Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
24th March 2020
Good Morning Parents/Carers,
Hopefully this message finds you all safe and well at home.
With regard to work set by teachers; week 1 and 2 of school closure- teachers will set ‘project’ themed learning tasks and will direct you to lots of useful sites.
Week 3 onwards- each class page will be updated with more specific learning and an outline of how you may wish to conduct your home-schooling day in line with normal class practice to keep routine. There will be online tutorials for aspects of maths bearing in mind that the Inspire maths scheme works differently to methods we, as parents, may not be familiar with.
There will still be directions to useful online learning if needed.
How we will go about marking/feeding back on your child’s work is yet to be confirmed but I strongly urge you to bear with us as we find our feet.
I appreciate that this is such a stressful time for everyone. This pandemic affects all of us in some way shape or form and whilst we may not have the home-school learning system perfected as quickly as we’d all like, our staff are continuing to put our children first, primarily to enable keyworkers and frontline NHS staff to go out into the unknown and fight this global battle.
If you have any queries with regard to home-school learning in the run up to week 3, please email me rather than individual staff as they are working tirelessly to keep school open alongside Mrs Rogerson.
Many thanks in anticipation of your continued understanding and support.
Miss Hollings
Dear Parents and Carers,
Unless a member of staff from our schools contacted you by telephone on Friday 20th March, school is closed until further notice. Please be aware that the safest place for us all is at home.
If your circumstances change and your child becomes eligible to be cared for by school you must contact school to organise the attendance in advance. Please do not simply turn up at school as your child will not be able to attend. We hope our whole school community remains safe through this difficult time. Please take extra care of yourselves and your family members.
Leyland Methodist Schools
Dear Parents,
This has been a very challenging week in school to say the least with the regards the ongoing Coronavirus situation. During my time in education, I cannot ever remember a situation like this as a child and as an adult. At the moment, we have managed to remain open despite significant staffing absences but we have pulled together as a team and got this far.
We are in unprecedented and challenging times. In response to the latest Government call for schools to help support our KeyWorkers in the coming weeks which could put a greater strain on all emergency services, especially the NHS risking the lives of many.
This is an initial expression of interest so that we can ascertain the approximate numbers of children who will be attending next week, and therefore allocate the required staffing provisions.
We are still waiting on a definitive list of key workers from the DFE, however If you believe you come under this category, please complete the following information and send it to office@lmjs.lancs.sch.uk as soon as possible in order to help us plan for next week.
Thank you for your understanding. Stay safe and well.
Kind Regards,
Mrs K Melling
Executive Headteacher
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Name: (Parent/Carer):
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Are both parents/guardians’ key workers or are you a single parent who is a key worker? In the event that 2 parents are key workers please complete the boxes below with both sets of details. |
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Place of work/Occupation:
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Line Manager Name& Contact Number
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Days of work. Please state the days you work This service would only be for the days when you are working. |
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Name of Child(ren)/Year Group:
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Do they have any additional Needs? Please provide details
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Will they require a school dinner? £2.20
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Are they eligible for a free school meal?
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GDPR - are you happy for information to be shared between 3rd party e.g. NHS, CSC, Police, DfE, place of work.
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18th March 2020
Dear Parents and Guardians
Further to my letter earlier in the week, I am writing with an update and notification of partial closures that will impact both schools.
The revised advice has meant that many more of us are now advised to self-isolate, which now includes family members of those experiencing symptoms and also vulnerable groups for whom the criteria was clarified and included a wider range of people than before. This has meant that more of the staff at our schools are affected by this advice.
Current advice is that should any child, or any other member of their household in which they live, show any of the following symptoms:
All in the household must self-isolate for 14 days.
Should a child attend school and display either of the above symptoms, we will send them home as per the advice already outlined.
Children who are classed as vulnerable should not attend school. The full list of vulnerable groups are described below:
Partial School Closure
The Senior Leadership Team met today to revise our plan as we have reduced staffing and 65 children absent because their families are self-isolating. As such we will have to close the school to Reception (Ash, Beech and Reception children only in Cedar Class) and Years 3 and 4 (Classes 3W, 3R, 4B, 4M) from tomorrow Thursday 18th March. Pupils in Y1, Y2, Y5 and Y6 will all come into school as normal. It is likely that this partial closure will remain in place until after the Easter holidays. This will then cover the 14-day isolation periods. I know and appreciate that this will be difficult for many of you but unfortunately these are unprecedented times. We will keep the situation under constant review. It may be likely that further closures are possible should more staff need to self-isolate as the weeks progress.
Pupil Exceptions to School Closures
Children of NHS Frontline worker
As this is an international pandemic, we are mindful of the necessity of supporting our parents who are frontline workers in the NHS e.g. nurses, doctors etc. or carers working with the elderly and housebound. If you are unable to make childcare arrangements that would free you to work, then school will try to make provision for your child in the event of partial closure. A message will be sent out shortly requesting this information.
Children in Receipt of Free School Meals
If your child is eligible for free school meals, school will make provision for your child to attend school in the event of partial closure. Please note this does not include Universal Free Meals that every Infant child is eligible for. This covers those in receipt of free school meals under the pupil premium grant. Please contact the office to confirm attendance.
Setting Work During Closure
At tonight’s staff meeting we will be discussing home learning and how we can sign post you to websites. It is anticipated that we will use the class pages on the school websites and upload learning tasks, where appropriate, to the age of the child.
Contact Details
During this time of uncertainty, it is important that communication channels are kept open so it would be helpful if you can make sure the school office has your most up-to-date contact details.
I really do wish for all our families to stay safe and keep well. I sincerely hope that you are not too adversely affected by this terrible pandemic, although, I fear it is likely that we are going to feel its repercussions for some time.
Kind Regards,
Mrs K Melling
Executive Headteacher
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I am writing to you in respect of the on-going coronavirus situation. Speculation is rife in the media about will/won’t happen; what should/shouldn’t happen and when it will/won’t happen. We are facing uncertain times and it is difficult to know what it is ahead. There is no doubt that we are in unchartered waters.
DFE Advice to Schools
We have been told that we all need to play our part and that includes our role as your child’s school. As a school, we receive a daily update from the Department for Education. This comes straight to my email and gives the latest advice for that day. The advice is often the same - keep doing what you have been doing. The current advice, as I write, is to:
Keep the school open
Encourage good hygiene especially hand-washing
Advise parents to keep their child at home if they have
- a temperature of 37.8 or higher
- a new persistent cough.
We appreciate your co-operation in this matter.
Parents’ Evening
Each day, as a school we need to assess risk and make decisions. In light of the on-going situation and the fact that things may change in the very near future, I have decided to cancel Parents’ Evening as a precautionary measure. We all have families and loved ones to protect and many of the staff have close family members, who are potentially very vulnerable to the possible impact of contraction of COVID-19.
In the absence of a Parents’ Evening, we ask that any parent with a pressing concern to contact his/her child’s class teacher via the usual route. Conversely, if a teacher has a matter he/she wishes to discuss with a parent, then the parent will be contacted. As it is unknown how long this situation is likely to progress for, no alternative arrangements for Parents’ Evening will be made at this point in time. We will continue to review the situation.
St George’s Day Celebration for Grandparents – 23rd April
We always receive such lovely feedback from our more senior members of the community at this event. However, in light of the likelihood that people over 70 may be asked to self-isolate in the near future, it is with regret but would seem prudent that our St George’s Day celebrations are cancelled.
Potential School Closures
As per DfE advice, the school remains open. We have been given no indication that this is likely to change soon. However, as a point of reference, in any event that school was closed (for any reason) the scrolling banner on the top of our main web page, would indicate our status as closed. We would also inform you through our usual channels as well.
Let’s hope and pray that this coronavirus passes quickly and our school community does not feel its impact so that we can get our lives back to business as usual.
Thank you for your understanding.
Stay safe and well.
Kind Regards,
Mrs K A Melling
Executive Headteacher
Stay at home for 7 days if you have either:
a high temperature
a new continuous cough
This will help to protect others in your community while you are infectious.
Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.
You do not need to contact NHS 111 to tell them you’re staying at home.
We will not be testing people who are self-isolating with mild symptoms.
Further advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
Just to confirm that until the Department for Education (DFE) contacts the school, Leyland Methodist Schools will remain open as normal. The DFE are contacting the school each day with updates so as soon as we hear any information with regards to closures we will contact you immediately.
Regards
Leyland Methodist Schools