Critical Worker Childcare Provision
5th January 2021
In School Provision for Children of Critical Workers
Dear Parents and Carers,
You are receiving this letter because you have registered as a ‘critical worker’ and therefore your child has been reserved a place at Uphill Village Academy during the current National Lockdown. Please be aware we may require critical worker evidence letters.
In order to support our planning, you will need to book your child’s place via the parents evening booking system. If you do not book your child a place via the booking system there is a possibility we may not have space for your child.
The booking system is now available to book spaces up to the end of Term 3 (12th February 2021) at https://uphill.schoolcloud.co.uk Bookings for the remainder of this week will close at 9pm tonight (5 January). Bookings for subsequent weeks will close at 5pm on the Thursday of the previous week, i.e. for the week commencing 11 January, bookings will close at 5pm on Thursday 7 January.
We will also be operating staggered start and finish times for each year group and continue to use the two entrances/exits to ease congestion at these busy times. Please see the attached timetable for full details. It is important that parents/carers keep to their allocated times. If you have siblings with different start/finish times, please use the earlier times for all children. Anyone who misses their allocated start time will not be allowed to enter until all other children have been accepted into school. This will be after 9.00am.
A reduced school lunch menu will be available for all children (copy attached). These will be free of charge to those children in EYFS, year 1 and year 2, in line with universal infant free school meals. They will be free of charge to those children who qualify for free school meal status. Meals for KS2 (years 3-6) will be charged as normal.
No PE kits or school bags, other than a lunchbox will be allowed to be brought into school. Children should wear school uniform and, where possible, trainers can be worn to enable participation in outdoor activities, however school shoes are perfectly adequate.
Children will require their own water bottle which must be named and taken home each night.
As a reminder to all parents/carers:
- This provision is to allow critical workers to attend work and children should not attend school if they can be safely cared for at home.
- Parents/Carers will not be able to enter the school site and must keep their distance (2m) from children, staff and each other.
- The school, including the office, will remain closed to all visitors, unless they have a pre-arranged appointment. Communication with the school will be via email or telephone only.
- Children may not be in a class with their class teacher or their friends. They may not be in a classroom or part of the school that they are used to.
- Break and lunch times will be staggered and children will eat their lunch in the classroom.
If anyone in your household shows any signs of Covid-19 symptoms they must get a test and all members of the household must stay home (do not attend school or work) until the test result is received. If the test result is positive, the whole household must stay home for 10 days. If a child displays Covid-19 symptoms whilst in school, they will be isolated and will need to be collected immediately and must not return to school until they have received a negative test result.
If your child cannot attend school due to illness, for whatever reason, the usual procedures for reporting an absence apply. Please report your child’s absence by telephoning 01934 626769 option 1 and leaving a message on the absence line.
We will be contacting you separately to ascertain any requirements for wrap-around care for critical workers’ children. At present we are not offering Breakfast Club or After-school Club but will review this decision once we have a greater understanding of the need for this provision.
Many thanks for your continued support and patience as we continue with our planning arrangements. If you have any queries about the content of this letter, please contact me via the school office on [email protected]
Mrs Sam Hodder
Principal
