Coronavirus Update

Dear Parents / Carers,

In these ever changing times, I am writing to update you on the school’s response to the most recent government guidelines. Our main responsibility is the health and safety of everyone associated with our school be that children, staff, parents or those connected with the daily running of our school.

We will continue to monitor the advice/ guidance from central government and respond as appropriate but for now my aim is to make St Stephen’s as normal as possible for our children – normal is a word that I do not usually associate with our phenomenal school!

We have made the decision to cancel or postpone the following events:

• Year 2 SATs meeting

• Swimming lessons

• Relationships Meeting

• Parents Evenings

• Class Assemblies

• Mums and Chums Breakfast

• Class trips

Breakfast club and after school clubs will run as normal.

As you know, we are being asked to keep the schools open and we are doing our best to comply with this.

If your child is currently absent please check your class page, on the website, where the teachers will detail a number of useful educational sites you can access from home to support their learning.
If the school were to close, a letter would go out to every child/ family detailing their child/ren’s log in details for accessing learning from home. Class pages would be updated on a daily basis, class teachers would set specific activities to be completed each day in line with the National Curriculum. Teachers would be contactable via email during school hours (unless able to do so due to illness) to answer any questions parents may have.

The situation is a rapidly developing one and the following points should be noted as high priority:

• Parents are asked to continue to be very vigilant in noticing symptoms and should not send children to school if they have a new, continuous cough or fever.

• Parents of children with underlying health conditions should seek advice regarding the need to self-isolate and let the school know if this is a step which is being advised.

• Children with a family member who has symptoms should also self-isolate for 14 days. Please contact the school to notify us of the absence and to inform us that you are self-isolating. If you have made the decision to self-isolate due to a family member having a high temperature or continuous cough, you will have to self-isolate for 14 days and not return to school earlier if the symptoms subside.

• Where a child is in self-isolation, in accordance with latest information and advice from Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, the child will be recorded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances in the attendance register and will therefore be authorised.

• Staff absences may be higher than average as staff have also been asked not to be in school if they have symptoms.

We have the most amazing school community and it fills me with immense pride as I watch us all pulling together to ensure our community remains safe. So, we will ‘turn our ear to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding’ trust in God and in the words of my Dad ‘look sharp and put our best foot forward’ but make sure its pointed!