Key Workers' Letter

21/03/2020

Dear Parents

On behalf of all of the staff of St Mary’s Primary School, I want to thank you all for your support over the past two weeks. We have been trying to find a way through a very fast changing and challenging situation with very little clear direction from the various agencies that support schools. Your kind words and messages have encouraged and heartened us in our efforts.

The teachers have been working hard to put resources in place both online and in physical packs to make sure that the children have the opportunity to continue their learning.

Minister Weir’s statement stated that, the “aim of closing schools to pupils was taken to reduce the number of children in schools to enhance the effectiveness of our response to the Covid-19 outbreak.”

However, he has asked schools to assist key workers who are maintaining essential public services, and who have exhausted all other options for childcare. The minister has also asked that we keep the number of pupils in school to a minimum. The fewer children making the journey to school, and the fewer children in educational settings, the lower the risk that the virus can spread and infect vulnerable individuals in our communities and wider society.

Every alternative childcare arrangement should be explored before deciding to send children to school. School should in effect, be a last resort. This is in order to comply with general public health advice on social distancing.

Therefore, for those families where both parents are key workers and have no alternative option, we will do our best to assist you in looking after your children. However, we already have teachers and classroom assistants in self isolation. We will offer a childcare service only while we have safe staffing levels to do so. This will not be a drop-in service.

This service will not be anything like a normal school day, the focus will be on child supervision rather than teaching.

We need to know how many children will be in school each day to make sure we have the staff to look after them and keep them safe. Therefore, in cases where parents are key workers and no other childcare options are available, we will endeavour to assist with childcare, from 9am - 3pm from Tuesday March 24th.

We must stress that the best way to keep everyone safe (children, staff and your loved ones), is to KEEP YOUR CHILD AT HOME.

The criteria set by the Department of Education  for key workers can be found here https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/news/letter-minister-education-education-sector

If you believe you fall into the category of parents who meet this prescriptive criteria, and would like to express an interest in acquiring a space in the day care please email smccreesh642@c2kni.net before 6pm on Sunday 22^nd March.

Given the limited resources and the need to ensure the safety of all, we will need to prioritise those who are eligible. Your email should provide the names, phone numbers, occupations and working hours of both parents. If your occupations are not clearly detailed in Minister Weir’s list, please explain in detail why you believe you should be prioritised for this service. Please also explain why you are not availing of other childcare options.

We will assess each application in line with our capacity to deliver this service. NHS workers will be prioritised. We will contact all applicants on Monday and let you know if we can offer your child a place here from Tuesday March 24th. Places allocated will be reviewed on a daily basis as we have to consider the availability of a sufficient number of staff to provide a safe service.

We are most grateful to those keyworkers on the front line who are helping to fight this global pandemic. Please make sure to follow the most recent government advice to slow the spread of this virus and to give our wonderful NHS workers a chance to do their great work.

• Stop all non-essential contact with others
• Do what we can to limit our social contact with others
• Work from home where we possibly can
• Avoid social venues
• Self-isolate for 14 days if we have any of the key symptoms or if any of our family have these symptoms.

The staff of St Mary’s will keep all of our families in our prayers during this difficult time for everyone. We ask that you pray for us at this time.

Yours Sincerely

Seamus McCreesh

Principal