KEY WORKER AND VULNERABLE CHILD PLACE

Deadline for requesting a place is 4pm today.  Mr Maule, Mrs Pringle and Mrs Watson are now ringing those who have emailed to request a place and those who have an EHCP or a Social Worker.  Mrs Withers will email with information those families need.  

No places will be allocated if you do not email office@fordleyprimary.org.uk by 4pm

Dear Parents/Carers,

You will be aware that the Prime Minister and Education Secretary announced tonight at 8pm that schools will be closed from tomorrow for MOST children. Schools are to remain open for children whose parents are identified as ‘key workers’.

At this time we do not have up to date guidance from the government about who is classed as a ‘Key Worker’ but based on the guidance given to London schools this covers:

• 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

While we wait to hear the exact identification of roles, we would like to take a proactive approach and begin to identify those pupils whose parents are classed as ‘key workers’ and are likely to need to continue attending school. If you believe you fall into one of these groups please send an email  to office@fordleyprimary.org.uk and Mr Maule, Mrs Watson, Mrs Pringle or myself will be in touch tomorrow.

We will need proof of key worker status from your employer before we can allocate a place for your child.

Vulnerable Children

If your family has a social worker, we will contact you directly tomorrow.

If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan, we contact you directly tomorrow.

With the deepest regret, only those children that fall into the categories identified by the government will be able to attend school.

We ask for your understanding and consideration of this.  There is no school choice around this, it is a directive from the government which we have to follow.

We will continue to update parents and carers via our website, facebook and Seesaw.

This is understandably going to cause many anxieties for families, and we hope that we will be able to continue to support you wherever possible. We will continue to keep you informed with any new information as we receive it, in what are, again, incredibly difficult and uncertain times. 

Kind regards

Mrs C.L. Withers

Headteacher