Covid-19

We thank all our families for following the ongoing government advice, guidance and information. As a country, we need to continue to do all that we can to reduce the spread of COVID19 and the government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible. If children can safely stay at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading. Schools are being asked to provide reduced childcare for those children who absolutely need to attend and cannot be kept safe at home. 

We are still continuing to provide childcare for those children of critical key workers and vulnerable children. Our opening hours will be 8.45 am until 3.30pm. Should you require childcare, please leave a message (01282 426833) or email the school office (office@st-jameslanehead.lancs.sch.uk). Please note, we require prior notice of any childcare needed so that we can arrange the correct staffing. Thank you.

 

The link below can provide advice in a rang of languages:

At St James’ Lanehead, we are working through a staged and sensible risk assessment. Despite the school closure the following measures are still in place:

• Additional cleaning of areas within the building priority of surfaces that are ‘high contact’ areas such as the bathrooms, door handles, telephones.
• Additional access to hand hygiene around the school building is in place.
• Educational – in classes children have been educated about hand washing using demonstrations and practice using the Government resources.

 

Daily measures

• We will send your child home for 14 days if they are showing symptoms. You must collect your child from school.
• We will use screening measures (thermometer) if we are concerned about a high temperature.
• All breaks and lunchtime sittings will be staggered.  Children will not sit next to each other during these periods.  Throughout the childcare provision we will try and make as much use of the outdoor area as possible (weather permitting).  This does mean that in the event of unpredictable weather children must bring a waterproof coat.

 

Contingency planning

Communication

As the path of the outbreak continues to develop, we will be following the advice from the Department of Education, Public Health England, and the Government. This could involve closure of some parts/ whole of the school. If this happens, please note:

• We have remote access to the parent and pupil database and can send app notifications to all families to keep them updated.
• We can update our school website remotely so you would need to check this daily in the event of a closure.

Pupil learning

Whilst there is no substitute to high quality teaching by a teacher, teaching assistant, a vibrant classroom and school environment we do have some online platforms for parents to be able to access for their children. We have sent out the logins for you to access these. Pupils do use platforms such as Purple Mash and Mini Mash, TT Rockstars in school so they should be able to access this platform with ease.

National Examinations

We are aware that there maybe some impact upon the Year 1 and Year 2 phonics screening check, Year 4 Mathematical Times Table Check, KS1 and KS2 SATS. This will affect the whole country. We will therefore follow Government advice and keep parents/ carers updated.

My immediate concern is the health and safety of pupils, staff and their families, clearly the longer term impact is a concern too. I have been in contact with the NAHT and I am confident that these matters are being raised with the government. I will keep you informed and updated with ant further information as and when we receive it.

 

Attendance

Staff absence

It is possible that school may need to operate as normal but with staff absences. Government advice relating to Covid-19 has been to ‘relax’ the law concerning class sizes which may mean that classes could be amalgamated. We will only do this in extreme cases and we will endeavour to keep the school running as smoothly as possible.

Please also be aware that staff also have to follow the Government advice from Public Health England about attending work if they have been in contact with cases of Coronavirus and may not be able to attend work, even if they want to.

This could also affect the use of online resources as other staff would need to add additional work to the website, please be patient if this happens.

We also have some staff who fall into the ‘vulnerable ‘ groups so they may need to take action also.

Pupil attendance

There are a number of various circumstances that could impact attendance and we will treat all cases individually.

 

Parents’ evenings

In light of the recent information we have postponed both parents evenings. We will send out new dates and times.

As always if you would like to speak with the class teachers please call the school office and they will phone you back.

 

What we need you to do

If you’ve recently changed your contact details, please inform the school office as soon as possible via office@st-jameslanehead.lancs.sch.uk

• Come and collect your child straight away, if we ask you to, without refusal and without delay (we’ll contact you if they become ill with either a temperature, flu-like symptoms or a new, continuous cough)
• Check that your child has access to the school website and Purple Mash from home, and let us know if there are any issues (so we can make sure we’re well prepared for remote learning if the school does need to close at some point)
• Please download the school app. If you are struggling to download and activate the school app, please contact Miss Jarvis. Please also turn on your notifications for the app.
• Do not ring the school for coronavirus information as all we can do is quote the Public Health and Government advice. This will also block the telephone lines and take time from the office to support with the day to day running of the school. In the event of a national announcement do not ring the school. We will send you a message via the app.
• The office@st-jameslanehead email can be monitored daily – please only use this for emergency messages and not for daily communication with teachers. ü Contact the NHS, if you want to know more about the symptoms of coronavirus. If you think you or your child may have the symptoms, use NHS 111 online if at all possible before calling 111
• Department for Education’s coronavirus helpline: 0800 046 8687, if you have any questions about the government’s response to coronavirus in relation to schools ü Government’s travel advice, if you want to know whether any upcoming trip or holiday you’re taking abroad should go ahead

 

As I am sure you all will appreciate, we are currently dealing with something that is complex and rapidly changing. My first priority will always be the health and safety of the pupils and staff at St James’ Lanehead. Now, more than ever, this remains my primary focus. We have already taken lots of measures to support the delay and spread of the virus. We know our parents will support us and understand why we have to take these measures given that the circumstances are ever changing and are extremely serious.

This is an entirely unprecedented situation and we are following the official advice from the Government and the NHS, Public Health England. This advice is changing on a daily basis and we are monitoring and responding to what is published. The official advice underpins all the actions that we are taking. It is possible that our resources could be stretched for some time. We would like to clarify that any decisions made are based upon the guidance that we receive.

Whilst I appreciate that there will be a wide range of views about how we should be responding and what action should be taken, I hope that you appreciate that I am duty bound to follow the official advice given by our Government.

Thank you for your continued support, I know that the staff and parents at St James’ Lanehead will support one another at this challenging time.

As a school we pray at this time for the most vulnerable within our school community, with this in mind we will not be visiting St James’ Briercliffe Church nor our friends at the Wednesday Club at the community centre.

Best wishes,

Mrs Dugdale

Head Teacher