School Closure 4th to 8th January

Dear Parents and Carers,

I do hope you have all had a happy and as safe a Christmas as possible in the circumstances.

It is with great regret I have to announce that the school will not reopen to children as planned on Tuesday 5th January 2021.

We currently have over half the staff unavailable for work next week, mainly due to several testing positive for COVID19 or having to self-isolate due to close family members contracting the virus.

Our thoughts and prayers are of course with them and their families and we pray for your health and safe return.

The decision has not been taken lightly and has involved discussions with our Chair of Governors and the Local Authority. We take the education of your children very seriously, but we have to consider adequate provision and safety for your child.

Provision for week of 4th January

We will be able to offer a limited provision for children of Critical Workers only from Tuesday 5th to Friday 8th.

We cannot guarantee your child will be taught by their class teacher (although we still have to operate in bubbles).

If you will require this provision and can prove employment in the sections mentioned at the end of this e-mail, then please e-mail admin@stsaviours.lewisham.sch.uk by 12 noon on Monday 4th January. We will then assess capacity and staff availability in the required bubbles.

For children who are not children of critical workers we will provide online learning from Tuesday to Friday on the schools Home Learning web page (https://www.stsaviours.lewisham.sch.uk/home_school/ ).

We apologise hugely for the timing of this announcement, but also feel we need to give parents and carers adequate time to arrange childcare.

Best wishes and a Happy New Year.

Mr D Houson

Headteacher

Critical Workers

Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections – 

Health and Social Care

This includes, but is not limited to, doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and Childcare

This includes:

  • childcare
  • support and teaching staff
  • social workers
  • specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach

Key Public Services

This includes:

  • those essential to the running of the justice system
  • religious staff
  • charities and workers delivering key frontline services
  • those responsible for the management of the deceased
  • journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting

Local and National Government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:

  • the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
  • essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies
  • Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food:

  • production
  • processing
  • distribution
  • sale and delivery

as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

Public Safety and National Security

This includes:

  • police and support staff
  • Ministry of Defence civilians
  • contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
  • fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)

National Crime Agency staff

those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas

Transport and Border

  • This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.

Utilities, Communication and Financial Services

This includes:

  • staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
  • the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
  • information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
  • key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
  • postal services and delivery
  • payments providers
  • waste disposal sectors