to be in school and we are currently looking at a rota system
If your child qualifies for this provision, they will be subject to the usual attendance regulations and must attend at all times the school is open. This is to ensure we have enough staff on site for safeguarding purposes
Children will be working on ‘Home Learning’ activities in line with those children off site.
Lunch will be provided and paid for in the usual way, unless your child qualifies for free school meals
There may be a reduction in the length of the school day
Details of care-provision locations and dates/timings will be shared as soon as we receive further advice.
All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.
If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this, with support from a scheme that the government has announced.
This is a national closure and, while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We will re-open fully as soon as we are advised to do so and will inform you by email and via the school website.
Please be aware that we are not treating tomorrow as our last day of the school year. Year 6 children will not be signing uniforms or saying goodbye. We do not have any clear guidance when the school will re-open. As we are experiencing a high level of absence, all Year 6 children will need to be part of any celebrations we host, whether it is this year or next academic year. It would be wholly unfair for any of our children to miss out due to the current circumstances.
Again and finally, may I reiterate my sincere thanks for all the support you have shown us over the last few days. We are quite an incredible community and I know we will continue to share much love and kindness as we pull together over the coming weeks and months ahead.
God bless,
Mrs McCarthy
Headteacher