Dear Parent/Carer
Re: Childcare provision
In response to the government requirement for schools to provide childcare for children of ‘Key Workers’ and ‘vulnerable children’ I am writing to confirm our plans.
If a Key Worker is required to attend work and has no other form of childcare they can bring their child to school and we will provide ‘childcare’ rather than ‘education’. Similarly, if your child is ‘vulnerable’ which means that they have an allocated Social Worker, we will provide childcare for them too.
School will be open for this essential childcare provision from 8am until 4.30pm but can only be accessed on an essential basis. You do not need to use this provision – it is only there to support Key Workers who are required to work for the benefit of everyone.
A key worker is defined as anyone who works in the following sectors:
- Health and Social Care
- Education and Childcare
- Key Public Services
- Food and related industries
- Public Safety and National Security
- Transport
- Utilities, communication and financial services
- Charity workers
If you need to take up this offer for childcare, please ring the school by 3pm to register your intent to take up the offer of childcare so that we can anticipate and plan provision for Monday.
Please be aware that should your child attend they will receive childcare not lessons or formal teaching activities. We anticipate that the activities they will participate in may include the following: playing outside, board games, watching movies, arts and crafts and so on.
In addition, we are working with Taylor Shaw to provide lunches for those children who are entitled to Free School Meals. It is our intention to provide a hot meal for those children in school for childcare provision at a cost of £2.05 per day or they can bring their own packed lunch as normal.
If you are entitled to Free School Meals but are not a Key Worker, you can collect a cold packed lunch from the main entrance between 12.30pm and 12.45pm each day Monday to Friday. Please note there will be no dining facilities in school for children to eat their cold packed lunches due to the social distancing advice from government. We are also offering a packed lunch service for children from other schools in the Dale who are entitled to Free School Meals. Any food which is left over will be donated to the Weardale Food Bank.
Our staff will be working on a rota system to ensure appropriate childcare provision is in place and this will continue throughout the Easter holidays. The remainder of our staff will be working from home until required to take their turn on the rota.
If your child presents with any symptoms during the childcare provision, they will be isolated and you will be contacted to arrange collection for them and should this occur they will need to be isolated and can therefore no longer attend for childcare provision.
I cannot stress strongly enough that it is essential to follow all government guidelines and only take up this childcare provision should it be absolutely necessary as we would not want any child or member of staff to be placed at unnecessary risk.
As always, our Stanhope Barrington family will work together to support our children, families and our local community in the best way we can.
Please stay safe and keep an eye on our website for further updates.
Yours sincerely
Mr S Myers
Head Teacher
