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Dear Parents and Carers
Hope you are all keeping well.
We appreciate that this is a difficult time for everyone. Thank you for all the comments and messages of support for the staff and the school. These have been very much appreciated by the staff, who have continued to work hard to support your children and yourselves.
The Department for Education (DfE) updated their guidance late on Friday evening with regard to critical workers. In this latest version they state that “parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can”. As you are aware we have had a significant number of places requested for childcare provision in school, compared to the previous lockdown in March 2020. Thank you to the families who have contacted us to let us know they will be looking at managing their shift patterns as critical workers. If we are able to minimise the number of people in the school building this half-term, the lower the risk of transmission for everyone in the LFPA community and the less chance we have of needing to isolate a bubble. Isolating a bubble will result in some critical workers not being able to attend work for 10 days.
If you are able to look after your child at home or make use of your childcare bubble, could you please let the us know by emailing lfpaoffice@theparkfederation.org
Critical workers (Excerpt from DFE guidance)
Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections. Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can.
We are assuming all parents who require childcare have already either booked or taken up their places. We will no longer be accepting new applications with 24 hours’ notice for places at LFPA. It is important that we continue to help the families with the greatest need for support and for that reason we are implementing a prioritisation criteria and will only be accepting more children into school who meet either of the criteria below:
- Vulnerable children with an EHCP plan or social care involvement
- Children where both parents are key workers or, if single parents, children whose main carer is a key worker. NHS, social workers and education key workers will take priority if needed.
This is in the government guidance published 8th January 2021 -https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision
I apologise that we have changed the eligibility but this is in response to the unexpectedly high number of requests, the high incidence of the virus locally and the need to keep class sizes down. We will of course keep this under constant review.
Stay at home. Keep safe. Follow government guidance.
Warm regards
Ms. H. Buttar
Principal