19 March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers

Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

I am writing to confirm that we have been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday 20th March until further notice.  As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers. We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means.  As soon as this list of key workers is confirmed, we will send details. We also await further instructions around those who qualify for free school meals.

Please closely monitor your emails and respond to any information or forms as soon as possible.  All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.  Please note that this is a national closure – as you will have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is by email and the school website.

We have now managed to allocate a Home Task pack to every child, whether they have been in school or not this week.  Mrs Friend and Mr Beavis very kindly spent nearly 3 hours driving around Maidenhead delivering!  You will also have seen that we included the suggested timetable to give children focus and school routine. Could we please ask that every reading book from school is returned to school and that each time your child reads, whatever they choose from home, that you continue to fill in the reading journal.

Remember that children have access to online learning resources such as Times Tables Rock Stars and, for KS1, Numbots.  We will update class pages in the next few days will additional useful websites.

We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.  If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to do so via larchfield@larchfieldschool.co.uk.  Please be aware that the office is extremely busy. We will respond to all queries as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.

Kind regards

Mrs J Kearney

Headteacher