Dear parent / carer

 As a public service, we are following National guidance and our intention is to remain open until we are either:

·         Instructed to close by government [this would be a full closure]

·         Forced to close because of shortage of staff [this might be partial or full closure]

 While we are open, we plan to keep our routines as normal as possible, however we are stopping many activities that necessitate travel out of school, such as swimming, sports competitions and trips. All clubs are now closed apart from Breakfast and After School Club. For pre-paid clubs – missing sessions will be picked up at some point. We can sadly no longer accept any visitors or volunteers into the school.

Families with known conditions such as asthma - hopefully to cover everyone this may concern, school fully supports any decision you make to keep your child at home.

 Partial closure:

 Our staff have to follow the same guidelines as everyone else with regard to self-isolation for 14 days so we will inevitably have some staff absent. In this case, we will adopt normal procedures of trying to rearrange staff to cover classes and bringing in supply staff if possible. Where this is not possible, we will need to send some children home – probably on a class by class basis. We will aim to cover classes on the first day of a staff absence but we may have to inform you that on the following day, the class will be closed if we can't cover it.

In the case of partial closure, we want to try and support essential services as much as possible. If you work in health or social care or any of the emergency services schools and the Local Authority are working on a potential plan to support you.  We will do all we can to keep your children in school in order to maintain vital services that we all need.

 Full closure:

 If schools are told by National Government to close, we will obviously follow that instruction, this will mean that all children must be kept home until further notice.

 How will parents be informed?

 Your first point of contact should be the NEWS section of our school website. Other communication will be via text.

 Maintaining children’s education when not in school – This includes children currently at home for whatever reason:

 We are currently planning for activities that can be completed at home. Most of these will be online activities via ‘Purple Mash’ and on the class pages of our school website, both of which should need minimal parent input. We will also provide some paper based work and books for parents who do not have access to the internet. An additional letter will hopefully go out today or tomorrow with more details. We also want children to keep reading as frequently as possible and practising times tables! Teachers will post activities  on the class web pages, so keep checking back.

 Keeping in touch with school:

 If you need to contact us now or during any period of closure, please use the following email address:

admin.birkdaleprimary@schools.sefton.gov.uk 

 Welfare of children:

 Sefton Council is making contingency plans for those families whose children have income-based free school meals to still have access to food during any closure. We do not yet have details but will post information when we do. Vouchers have been mentioned as a possibility.

Try to manage how you follow the outbreak in the media :  

There is extensive news coverage about the outbreak. If you find that the news is causing you huge stress, it’s important to find a balance.

It’s best that you don’t avoid all news and that you keep informing and educating yourself, but limit your news intake if it is bothering you.  

Stay in touch with friends on social media but try not to sensationalise things. If you are sharing content, use this from trusted sources, and remember that your friends might be worried too.

Talk to your children 

Involving our family and children in our plans for good health is essential. We need be alert to and ask children what they have heard about the outbreak and support them, without causing them alarm. 

We need to minimise the negative impact it has on our children and explain the facts to them. Discuss the news with them but try and avoid over-exposure to coverage of the virus. Be as truthful as possible. 

Let’s not avoid the ‘scary topic’ but engage in a way that is appropriate for them. 

School is doing everything it can and is under immense pressure to do the right thing. By all means ask for advice –There are still no confirmed cases linked to our school. Southport Head’s met yesterday and are working closely together to deliver the same messages – at the present moment our biggest issue is maintaining staffing – I’ll keep you informed here.

Thank you for reading

Mr N Sheeran