Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, I hope that you had a restful half term and one that meant you had less screen time and time to make memories as a family together. A little cold, wet and windy at times but relaxing hopefully.

Today is the day we will finally know if we are to expect our children back with us from the 8th March 2021. If you can, I am sure you will be tuning in at 7pm tonight to hear the latest update and the governments ‘road map’ for coming out of the national lockdown.

Once the announcement has been made, we will be waiting on the formal guidance from the DfE (Department for Education) to be published regarding schools wider re-opening. We then update our risk assessment and it is at that point we will be in contact to let you know about any returning arrangements. This is likely to be the end of this week or early next week depending on how quickly the guidance from the DfE arrives.

Remember to do your best over the two weeks to engage in the lessons shared. In addition, please remember to let us know if you require any support with internet access, technology/devices, physical resources and/or paper packs.

Over the holidays, we found out that that 19 out of the 25 devices we sent to Retech for refurbishing have now been converted to Chromebooks and should be with us this week ready for distribution. Please do say if a device is required for your child, and we can add you to the list and hand out based on a needs basis.

We appreciate that we are in pandemic, with frustrating situations for many of us. However, we continue to strive to achieve our very best and continually look at ways we can celebrate our successes, whilst also continually looking at ways to improve. Your ongoing feedback and comments to consultations (parent voice) have been very insightful and helpful. I will write out again later this week in response to the feedback on Ofsted Parent View. You can still have your say at https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/login?destination=/give-your-views - thanks in advance for taking the time to complete.

Thank you for your continued support and patience - we cannot wait to see you all again soon.

Warm regards,

Mrs Bates