Dear Parents/Carers,

Thank you for your support, flexibility and patience following Monday night’s Governmental announcement.  As I am sure you can appreciate the aforementioned announcement has presented considerable challenges throughout the education sector.  However, I am exceptionally proud that the staff team at Elvington have risen to these challenges and achieved a huge amount in a very short time.

As you will no doubt be aware, this latest variant of COVID-19 is highly transmissible between younger children.  It is therefore essential that we keep the numbers in school to an absolute minimum.  Please do remember that during this lockdown, unlike previously, childcare bubbles are permitted.   

If you are a critical worker as defined in this link: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision?utm_source=4%20January%202021%20C19&utm_medium=Daily%20Email%20C19&utm_campaign=DfE%20C19, and you would like your child/ren to attend school, please contact me via email (head@elvingtonprimary.org.uk) by 12.00pm today – Wednesday 6^th January 2021.

We can only allow children who are the children of critical workers or are identified as vulnerable to attend school.  If your situation changes or if you are working part-time, or from home, please do not send your child/ren to school on these occasions.

In the event that ‘on site’ education is restricted in the future, available places will be strictly allocated to children in the following priority order:

1. Children who have a child protection plan, are “looked-after” or are identified as “in need” by social services or the school
2. Children with significant special education needs in receipt of a statutory EHCP (education, health and care plan)
3. Children adopted from care
4. Children identified by the school as “young carers”
5. Children with both parents/carers working in jobs critical to the frontline COVID-19 response (or one parent/carer in the case of single parents/carer households)
6. Children with both parents/carers working in jobs critical to the COVID-19 response (or one parent/carer in the case of single parents/carer households)
7. Children with special educational needs – who are not in receipt of an EHCP – but are identified by the school as vulnerable
8. Children with one parent/carer with jobs critical to the frontline COVID-19 response
9. Children with one parent/carer with jobs critical to the COVID-19 response.

*Frontline means being unable to carry out your work from home. 

To close, can I please reinforce that the Government have strongly advised that, if you are able to keep your child/ren at home, it is very important that you do so to limit the numbers of children in school.  This is in order to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to other children; the wider community and my staff team – thank you for your ongoing support…

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Andrew Buttery