Dear Parents and Carers,

First of all, we would like to say a big thank you to all of you for all the support you have given us throughout the first lockdown and again during this lockdown. After the Government’s announcement earlier this week it seems that we will be carrying on in this situation for longer than we expected.

You are all doing a fantastic job with the home learning and we want to reassure you that we understand that some of you are still working from home and trying to work with your children too. We know that we have set a lot of work, if you can’t manage it all PLEASE DO NOT WORRY; we know that you are doing your best. Everyone’s circumstances are different. If your time is limited, spend some quality time reading with your child and/or allow them to choose which lessons they do.

Also a massive thank you to our key workers, who are only sending their children in when absolutely necessary. We are working with your children in school and trying our best to provide them with the same work that is available on the class blogs. It is getting very busy in school with nearly all classes having almost half of the class in on some days, which is approaching the optimum limit to address full covid secure guidelines as is detailed in our risk assessment. As you can appreciate this is difficult for us in school as we are doing our best to keep all children and staff safe and happy. In the first lockdown we had about 10% of the children in – during this lockdown we have almost 50%. The guidance from the Government states that if you possibly can keep your child at home then please do so. We appreciate that this isn’t the case for some parents and we are extremely grateful to those key workers who only send their children in when absolutely necessary. It is of the upmost importance for us that our children are safe and happy. If you could please help us by keeping your children at home if at all possible this would be great. Due to the numbers of Key Workers’ children we currently have attending at present; we are going to have to look at further criteria when considering the offer of a place in school.

We know how difficult circumstances are at the moment. We believe that you as parents are doing a tremendous job in this winter lockdown! We are here for all our St. Andrew’s families as we always are, so please reach out if you need us.

The St. Andrew’s Team