28.05.20 LA School closure

Thursday 28^th May

Dear Parents/Carers,

New guidance was published yesterday evening from the local authority in relation to schools opening to Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils on the 1^st June.

Lancashire County Council is advising schools in the county not to open to more pupils from 1^st June, but instead to continue with the current arrangements for key worker families. This is because, in their assessment, we do not currently meet all five of the government's tests in Lancashire which would allow this decision to be taken safely.

In light of this, we have decided not to open the school to children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 in the week beginning 1^st June. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. However, the safety and wellbeing of our children, families, and school staff are our priority – we will not open schools until the Government and the local authority agree that it is safe to do so.

The government's five tests are outlined below along with current assessment from Lancashire County Council:

Protect the NHS’s ability to cope. We must be confident that we are able to provide sufficient critical care and specialist treatment right across the UK.
See a sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rates from Covid-19 so we are confident that we have moved beyond the peak
See that the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels across the board, although we don’t see the results of all tests in a timely manner. In addition, we are starting to see social distancing not being followed everywhere across the county which poses the risk of new cases to rise.
Be confident that the range of operational challenges, including testing capacity and PPE, are in hand, with supply able to meet future demand.
Be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS.

Lancashire state that locally, we are currently able to meet the requirements of the first three tests; however, we do not meet the requirements for the final two tests. The test and trace programme is not at a state of readiness to respond to Covid-19 community setting outbreaks in a timely manner, which poses a risk to school environments. Furthermore, they are not confident that adjustments to the current measures of the lockdown policy will not risk a second peak of infections locally.

More information can be found here: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/coronavirus-updates/schools/advice-to-schools-on-reopening-to-more-pupils/

Consequently, their advice to schools is to not re-open to more pupils on June 1st, but to continue with their current support systems that are in place. Lancashire will regularly review the situation and provide further advice to advise schools to open to more pupils as soon as they judge it safe to do so.

Children of key worker families may still attend school from 1^st June as they have been doing through the lockdown period.

To reiterate, school is not open to Reception, Year 1 or Year 6 children from Monday 1^st June as it is not safe to do so. Again, I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused but know that you trust us to make the right decision for the safety and wellbeing of our children. We take the care of your children very seriously and know that this is the right decision for our school community.

Please stay safe and we hope to see you soon.

Mrs K. Gorrell,

Acting Headteacher