Dear all,

As an attempt to keep as many parents informed as possible, I am re-sending the email that was sent last night (with a slight tweak of isolation period) and a few other updates at the bottom regarding getting ready for providing home learning.

From now on all emails will be sent as a direct email and as an email through the ARBOR app - this is just to make sure that the information comes through in it's best form! Apologies if this means you get it twice!

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to your First and Second update regarding School's response to the current Covid-19 situation

We have decided to send regular updates regarding what we are doing as a school to respond to the current situation. This is to keep you informed and also to ensure that we are all working with the same information.

We are receiving daily updates from the Department for Education and Health as well as from Manchester City Council. The updates we will send will include this information.

Current advice on symptoms and what to do -

The current advice is to stay at home for 14 days if you or your family experience the coronavirus symptoms. Stay at home if you have EITHER:

- a high temperature - 38+ degrees and you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

- a NEW, continuous cough - you are coughing repeatedly

- do not go to the GP, check 111 online for advice

- stay at home in self-isolation for 14 days - this should be all the family, not just the person experiencing symptoms.

Where children live at home with vulnerable adults or have long term, chronic health conditions, current advice is to self-isolate.

This is to try and delay the virus from spreading too fast.

School Closures?

At the moment, schools are not going to be closing. Schools will, however, have to respond to the number of staff absences. We will try and cover internally or with supply but if this gets unmanageable then we may have to have partial closure for some classes. We will try and avoid this at all costs and any decision to close any classes will be shared with the Local Authority. We will email you if there are any changes to what we can offer as a school.

Current Picture

We have had about 10% of children off school today but there are no confirmed cases (through testing) of coronavirus.

What steps are we taking to make everyone as virus free as we can

- installed additional hand sanitiser dispensers in school - please use as you enter and leave the building

- added more hand sanitiser dispensers to KS2 classrooms

- handwashing information to be shared at assembly and promoted by staff

- School Nurse is going to provide hand washing sessions on this Friday for KS1 and EYFS

- started logging information shared by the community so we can respond appropriately

- added additional cleaning steps to our usual routines

- holding only essential gatherings or meetings within school that include external visitors or parents

The best thing we all can do is promote hand washing and hand sanitising, including after sneezing or coughing. Make sure children have tissues in their pockets too.

Cancellation of some events

With reluctance and due to the call for more social isolation, we are going to cancel some school events so that we are not bringing too many people together.

The events that will be cancelled or postponed are:

Spring into Easter event on 2nd April - Cancelled

Coffee Morning for fundraising for Mr Shankland - Postponed until Summer term

RESPECT workshop on Thursday 19th - Postponed - to be rearranged

Moston's Got Talent - Postponed until the Summer term :-(

Curriculum parent events for Year 2 and Year 5 in the last week of term - Cancelled

Child of the Term assembly will still go ahead but it will be done in phases and just the parents of children of the term will be invited.

PFA Film Night this week will still go ahead and we will still hold an Easter event in school for children - so that it is not all doom and gloom.

Please support us by keeping in touch and by making sure that you sanitise your hands as you enter and leave the building.

Finally, in the midst of this - let's try and make sure that we help anyone who is socially isolated and vulnerable, where we can.

Wishing you all well

Second Update 17th March

We have had many requests for home learning packs. Just to let you know that we are going to start planning and preparing home learning at tonight's staff meeting.

We are going to produce the following:

A basic skills home learning pack for children who have self isolated this week (to be available for Friday) - this will be emailed home. If parents need a paper copy this can be either collected from school or in the event of no one being able to pick up, we may be able to post out. This will include Nursery. Nursery parents will then be emailed regular home learning packs following this.

We are also preparing to use Class Dojo to set regular home learning tasks with an expectation/guideline to help parents of what will need completing each day. Access to this will begin if there is a full or partial school closure. We will also look at possible opportunities to change home readers too.

So, to get ready - all parents in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 - need to ensure that they have logged on to Class Dojo as this is the way that home learning will be available. Any parents who have not logged on to Class Dojo will be sent a code home tomorrow for doing this. IT IS VITAL that you log on within 24 Hours or the code will not work.

Further updates tomorrow.

Kind regards

Sarah Murray

Sarah Murray

Head Teacher