Coronavirus
Sept 22nd 2020
We have had lots of questions about when to isolate, when to get a test and so on. There is so much information out there but the following website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-54239922 gives a useful summary of what you need to do.
If you are not sure about all the different symptoms, this table may help you to decide:
IMPORTANT UPDATE
Tuesday June 16th 2020
Following the announcement by Lancashire's Director of Public Health that schools can begin to put into place their plans for a wider opening of schools, we are finalising our plans to welcome back some children from Nursery, Reception and Year 1 from next Monday.
We are only opening for those people from Nursery, Reception and Year 1 who responded to our request to confirm if they intended sending their child back and we will be in contact with those families over the next day or so.
We will be putting further information here on the website to help prepare for this next step as school will be very different and you and your children will need to be aware of the changes.
Many of you will be disappointed that at this time your child(ren) cannot yet return to school, we share your frustration and want to get everyone back as soon as we can but we do still have to put in place very strict measures to ensure that we keep everyone safe. Please do bear with us.
M Mackley
Wednesday May 20th 2020 IMPORTANT UPDATE!
Hello everybody. You may have heard 'on the grapevine' that we had a case of Covid19 at school and that school was closed today. I can confirm that we were made aware of a confirmed case and we took the decision to close as a precaution. Having consulted with Public Health England (North West) we were reassured that the time between this person last being in school and displaying symptoms was long enough not to be a concern.
However, just to be on the safe side, we have had the school deep cleaned today so that it is ready to re-open for the children who are currently attending under the Government's designated criteria.
At every step of the way, we have put the safety of our children, their families and our staff first. Thank you for your understanding and support of school at this time.
As always, stay safe, keep washing your hands (6 times a day is the latest guidance) and we look forward to when we can all be together again.
If you have any questions, please do get in touch.
Kind regards,
Mr Mackley
Thursday 14th May 2020
Hello everyone, I hope you are all keeping well? As you will know from all the media interest, there is a lot of discussion and speculation regarding schools opening up to more children.
Please read the letter below from Mr Mackley to explain the school's current consideration of the proposals.
Thank you.
Sunday 10th May 2020
Hello everyone. I am sure you were all watching the Prime Minister's broadcast and were hoping for some definite answer about what is happening next. Hopefully tomorrow once the plan has been put before Parliament we will get some clarity.
For now, we remain as we were, open for the children who were clearly defined at the start of the lockdown process and do what we all can to stay safe.
M Mackley
Monday 6th April
Hello everyone, as we now enter into the 3rd week of the National Lockdown we hope that you have managed to adjust to the new 'normal' and have been able to visit your child's class page to access the suggested activities that the teachers have set. We strongly encourage you to use Class Dojo to keep in touch with the teachers, if you are having difficulty with this, please get in touch at school and we will see if we can help.
Free School Meals - in order to clarify any confusion, only the children who have formal eligibility confirmed will receive vouchers, unlike during term time there is not automatic right for all Infant Children. If you think you may be eligible please scroll down this page for a link to get further information.
Mr Mackley will try to keep his Headteacher blog updated as we go through the next few weeks in order to keep you up to date.
For now, please remember to follow the stay safe guidance and to wash your hands with soap and water.
Friday 27th March
Hello everyone, as we come towards the end of the first week of all the changes to our daily lives, I would like to pause to thank you for bearing with us as we have had to make many rapid adjustments to how we work as a school within the very tight restrictions placed upon all our daily lives. We understand some people are struggling with accessing the work set on the class pages, with so many children to provide work for and the restrictions on contact, we felt it was the most effective way of getting information to the most people.
I would encourage you to use Class Dojo to contact your child's teacher directly.
We have had some questions about Free School Meals, the information below should hopefully clarify the situation regarding eligibility:
If you think you may be eligible for Free School Meals please visit our webpage at https://st-matthewscofe.lancs.sch.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/free-school-meals for further information.
There have been many instances on the television and social media of how people are helping each other out which have been very encouraging to see. sadly, some people are taking advantage of the situation to exploit others. Be very careful of any messages you may get, claiming to offer cash grants etc, they are most likely to be scams. There is still no guidance on Free School Meal vouchers - as soon as we have information we will let you know.
Stay safe, remember to wash your hands and practise social distancing so that we can hopefully very soon get back to normal.
Very best wishes,
M. Mackley
URGENT:
The Department for Education (DfE) have issued the following warning:
"We have been informed some parents have received an email stating: ‘As schools will be closing, if you're entitled to free school meals, please send your bank details and we'll make sure you're supported’. This is a scam email - do not respond, and delete immediately."
For our children entitled to Free School Meals there are weekly food parcels from the Local Authority not vouchers - if there is any change to this we will let you know directly.
If in any doubt, contact us! head@st-matthewscofe.lancs.sch.uk or bursar@st-matthewscofe.lancs.sch.uk
Monday 23rd March
Hello everyone, we hope you are well? Thank you for your patience as we have got to grips with the implications of the partial school closures, there is still much to do and we are busy working away to get things sorted.
The best advice I can give at the moment for managing being at home is to get a daily routine for the children - a mix of carrying out their distance learning, time to relax and play and even (if they are the right age) carrying out a few simple household chores to help keep things sorted.
Please do check the documents below to see if there is any support or advice, we will try to keep this updated as and when we receive information.
Also, I cannot emphasise enough that we all follow then guidance as much as possible to regularly wash hands, use tissues when sneezing or coughing and to practise social distancing as much as possible.
Free School Meal children - all relevant families were contact by text this morning.
Thank you,
M Mackley
Weblinks for advice:
There is a lot of misinformation being spread around on Social Media, please visit the official Government and NHS websites for clear guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus