I am sure many of you are feeling unease and uncertainty following the announcement by Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, that schools in England are to close from Friday 20th March until further notice. Schools were not informed of this announcement ahead of it being made, although we anticipated it, and we are awaiting further instruction and clarification about some of the points made in the speech.

The speech stated that care will be available in schools for children who require it due to parents working in essential roles, or because they are classed as ‘vulnerable’ by government definition. As yet the government have not provided a definition of these groups or given guidance about how that care will be provided. As soon as this is made clear we will communicate our provision with you.

We have many duties of care to the children we have here and are busy working on ways in which we can honour these whilst they are not here. As I am sure you can appreciate this is a challenge, but one that we are confident we can succeed in. We ask you for your kindness, your understanding and your patience whilst we put the systems in place to share with you on Friday – these arrangements will be in place for the duration of the closure.

The government have not set a timescale for these new measures but we are committed to keeping you updated.  It is imperative that you work with us so please inform school of any recent changes to your mobile telephone number and email address, ensure you reply to all communications from school requiring information as soon as possible and look daily at the website, ideally via the School App.

In the meantime, I wish you well and thank everyone for the messages of love and support we have received.