Charlton School

20.05.20 LCT Update for parents

Dear Parents,

I hope that you and your family are well and in good spirits, despite the challenging times we all live in.

We have spent the last few days refining our plans for the increased opening of our schools, and I must stress that at this stage we will only proceed if we believe it is safe to do so for our children, families and staff. Currently, the government has set the date of the 1^st June as very provisional and dependant on some critical key factors in terms of infection rates and testing. We expect to hear in the next few days if this date will change and be put back. I am sure you have seen and heard all the intense discussions that are happening at national level on this issue.

What is clear to us is that at some point in June we will begin to extend the opening of our schools, and therefore we are making very detailed plans to ensure that we have systems set up in our schools, that make it is as safe as possible for children and staff. We have detailed risk assessments in place for each school, as each site is different and they need to be phase and site specific. These will be sent out to you, from your Headteacher, with some further information. Our job at this time is to reassure parents that our sites will be managed extremely effectively, with all measures in place following the government’s guidance to schools, which you can access via these links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-educational-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/closure-of-educational-settings-information-for-parents-and-carers

The current plan we have in place, when the date is agreed, is the following:-

HLC Primary and Wrekin View Primary will be open to Reception, Y1 and Y6 every day with one teacher working with one group of children in the same classroom having break, lunch, and playtime together. Nursery will operate a different offer because of the different requirements for these children. Their Headteacher will send all of the detailed plans and risk assessments for this to the parents of these children. Home Learning will continue to be in place for Y2, Y3, Y4 and Y5 but this will not be supported by staff at the level we currently do, as all our teachers will be deployed teaching the groups in school.

Charlton, Ercall Wood Academy and HLC Secondary will only be open to Y10 students on a part-time basis, to support these students with Home Learning and prepare them for Y11. There will be no likely full return of Y10 until September when they start Y11. Home Learning will continue for Y7, Y8, and Y9. We will also be looking at transition arrangements for Y6 joining our schools in September. We are still awaiting detailed guidance from the government on secondary schools, so these arrangements are not yet confirmed.

Queensway will initially focus on Y6 and Y10 on a part-time basis and other children will be invited into school on a rota basis.

All our schools will continue to provide a provision for the children of key workers and our vulnerable children; this has been in place since the lock down.

Home Learning will not be supported next week as it is half-term and I need to give the staff a break and some time with their families.

As I keep saying, all of these plans are still unconfirmed at this stage, and as soon as we have further information we will be in touch.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Gill Eatough

CEO LCT