St Cecilia's News

I am sure that you will have seen yesterday, the news that the British Government intend to keep schools open as long as possible during the current Covid 19 pandemic. We have an emergency planning team in school which includes premises, administration and teaching staff. This team plans a way forward for the school community during difficult times. We have met this morning and agreed to move forward with some changes to further protect the children and staff in school.

Visitors to school

We aim to restrict the virus being introduced to school as much as possible. We are, therefore:

• cancelling meetings and visits from externals advisors, including SEN and Music staff from 20th March
• cancelling all staff training and attendance at external events
• restricting parent access to the school site with immediate effect, parents will not be permitted into classes or into the main school building. The school office will remain open for queries however we will prefer telephone or email queries to the office on office@stcecilias.school
• asking volunteers not to attend
• not booking external after school clubs after the Easter break
• asking families to leave the site promptly at the end of the school day
  
  

Cancellation of activities and events

We are restricting access to the wider community in order to prevent the risk of infection. We have therefore cancelled:

• swimming with immediate effect
• visits to the Natural History Museum and Butser Farm
• the Year 4 performance of the Stations of the Cross
  
  

Preparing for learning at home

We are preparing for school closure during some stage of the development of the pandemic, this could be when we have insufficient staff for the school to open or when the Government decide to close schools. We will be:

• asking the children to continue some learning at home
• enabling the use of online learning systems including Google Classroom for Years 3-6
• encouraging the children to use Number Bots and Rockstars as much as possible
• enabling independent research and project work
• sending all primary aged children home with a project pack
• understanding that some families will be greatly affected during the pandemic and therefore learning at home may not be a priority
  
  

Preventing infection in school

Computing lessons will be suspended from Friday 20th March, apparatus in class that cannot be easily sterilised will also be removed from classrooms. Please enable:

• your child to come to school with a pencil case with his/her own supplies.
  
  

Quarantine

We will be establishing a quarantine area in school. If we notice that your child becomes ill during the school day we will accompany your child to quarantine and wait with them until they are collected. We ask that you:

• ensure that your mobile numbers are available, phones charged and off silent mode, we will need to contact you urgently if your child is ill. If you need to update your contact details please email the school office
• come to school quickly
• have a back up plan in place if you are working a distance from school
• collect siblings from the school office when collecting a child from quarantine.
• follow the signage that will be in place and proceed to the quarantine area.
• take your child and siblings home and self isolate according to the guidance in place at that time.
  
  

Illness within the family

If a member of the family has a new continuous cough or fever and is self-isolating, we ask that the family remain at home and contact the school office for further information and advice. To notify us of an absence from school parents can:

• use the Pupil Asset app
• voicemail on 020 8337 4566
• email via office@stcecilias.school.

Please do not use Class Dojo for messages. Please remember to tell us of any coughs or fever - be specific - so that we can track absences accurately.

Keeping you updated
Many of you will have seen on the BBC News that a parent from school is recovering from Covid 19 infection following a visit to Northern Italy in half term. The parent immediately self-isolated on his return and has not been in contact with his son, we have not needed to add additional measures as a result. We wish him well in his recovery and thank the family for keeping us informed.

Where we have concerns about infection we will keep parents updated and once we start to get absences due to suspected Covid 19 we will send regular updates with the current numbers of children absent from school.

We will keep you updated on further measures that we introduce as we progress towards a fuller pandemic. We will always try to do our best for the school community by following the Department for Education and Public Health advice. We then interpret that advice to our situation within the St Cecilia's School community.

We are being cautious with these additional measures and hope that you understand that these are very difficult times.

May we all stay well and remember those who have been affected in our prayers.

Vince Burke

Head Teacher

Email: office@stcecilias.school
Website: www.stcecilias.school
Phone: 020 8337 4566