LAT response to school closure

Here is our CEO's update on the Government's decision to close schools.  It reads:

Thursday 19th March 2020
Dear Parents / Carers,
Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

Following on from my recent updates, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed by the government to close your child’s school to almost all children after this Friday 20th March until further notice. As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are still waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday 23rd March onwards. Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will continue to keep you informed through email, social media and our websites.

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn. Each LAT school is making provision for home learning and details of this will come directly from each school.

If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this.

Self-isolation and illness mean that our schools workforce is significantly depleted and we monitor this on a daily basis. The actions that are being taken, both locally and by the government, are being done with the clear intent of preventing the spread of the virus. As such it is imperative that to keep our children and staff safe our schools receive a thorough clean each day.

This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

If you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

Thank you again for your continued support and understanding at this difficult time.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Spry
Chief Executive Officer
Learning Academies Trust