Archives for March 2020

Schools across England have been asked to donate Science goggles and other apparatus to the NHS due to the current shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses dealing on the front-line with the Coronavius.

Pictured below is Dr Jane Tinker (Head) with the Corbet’s donations whilst being filmed by the BBC for BBC Midlands Today.

From Monday 6th April, due to there not being any children attending for childcare, there will not be any LA or school transport available and school is closed.

In the event of a parent / carer becoming a key worker through a change in circumstances, please contact admin@corbetschool.net if requesting a childcare place. To meet the government priority for children to stay at home wherever possible, we will ask for details regarding why this might not be possible in making a decision. Thank you for your understanding.

Dear Corbet Parents/Guardians and Pupils

Please find attached a ‘Home learning support pack’ which contains lots of information we hope will be useful in these difficult times, including advice about pupils working from home, well being activities, support contacts and more.

Stay safe and best wishes.

Home learning support pack

Some reading suggestions:

https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

https://toppsta.com/blog/view/bookish-ideas-if-you’re-self-isolating-with-the-kids

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

Dear parents / carers

I would like to confirm the following arrangements from Monday 23rd March.

The Corbet School will be open for a limited number of children within the staffing available. This is a picture that could change as people have to start to isolate or become unwell. Therefore, we will do our best to remain open whilst we have staff available. Any student attending will be picked up by the buses at the normal time and will be dropped off at the normal time by the school buses. At this stage we will have no before or after school provision although we do want to support parents in the very best way that we can through this crisis and will speak to parents individually next week.

To support us with this could I please strongly reiterate the guidance from the DfE, if children can safely stay at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading.

That is why the government has asked parents to keep their children at home, wherever possible, and ask schools to remain open only for those children who absolutely need to attend.

Schools are, therefore being asked to continue to provide care for a limited number of children. The government have advised that we follow these key principles.

1. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
2. If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
3. Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
4. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.
5. Residential special schools, boarding schools and special settings continue to care for children wherever possible.

If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

If you feel that you fall into the category of key worker or your child falls into a vulnerable group and you are not able to safely care for them at home please complete the survey monkey questionnaire to enable us to plan provision for Monday. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RXS6DXD

If it is at all possible, we would like to know numbers by midday today for our initial planning.
I understand that some parents may miss this deadline due to work commitments. Please could I ask that you respond before Monday so that we know which children are due to attend school to enable us to safeguard them properly.

If you have not responded we will assume your child is not attending school and therefore we will not be expecting them.

If you have indicated that we are expecting your child, we will follow our normal absence procedures.

We may be asking for evidence of key worker status or the reasons that your child cannot be safely cared for at home, as clearly, we may have to prioritise care for these most in need within the limitations of staffing available. I know this is an exceptionally difficult time for parents and we all need to follow guidance issued by the government. We will continue to put work onto SMHW, and teachers will respond to questions on there.

This picture will change daily in terms of staffing available in school and I would ask that parents bear with us and support us through this exceptionally difficult time.

Yours sincerely

Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

Dear Parent / Guardian

We wish to inform you that there is a confirmed case of Coronavirus of a student in the school. The pupil hasn’t attended school since Friday 13th March and was confirmed to us today.

We have taken advice from Public Health England, Shropshire Council, and the Department for Education and followed the latest guidance from the government.

We take the health of the children and our staff very seriously; therefore, we have decided to take the following precautionary measures. The school will be closed for the next two days, Thursday and Friday, to allow for a thorough clean of the building. You will already know that we have introduced increased cleaning and hand washing and further measures will continue to be implemented.

Please also refer to the Department for Education ‘New guidance for households with symptoms’ which was distributed on Tuesday 17th March.

We understand that you may have concerns, but we want to reassure you and reiterate that we have followed all the guidance and advice currently available.

We have taken this decision in conjunction with our board of Governors, Public Health England and the local authority amid the operational concerns of maintaining safe working practices.

During this period we would kindly ask parents to e-mail absence@corbetschool.net if their child is symptomatic and the date from which they will be self-isolating. We will review pupil and staff absence levels on Sunday 22nd March and advise parents of our plans for week commencing Monday 23rd March. We would like to advise that this is likely to be a phased opening of school, but further details will be provided in due course.

I am sorry that, at this stage, I cannot give any further guidance about next week but as we all know the picture changes every day and we can only respond to advice as we receive it. I would like to thank parents for their support at this exceptionally difficult time for us all.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Jane Tinker,
Headteacher

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Dear Parents / Guardians

In this letter, you can find information about how we are managing the current situation and the support available to students and staff. We will keep this updated and will let students and staff know by email and on social media when we have made updates. The health, welfare and wellbeing of our students and staff is our number one priority. Due to the current unprecedented situation with coronavirus, we have had to put the following measures in place today:

• Extended tutor period, whilst the school’s senior leadership team assess staffing levels and pupil absence.
• Students have been grouped according to available staffing levels and given alternative activities linked to the curriculum wherever possible.
• Several school events have been cancelled; these have been communicated separately.
• After school clubs have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, including library provision at the end of the day.
• Our school remains open and we are continuing to operate as well as we can with the staff available.
• Attendance:
•  I would ask that parents and students follow the self-isolation directives.
• We ask parents of student’s with critical medical conditions or those in the vulnerable category to ensure that they have sought medical advice on their child’s attendance in school. If the advice is that the student should be self-isolating, please be assured that this will not have a negative impact on their attendance record, and we will support this advice/decision.

Steps the school may look to take if the staffing situation is unsustainable:

• Partial school closure to be communicated on the website, email and text.

School Closure:
The school, on guidance from Public Health England, will remain open and operational until instructed otherwise.
Safe staffing levels will be monitored, and school provision adapted within the guidelines provided by the DfE. We still await further clarification regarding overseas trips and public examinations and are actively seeking answers to these concerns.
Please continue to refer to the DfE daily e-mail for further updates.

We are grateful to our parents/carers, staff and students for all their cooperation, help and support at this challenging time.

Yours sincerely

Dr Jane Tinker
Headteacher

We are contacting you to make you aware that at present the trip to Córdoba on 18^th May has not yet been cancelled by the tour operator. The travel company, Glo-Ed , are awaiting further advice from ABTA who have currently only issued guidelines for trips between now and the end of April. Please be informed that due to the current uncertainty surrounding trips abroad after April, the proposed information evening regarding the trip to Cordoba on April 21^st will be postponed until we have further information from the travel company. Thank you for your patience and please be assured that we will keep you up to date with news as soon as we receive it”.