Given the growing concerns around Coronavirus, I am writing to you to confirm that the school is following government and NHS advice for schools carefully.
The current advice is that children or adults with a new continuous cough and/or high temperature should stay at home.
All household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill.
For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild illness.
What the school is doing
We have also put in some additional measures to help reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus in school in terms of the way we manage some classroom activities, assemblies and lunchtime eating arrangements.
We are also employing an additional cleaner to work through out the school day to keep items like door handles and other commonly touched items disinfected.
We also want to reduce the number of visitors who come to the school and avoid mass gatherings. As a result we have decided to cancel the following events:
- Easter Celebration at St Georges Church
- Our Mothers’ Day celebrations this Friday
- Our Easter Fete this Friday
- Parents Evening
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause but I hope can understand that we want to put the children’s health first.
Home learning for families who are self-isolating at home
If your child or family is self–isolating please do check the school website as it will point you in the direction of our on-line learning resources so the children can continue to learn at home.
The school also hopes to be able to provide some home-learning packs which will be available from the school office.
The Year group teams also hope to offer you some help and advice in terms of learning at home and the easiest way to contact teachers is via the email addresses on the next side of this letter.
Nursery@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk Year4@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk
Reception@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk Year5@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk
Year1@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk Year6@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk
Year2@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk Rainbow@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk
Year3@r-alibon.bardaglea.org.uk
Teaching arrangements and keeping the school open
Following all national advice and guidance, the school remains open and will continue to do so to the best of our ability unless we are instructed to close by Public Health England or the National Government.
However, we may get to a situation whereby the school cannot function safely because of the number of staff self-isolating; in which case we will issue you with contingency measures. We may, for example, have to limit the number of year groups in school.
We will aim to give you as much warning as possible if this is necessary.
We already have a number of staff self-isolating and so teaching arrangements for some classes will be different for the next two weeks.
We do appreciate your support in these difficult times. If you have any questions about these arrangements do contact me at the school.
Department for Education coronavirus helpline
The Department for Education has set up a school helpline to answer questions from staff, parents and young people about coronavirus issues related to education.
Tel: 0800 046 8687
email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
open from 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday) 10am to 4pm weekends
