Dear Parents/Carers,
Further to the Government announcement yesterday, I can confirm that Blanford Mere Primary School will be closed to ALL STUDENTS from Friday 20th March 2020 at 3.15pm until further notice.
In line with the government statement last night, we will aim to offer childcare provision for children of ‘Key Worker’ parents. We still await a comprehensive list from the government with regards to this, which hopefully will be published later this evening. Until that point, we would class this as anyone in the NHS, Police, Fire Service, HGV delivery drivers (supermarkets etc.), teachers, prison officers and social care workers. This could of course change once we have a clear definition from the Government.
To aid our staffing levels, places must be booked IN ADVANCE, if this is required. If you think that you may meet the ‘key worker’ definition and need this childcare support for next week commencing 23rd March 2020 please email us directly to info@blanford.dudley.sch.uk with your child’s name, date of birth and year group, along with your job title and employer, no later than 9.00am (tomorrow) on Friday 20th March 2020.
Please indicate your need for all days – Monday to Friday next week. Please put ‘KEY WORKERS CHILDCARE’ in the subject line. This is ONLY for parents in the areas listed above to try and help alleviate the impact of the decision to close. At the moment, we are liaising with the Local Authority. Please note that this is likely to be a childcare service from 9am until 3pm with some learning activities but will not be a normal school day. There is a possibility that if staffing levels fall or a more centralised approach is adopted by the Local Authority, children might need to attend local schools other than Blanford Mere.
This would be communicated to parents who are affected. Students with specific needs or who are categorised as 'vulnerable' will be contacted separately. This is an unprecedented global situation and can change at any time so please keep up to date with developments through our usual means of communication.
We will post regular updates on our website (https://blanford.sch.life/) and our School Life app.
During the closure period, work will be set online check the ‘school closure’ pencil on the website from Friday 20th March, for details of how to ‘log in’ to the online learning platforms from home.
Students should log in via the RM Unify link. The login details will be their usual username and password used every day in school. If any student has an issue with logging into the system, they should email the info box with your child’s full name, date of birth, year group and class teacher. We will try our best to resolve the issue. All children are expected to undertake learning activities every day from the opportunities that have been provided. This will be monitored by staff. Work will start to appear online from Monday 23rd March 2020. We politely request at present, that parents do not ask to come into school to collect books or other resources.
We are dealing with an extraordinarily complex situation and we continue to be appreciative of your support. We will update parents when we have more clarification from the LA and the DFE.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Miller
Headteacher
