Charlton School

Dear Parents,
I hope you and your families are well.

I am delighted to welcome the parents and carers of children and young people at Severndale Academy in Shrewsbury to LCT. This is my first letter which includes Severndale parents since they joined the Trust on the 1st February, the school brings many strengths and expertise to our Trust.

It has been an incredibly busy half-term as we reacted to the national lockdown and school closures. Our staff have been incredible and Home Learning, providing quality provision in school, keeping in touch with our children, supporting our families and ensuring everyone is safe and well has been very demanding. In addition, we have had to set up testing and testing stations almost overnight, and these have operated extremely well over the last 6 weeks in ensuring we identify asymptomatic cases and help reduce the spread of the virus. We have seen a drop in cases across our school population but we all aware that it is still present in the community and across the country.

Next week all staff are having a break and Home Learning is suspended as the children and you also need a break! We are very well aware of how challenging it is for parents supporting their child(ren) at home during lockdown and I know we all want children back in school.

We know very little about the re-opening of schools and the Government plans and next steps for schools. What we do know is that for the first two weeks after half-term we are directed to continue as we are now. There is an announcement planned for the 22nd February about schools and the potential lifting of some of the lockdown measures. I can only reassure you that as soon as we are informed, we will provide you with our plans. I keep trying to second guess what we might be expected to do but after nearly a year of running schools in a pandemic I have learnt that this is a pointless exercise and I just need to wait!!

Thank you for all your kind messages of support and thanks to our staff over the last few weeks, they really appreciate hearing from you.

I will be in touch as soon as I know the decisions around schools after the half-term break. Kind Regards,

Dr. Gill Eatough

CEO LCT