The government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up lost time after school closure. This is especially important for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The NHS has a dedicated website with information on how COVID-19 spreads and how to avoid infection; plus NHS advice for anyone who thinks they may have symptoms or who might have been exposed to the virus when travelling: Please click here for NHS 111

The Department of Education has launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:

Parents may wish to discuss Coronavirus with their children to alleviate growing concern, BBC Newsround have a friendly and informative page with child appropriate articles and links that we recommend - Please click here for BBC Newsround

For the latest information from Public Health England regarding COVID-19, Please click here

Public Health England have a comprehensive list of guidance that can be found here  Please click here for Public Health England

• SCHOOL WILL BE OPEN EVERY DAY FROM 8.30 A.M. UNTIL 3.15 P.M.
• ON ARRIVAL, PLEASE BRING YOUR CHILD TO THE SCHOOL OFFICE WHERE YOU WILL BE ASKED TO SIGN THEM IN.
• THERE WILL BE NO BREAKFAST CLUB.
• CHILDREN MAY COME IN THEIR OWN CLOTHES INCLUDING SUITABLE COATS AND FOOTWEAR FOR OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES INCLUDING THE ALLOTMENT.
• A PACKED LUNCH WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR FREE SCHOOL MEALS FROM MONDAY 23RD MARCH

• IF YOU HAVE BOOKED A FREE PACKED LUNCH FOR YOUR CHILD, PLEASE COLLECT THIS AT 12.15 P.M. FROM THE SCHOOL OFFICE.

19th March 2020

Dear Parents / Carers,

Re: Coronavirus update – School closure to most pupils

Further to our communications today, I am now writing to confirm more detail with regard to the government order to shut our school as part of the “delay strategy” for COVID-19.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are still waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means and we will send it to you as soon as we receive it , but 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 need to access the service because you need to go to your place of employment: please complete and return the attached survey to let us know. If you would like a paper copy of this survey, please contact the school office. It would be very helpful if this could be returned by tomorrow – Friday 20 March. This will enable us to plan pupil numbers for next week. We will be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this applies to. 

All other children will need to stay at home from Monday 23rd March 2020, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.

As you will have heard on the news, this is a national closure for all schools across the UK. Please be reassured that we will re-open fully as soon as we are instructed to by the government. 

What are we doing when your child is at home?

Your child’s learning is important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn. We have prepared packs of learning across all subjects for your child to use at home. These will also be uploaded onto our school website. There will also be a wealth of weblinks for other activities and work across all subjects on our school website together with a suggested home learning timetable. Should your child be out of school unwell, we will have packs ready for you to collect at the office. If your child is currently absent from school as your family is self-isolating, you can access the home learning online and collect paper copies of these from the school office after the expiry of your self-isolation period.

We will continue to work at school in order to allow school to remain open for children of key workers and other identified pupils.

Safeguarding and other urgent concerns

There may be a need for parents/carers, pupils or staff members to urgently contact senior staff about safeguarding issues or other pressing matters during the period of school closure. We have set up a dedicated e mail address in the event that you are concerned that your child is at danger or at risk of danger or if you have an urgent question. You may contact us directly on welfare@archbishopcourtenay.kent.sch.uk . This will be monitored daily. General enquiries should continue to be addressed to office@archbishopcourtenay.kent.sch.uk

Free School Meals linked to Pupil Premium

We will contact all eligible parents separately about our ability to provide a lunch for your child.

If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please don’t hesitate to do so – using our school email – office@archbishopcourtenay.kent.sch.uk

And remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

We regret very much having to put these arrangements in place and we thank you for your understanding and your words of appreciation. We would like to take the opportunity to publicly thank all our wonderful colleagues who have worked so hard this week to allow us to keep the school open.

Our whole community is in our thoughts and prayers. We hope you are all able to navigate the next period of time with minimal difficulty and we look forward very much to when our school can be reunited and return to normal. That time will come and we will be ready. 

Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.

With Kind Regards

Sarah Bone

Acting Head of School