HOWITT PRIMARY COMMUNITY SCHOOL

 

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

I hope that you and your family are safe and well. As we have now started the ‘Easter holiday’, I wanted to just keep in touch with all our parents and carers and inform our community of what is happening in school.

It is strange to have such a small number of children in school when we are used to having a full, busy and thriving school community in place. It seems that we will continue with the present school closure for some time to come. As a school we will be open throughout the holidays, including the bank holidays, as we have been directed by the government, to care for children of identified essential critical workers. We may decide to close for the May bank holiday and for part of the May half term holiday so that all staff can have a well-earned break. We will keep you updated of any arrangements.

Please be aware that the guidelines state very clearly that every child who can be safely cared for at home should be. The government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible and has asked schools to remain open only for those children who absolutely need to attend.

Please note that ‘If only one parent is a critical worker, the government will expect the other parent to have their child at home. Single parents who are critical workers and have no child care will obviously be entitled to a school place.’ Whilst learning for our children is so important and we always value that, the health of our community is so hugely important at this time and any measure to stop the spread of the coronavirus will be helping everyone in our community.

Again, following the guidelines from the Department of Education, we are continuing to issue packed lunches, on a daily basis, for those children eligible for free school meals. These can be collected from school between 12:00 and 12:30 each day. We may consider the school meal voucher system in the near future for the children across the school who are eligible for free school meals. We will keep you informed of any changes.

Thank you for all of your continued support and wishes that we have had over the last couple of weeks. This has included lots of pictures from children, including lovely rainbows. The teachers have provided fun activities to keep your children busy over the holiday break to support your planned family activities at home.

The teachers will re-start the children’s home learning via our website, after the Easter holiday from 20th April onwards.

If you have any concerns, please contact the reception at the school.

Please keep yourselves and your children safe at this time and we look forward to seeing everyone back in school as soon as we can!

 

Happy Easter.

 

Mrs. L Pilling.