Dear Parents,

Ordinarily, I would be wishing you a Happy New Year and welcoming the children back to the start of the new term. However, this is not quite the position we find ourselves in this year. It has certainly been a day of mixed and confusing messages from different sources. However, as always we are required to await directions from the Government regarding the closure of schools. You may be aware that some local schools made the decision to close earlier today due to staff shortages caused by a number of reasons. This was not the case for Perryfields and we were hoping to continue providing education for all our pupils in as safe an environment as we could possibly manage.

However, following the announcement from the Government this evening this is no longer the case and we have been instructed to close the school for the majority of our pupils. I have no doubt that this decision will have been received with a mixture of emotions. Many will possibly feel relieved and less anxious about the potential dangers of schools reopening whilst many of you may feel concerned regarding the educational provision for your children and how this can be managed at home.

We will remain open for the children of Key Workers, vulnerable children and those with a EHCP as was the case in March 2020. Therefore, if your child falls into any of these groups, please contact school via the office admin email address without delay so that we can make arrangements to educate them in school.

If your child is not entitled to a school place, the teachers will provide remote learning. As before, work will be made available on the Class Blogs and activities set from the CPG textbooks which were issued last term. In addition to which, we are hoping to use Microsoft Teams to deliver lessons on line. To enable this, all children now have a school email address which will be shared with you via Class Charts. Teachers will provide information to enable your child to access the online lessons. If you require the loan of a school laptop, please contact the school office again via the office admin email address and arrangement can be made. Please note that we only have a limited number available for loan so please only request a device if absolutely necessary.

This is far from an ideal situation and appreciate that this is not the start back to school that any of us would have wished for. Hopefully we will soon see a reduction in the number of cases and can look forward to better days.

In the meantime, please take care and keep safe.

Kind Regards

Mrs Jones