The school has been keeping up to date and working hard on interim measures and contingency plans to address the Covid-19 emergency.  I know that some people would like to keep their children at home due to members of the family having significant underlying health issues.  If you choose to do so, then I will support this and the school will not take any legal action against the absence.  You do need to consider that such a decision is a big one and that you could be committing to a significant and unspecified period of time.

Whilst the school remains open I cannot commit teachers to marking work sent in by email etc because it wouldn’t be a reasonable workload alongside their teaching day. However we can send you the key learning targets for each week so you would know what to be working on with your child.  From a Year 6 SAT’s point of view it would be best if your child could stay in school, but that is your decision.

If you do decide to keep your child at home please could you email me personally at headteacher@thehillsacademy.co.uk clearly stating the reason for your decision and your commitment to keeping your child’s learning going at home.  Unfortunately if your child is seen out and about at play venues or supermarkets etc during the school day this could be perceived as truancy so please be aware of what you are committing to before you make the decision.  I am always happy to chat things through with you on the phone early next week.

If the school is ordered to shut then the full contingency plans that I shared last week will be put into place and teachers will change their working patterns in order to mark and feedback on what children have done at home.

Obviously I will monitor the workload and wellbeing of staff if this happens.