Dear Parents/Carers
I write to you again following last night’s government announcement that all schools in England will close on Friday 20th March, until further notice. We are in the process of making preparations to support the children with learning at home. Further information on this will follow. School aims to communicate with those children who are at home via email. If you have recently changed your email address, please email Mrs Nicholls at bursar@dukestreet-pri.lancs.sch.uk with your new one as soon as possible. In addition to this, from Monday, schools are being asked to open to provide care for vulnerable pupils and those whose parents or carers are key workers. The key workers identified by the government will be announced later today. I would be grateful if you could contact Mrs Nicholls in the school office before 12pm today, if you think you work within any of the services that are likely to be identified by the government as ‘key workers’ and will be requiring your child/children to access school from Monday. There will be a verification process for all parents requesting access to this service. A member of the admin team will contact you directly regarding this early next week once with have more information through from central government. In addition to this, our outreach staff will be in touch with families of children in the specified vulnerable groups once further clarity on this has been received. For parents of children in Year 2 and Year 6, the government have announced that all statutory assessment tests (SATs) are cancelled. I again await further information on how schools will be asked to make these assessments instead and will be in touch with further information as this is received. As I am sure you can imagine, there is a lot for us to work through in the coming days in order for us to meet the needs of all our children during these difficult times. Please bear with us while changes are put in place and new services begin. We are doing our best to make this transition as problem free as possible while also responding to changing government guidance. I will continue to keep you informed of any further updates as they are received. We appreciate the strains that our families face and are here to offer advice and support through these challenging times. Class teachers will be in regular contact with home learners if they are fit and well to do so. Our outreach staff will be available to offer support and advice over the phone for families who may experience personal or financial difficulty. Please get in touch via the school office if we can help in any way or with them directly on the numbers or emails below. Rachel Von-Kaenel: 07827 232422 r.von-kaenel@dukestreet-pri.lancs.sch.uk Emma Robinson: 07557 030848 e.robinson@dukestreet-pri.lancs.sch.uk I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our families well. Take care and stay safe everyone.
Yours sincerely
Mrs S Ridley
DEPUTY HEADTEACHER
