This week’s blog is deliberately written on Sunday evening – I had wanted to wait until the Prime Minister’s address this evening before writing to you.
If you did not have the chance to see Boris Johnson’s briefing, the key points are that the UK is making progress in defeating coronavirus, but that we are going to see a careful and phased approach to lifting the lockdown and not an immediate change to all of the restrictions currently in place.
A BBC summary of the briefing can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52609952
As has been the case throughout this crisis, there is much more detail to come tomorrow than we have at hand tonight! For the entire country, though, the PM has made it clear that 5 tests need to be met before the lockdown can be lifted:
1 Make sure the NHS can cope
2 There is a ‘sustained and consistent’ fall in death rate
3 The infection rate decreases to ‘manageable levels’
4 The supply of tests and PPE meets future demand
5 Any adjustments don’t risk a second peak
We are all used, no doubt, to hearing about “R” now – this is rate of reproduction of the disease. If this moves about 1, the risk of exponential growth rises and the virus will spread rapidly again.
Beyond all of the science, the stats and the drama of Number 10, though, what is the impact for our school community? There will be further guidance over the coming days, but for now:
We remain open for the children of key workers. If your work situation changes following the latest guidance, please contact the office at office@allsaints-academy.co.uk if you need to talk to us about your child being in school. At the moment, this is still for key workers only.
We remain open for vulnerable children. This includes those with an EHCP or the support of a social worker. Please contact our wellbeing team if you need our support: safeguarding@allsaints-academy.co.uk
We are closed to all other students until some time in June at the very earliest.
The Prime Minister has made it clear that Primary Schools will be the first to return with children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 being the first to return. The PM indicated tonight that students taking exams next year would be the first to return to the secondary sector.
For All Saints, this may mean Year 10 possibly returning for some input before the summer break but only if all of the evidence is moving in the right direction. We will need to await further guidance from the government about this, though, and I will write formally to you with this when we have it.
Given that schools will remain closed for the remainder of the first half of the summer term, I will write formally tomorrow to invite students to online assemblies later this week. I hope that they will be able to attend. Now that we have this latest update, we will also continue setting work using the range of methods we have developed in order to support your child. We will also continue with welfare tutor group based calls.
Please do contact us as many of you have been doing in order to help us shape our approach – working together is the best way that we can continue to support your children at this time
Finally, please do make sure to take a few moments to read the official government advice which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Wishing you the very best at this time
John Cornish
Principal