Reopening Arrangements for January 2021

2nd Jan 2021

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you had a happy and healthy Christmas! 

As I'm sure you are aware, in an attempt to counteract the increasing rates of coronavirus transmission, the Education Minister Peter Weir has released revised plans for the reopening of schools in January.

Primary Schools will reopen for face to face teaching of all pupils on Monday 11th January 2021.  The first week of teaching will now be via remote learning instead. Families whose children are entitled to free school meals will receive a payment from EA for the week beginning 4th January.

Our pupils were due to return to school on Wednesday 6th January. However, following Department of Education guidance, Wednesday 6th will be a planning day for staff to prepare for the following two days of remote learning (Thursday 7th and Friday 8th January). P1-P3 will receive remote learning via Seesaw. P4-P7 pupils will use Google Classroom. Hard copies of work will be available on request for pupils without internet access. Please contact school reception on Wednesday 6th January.

The school will be open on Thursday 7th January- Friday 8th January for supervised learning.  This facility is available to children of key workers or children who are considered vulnerable. 

This is supervised learning, not face to face teaching and pupils will be supervised completing activities that would otherwise be completed at home. It should only be considered if there is no other alternative and will be made available during school hours only.  Pupils can arrive at school from 8.45am. P1 & P2 will finish at 2pm, while P3-P7 will finish at 3pm. 

In order for us to plan for appropriate levels of supervision, please inform me via email at mredmond460@c2kni.net by Monday 4th January at 6pm if your child needs to avail of supervised learning in school.  Please indicate on your email your child's name and class.  Children who attend should wear their school uniform as usual.

Please read the definitions below to help you decide if you fall into the category of keyworker or if your child can be identified as vulnerable:

Definition of key workers (only one parent needs to be a keyworker):

• Health and Social Care.  This includes doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, home carers and staff required to maintain our health and social care sector;
• Education and childcare.  This includes pre-school and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who will remain active during the Covid-19 response;
• Public safety and national security.  This includes civilians and officers in the police (including key contractors), Fire and Rescue Service, prison service and other national security roles;
• Transport.  This will include those keeping air, water, road and rail transport modes operating during the Covid-19 response;
• Utilities, and Communication.  This includes staff needed for oil, gas, electricity and water (including sewage) and primary industry supplies to continue during the Covid-19 response, as well as key staff in telecommunications, post and delivery, banking and waste disposal;
• Financial Services - This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure);
• Food and other necessary goods.  This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution and sale, as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (e.g. hygiene, medical, etc.);
• Retail. This includes those workers who have been working throughout the pandemic in food retail, for example, and will now extend to those working in other retail businesses permitted to operate by the Executive  from June 2020;
• Other workers essential to delivering key public services such as the National Crime Agency; and
• Key national and local government including those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the Covid-19 response.

Definition of a vulnerable child:

• A child who has an assigned social worker because he or she is a child in need, in need of protection (or on the child protection register) or is a looked after child.
• A child in need includes young carers, children with disabilities, and children living in families where there is domestic abuse, substance abuse, and / or mental health difficulties.
• A child who is receiving support from, or has been referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
• A child who has a statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN), a child who is accessing EOTAS, or a child who normally accesses Education Nurture Units.
• A child who is ‘on-the-edge’ of receiving support from children’s social services.
• A child who is in need, including in need of protection, but whose need is not known to statutory services.
• A child who is not known to statutory or voluntary and community support services but who is vulnerable because their family is under increased pressure due to Covid-19 related circumstances.
• A young person who was previously a looked after child, whether or not they are receiving support from statutory services.
• A child who has been placed for adoption.
• Asylum seeking and refugee children and children whose parents have no recourse to public funds.

Full guidance from the Department of Education can be found here:

https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/news/weir-announces-changes-schools-reopening-arrangements

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Looking forward to seeing our pupils again soon!

Kind regards,

Mrs M Redmond