Dear Parents and Carers, I wanted to update you following the Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this week that schools will return from Monday 8th March. The staff and I are delighted to welcome your children back and are putting plans in place for their safe return We will be opening our gates to all of our primary children on March 8th. For our secondary students it will be a staggered start because as part of the return schools will be required to test secondary students for COVID three times over the first fortnight back. As I’m sure you can imagine, this is very time consuming – and will initially take us close to two full days to test all students as they return. As a result, we will need to stagger the return of students on the secondary site and I will write to you again next week with the new schedule. The government have also suggested that, from 22nd March, parents of secondary children will be given kits so that children can be tested at home each week. Again, I will update you when we receive further details. In the meantime, if you haven’t already given consent for your child to be tested, it will help us hugely if you could do so to avoid any delays while testing. The test allows us to identify asymptomatic cases and keep the site safe for all Finally, the government is also advising the wearing of face coverings in all areas, including classrooms on the secondary site at least up to the Easter break. We ask that you support us in implementing this measure. I look forward to the full reopening of our school and some return of normality. Best wishes, With thanks Janis Davies Principal