St Paul's Catholic Primary School

Thursday 19th March
Dear parents,
On Wednesday 18th March 2020, Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education announced that all schools should close for the foreseeable future due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
These are very worrying times for us all and we want to assure you that we continue to work very hard to protect the health and well-being of your children. As a Catholic community, we are called to care for those in need and to fulfil our vocation to live out the Gospel message. In our Mission year, this is a clear call to ‘Let His Light Shine through our Service’.
The announcement stated that from Monday 23rd March, schools should remain open for certain groups of pupils in order to protect the most vulnerable of pupils and to support key workers as they provide vital services for the whole community. We have yet to receive clarification about what is meant by ‘key worker’ but once we do we will communicate that with you.
However, it should be noted, that the aim is to keep the number of children attending school to a minimum in order to inhibit the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, children of key workers should only be attending school when the key worker would have to stay off work in order to look after them. As per government guidelines, as a vulnerable group themselves, elderly grandparents should not be asked to look after children in the home.
We also understand that we will be asked to facilitate the distribution of free school meals in some way for those children who receive them. We will circulate details of this when we know more but if your child does receive Free School Meals and you would like them to continue to do so then please let the school know.
Please note that, as currently, should your child develop symptoms whilst in school, it will be necessary to send them home immediately.
If you are unclear about the contents of this letter, have concerns or specific circumstances that you would like to discuss then please contact the school.
God Bless us all

Clare Madden
Lumen Christi Catholic Multi Academy