IMPORTANT Lancashire update re: wider primary school re-opening 08/06/20

Date: 8th Jun 2020 @ 1:48pm

The following statement was published today:

Message from Edwina Grant OBE

Executive Director Education and Children’s Services

 

'I am writing to let you know that our Director of Public Health has reviewed his guidance that schools should not welcome more pupils and has determined that it should not change.

 

That means Dr Sakthi Karunanithi is advising that schools should continue to delay reopening to, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils, along with the scheduled plans for year 10 pupils in secondary schools. It is still the case that he believes two of the five government tests are not being met in the county.

 

Although the number of new cases has decreased, Lancashire and the North West have a high number of cases compared to many other regions in the country.

 

Similarly, although the weekly death count in Lancashire is showing a downward trend, a consistent decline is not being seen in all areas, and in recent weeks we have seen an increase. It has also been widely reported that the R value for the North West is above 1. Locally, all partners are working closely in the development of our local response to support Test and Trace.

 

Although some progress has been made, more work needs to be done to properly embed local expertise into the national NHS Test and Trace system.

 

Lancashire people have worked so hard throughout the pandemic in keeping the virus at bay. With various national lock down measures lifting, we need to remain vigilant in following social distancing rules to help prevent the infection spreading. 

 

This advice will be reviewed again next Monday 15th June, and if it changes, we will encourage schools to take the decision to reopen to more pupils from 22nd  June if deemed safe to do so.'

What next for our school?

• We will inform parents of Dr Karunanithi's advice when this has been published on Monday 15th June
• At the point, Dr Karunanithi does advise schools to implement a wider    re-opening, we will set up a second brief parent survey to get an up-to-date picture of how many parents are willing for their child to return to school. This survey will only be open for 24 hours. We appreciate your support in completing this
• We already know given current available staff and the government's phased return guidance that we can only manage 4 groups or bubbles (approximately 40 children)
• We will continue to prioritise key worker children. Until we know the demand for key worker children, we are unable to commit to other groups
• Teachers will continue to provide all children with home learning, promote interaction and give feedback to children through the Pupil Area on the website
• Teachers can be contacted using their email address at the top of the weekly home learning guide
• We will continue to keep parents up-to-date with future changes through the School Spider app and emails

Thank you for your on-going support