Please see below a link to letter about school closure for most pupils following the government's announcement this evening. I have also copied the letter below for ease.

This letter will go home with children tomorrow, but if parents could read it tonight then this would really help us to start our preparations.

Mrs Dunne

https://www.stjosephsrcprimary.rochdale.sch.uk/general-letters/

Thursday 19^th March 2020

SCHOOL CLOSURE INFORMATION

Dear Parents / Carers,

I am sure that many of you will already be aware that yesterday evening the government announced that all schools in England will close on Friday for most pupils. The closure is until further notice. Schools will remain open for some pupils; children of key workers, children who have an Education Health Care Plan and children who have an allocated social worker. School are aware of those on EHC Plans and those with social workers and we will be writing to these parents individually to inform them of what this means for their family.

At the time of writing this letter however, we do not have from government the full details of who is meant by key workers. The only information we have about key worker is from the press conference that most of you will have seen where Boris Johnson named NHS workers, police and delivery drivers. Therefore, we cannot yet identify who these children will be. To try to be as prepared as possible for Monday, I have prepared a form for parents to complete IF YOU BELIEVE OR KNOW THAT YOU ARE A KEY WORKER. This form will be available on our website and it will also be available in paper format at the school office. The governors and I would like to ask all parents who believe that they are a key worker to complete the form and bring it to the school office or scan and email it to office@stjosephsrcprimary.rochdale.sch.uk. This way, when the government provide us with the list of who they are identifying as key workers, we can quickly contact all these parents and inform them about whether or not their child is still attending school as normal from Monday. I would make a plea to all parents to help us in this way by completing the form and submitting today if possible, by Friday lunchtime at the latest.

The majority of our children will be at home, most likely for a number of weeks. The children are expected to continue their learning through home learning tasks. Yesterday we sent home packs with all children who were in school. These packs along with information on the Class Pages of our school website provide learning tasks for your child whilst they are at home. Staff who are well will still be working and so I will be directing them to plan more activities, tasks and prepare and share other useful documents for home learning in the coming days and weeks. One idea I will be discussing with staff is a daily timetable for parents to follow with their children (where possible), as I thought that this might provide guidance and support to you at this very difficult time. I am also going to work with staff to come up with a way of celebrating good work and rewarding children for their efforts. It will be really important that you check the school website regularly, particularly as we do not have any indication about how long school may be closed.

Finally, I would just like to thank those of you who have been incredibly supportive of school in the past few days in what have been very testing times for us all. Your patience and understanding is very much appreciated. These are unprecedented times and I know how worrying this situation is and how hard these next months may be for families. I hope that together, as a school community, we will continue to support one another and make the best of the situation that we are faced with. During this period of closure, if you need help or support, please do get in touch via telephone or via office@stjosephsrcprimary.rochdale.sch.uk and we will do all we can to help you.

At this time there is nothing more powerful than prayer, as a Catholic community let us remember all those less fortunate than ourselves and always keep in our hearts that, ‘It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure,’ Samuel: 2 22-33

Yours sincerely

Mrs C Dunne

Head teacher