Return to school on Monday 5th October

Dear Parents and children,

It is now over a week since we were instructed by Public Health England to close our school, and that seems so long ago.  We are now planning for re-opening next Monday, 5th October and we look forward to seeing all our pupils once again.

COVID 19 arrived in our school last week, despite all our efforts to minimise any risks.  We do not know how, or where it came from.  All we know is one of our school family members caught it, either inside school or outside in the community.  That person did not deliberately seek to catch it. At a time when rates of infection across the country are rising, it came to our school.   So many parents were very understanding then, and have been since, realising that that the school closure was beyond our control.

You will know from the television, radio and papers that there have been many other partial closures or even full closure across Lancashire and elsewhere.  Several other primary schools in Lancaster and beyond are closed.  I read this morning that some 9,000 pupils in Liverpool are currently in self-isolation. Either way, we at St. Josephs are not alone.  We were not the first school to close, and sadly, we will not be the last.  COVID 19 sadly is now part and parcel of everyday life.

We had just got back to normal and return to school when this closure was forced on us.  I will again apologise for the impact that our closure has had, and how it has affected you all.  It will have affected your contact with other family members and friends.  It will have affected your work.  It will have taken all of us back to the days immediately after March 23^rd, and we were all stuck indoors.

The advice and guidance we continue to receive all point to the steps we already have implemented, nothing else has changed.  We will make sure our bubbles stay as far apart as possible, and levels of personal hygiene are maintained. To minimise further risk, we will take a number of additional steps, beyond those we have already introduced, such as wearing face masks in corridors and the hall (Please see most recent post ‘End of Day Collection Times‘).

You will be pleased to know that the member of our school family has quickly recovered. All staff have self-isolated since we closed.  Some have had tests, and all have returned negative.  At the point of writing, no members of staff are displaying symptoms.   We are all ready to go from next Monday.

I hope that, following reading this, that you feel able to send your children back to school.  If you want to discuss matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Head@st-josephs-lancaster.lancs.sch.uk

Yours truly,

Mr. S Belbin/Miss R. Griffiths/Mrs L. Beaumont

Weekly Newsletter and a message from Mr Belbin

Headteachers Message

18.9.20 newsletter

RETURN TO SCHOOL QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear Parent,

We hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather.  We are at school currently planning for next term.  One aspect we must think about is “What happens if we have another sudden lockdown?  What will happen to home learning?”.  We know many parents have told us over the last four months that they have found difficulties in home learning, in helping children of different ages with their work and in going on-line.

We would like your help.  If you have time, we would like you to have a look through these questions and answer them as best you can.  We will then use your answers to help us prepare, just in case.

Thank you

Mr Belbin, Miss Griffiths and Mrs Beaumont

 

Parent Questionnaire

Your views are incredibly important to us, which is why we would like you to spend a few minutes completing the following questionnaire.  

Your responses will be collated and shared with the staff and governors in order for us to make changes and ensure that our school can ‘Be The Best That We Can Be’.

As always, THANK YOU!