As the days progress, we do understand the pressures that the Coronavirus is placing on our families and our school community. We would like to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to ensure our school community are well-informed and that our school follows the advice published by the Government and Public Health England.  We will remain vigilant and keep you up to date with developments.

For the moment, the Government has decided to keep schools open therefore Barrowby CE Primary School is currently open to all pupils who are not showing any symptoms for the Covid-19 virus.

Whilst we remain open, we are very keen to prioritise learning and keep our school a happy and safe place.

However, in the event that you have decided to self-isolate and/or the school has to close following government guidance we have produced Home Learning Guidance which can be found in the documents section of the school website.  These suggested resources are available and accessible for your child/ren to use whilst at home; encouraging a ‘school-friendly’ Home Learning day(s).

In addition to this, today our Year 1 children (and Year 2 children who are re-sitting the phonics screener) will be bringing home a Phonics Pack and supporting information for you to use at home, helping your child/ren to prepare for the upcoming screener. 

In the pack you will find:

• Phonics Buster workbook- activities for you to revise letters and sounds and to help children practise segmenting and blending real and ‘pseudo’ words;
• Phase 5 phonic cards- for you to practise recall of the Phase 5 graphemes; and
• Phase 3 sound mat - to recap and revise sounds the children were introduced to in Reception.

We would be grateful if you could work through the materials to support your child.  These resources were to be shared and distributed at the planned Phonics Workshop on Monday 30th March, before it was cancelled yesterday.  You can also view the presentation that was going to be shared, at the workshop by CLICKING HERE.

Our Year 6 children will also be provided with a pack today which covers a range of Reading, Writing, Grammar Punctuation Spelling and Maths activities, complete with answer sheets for parents.  This pack should support our children to practice important skills in readiness for their Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs), later in the year.

We acknowledge, that for many, the Government guidance and the news about Covid-19 and the Coronavirus can seem a bit unsettling.  I would like to thank everyone for their support and understanding at this time.

Please let us reassure you that we will continue to support all our school community through this difficult time. 

Government updates as follows:

New guidance for households with symptoms

On Monday, the Government introduced new guidance on whole household isolation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:

• if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started;
• if you live with others and you or another member of the household have symptoms of coronavirus, then 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. It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community;
• for anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14-day isolation period.

The symptoms are:

• A high temperature (37.8 degrees and above)
• A new, continuous cough

The full stay at home guidance for households with these symptoms can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

Funding for free childcare offers to continue in the event of coronavirus closures

Today, the Chancellor has confirmed the Government will continue to pay for free early years entitlement places even if settings are closed, on the advice of Public Health England or children are not able to attend due to coronavirus. We expect local authorities to follow the Department’s position, and to continue early entitlements funding for all childminders, schools and nurseries. We will not be asking for funding back from local authorities.

The Government’s advice remains that childcare settings should stay open unless advised otherwise by Public Health England, and today’s announcement should help settings to continue to do so. This will minimise both longer-term disruption to parents and any income losses that providers may otherwise experience.

The full statement can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-childcare-offers-to-continue-during-coronavirus-closures

Any changes to this advice will be communicated to parents via ParentmailPMX and our school website.  Thank you once again for your support and understanding.