Larchfield Primary and Nursery School
Our children are central to all that we do.
Latest News
Please check out October's kindness chart in the well-being tab.
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Key Worker letter which was emailed today, 30th March
Mon 30 Mar 202030 March 2020
Dear Parents and Carers
Key Workers
I hope you are all staying well and healthy and the children are making some good choices!
We have been asked by the local authority to identify our ‘key worker’ families individually. Could I please ask that if you class as a key worker, could you email by return and let me know?
We know that staying at home is the most important thing and we also know that some places of work have closed for the duration. So, we don’t anticipate that we have as many as we had a week ago.
Obviously, it is tricky trying to offer support to our critical workers if we don’t know who you are. This is not something you must do, it is clearly your choice.
Name of child: ____________________________________________________________________
Key worker roles of parents/carers: ___________________________________________________
Kind regards
Mrs Kearney
Headteacher
Stay at home
Only go out for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
Wash your hands as soon as you get home
Do not meet others, even family or friends
Remember that you can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms
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Mrs Kearney's Catch Up - weekly updates!!!
Mon 30 Mar 2020Please visit Children / School weekly to see Mrs Kearney's catch up videos. -
Latest update - Key Workers
Fri 20 Mar 2020Dear Parents/Carers
If you are requesting key worker support, then please be prepared with the information to hand of your current profession and place of work and the email address of your line manager or equivalent who will be able to verify your Key Worker status: that, based on the business continuity arrangements, your specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.
Tell us which days your children will need to be in school.
The overriding message is if it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be. If you are able to provide alternative care for your child, please do so.
Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time.
Mrs Kearney
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Latest update - Key Workers
Fri 20 Mar 2020Dear Parents/Carers
If you are requesting key worker support, then please be prepared with the information to hand of your current profession and place of work and the email address of your line manager or equivalent who will be able to verify your Key Worker status: that, based on the business continuity arrangements, your specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.
Tell us which days your children will need to be in school.
The overriding message is if it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be. If you are able to provide alternative care for your child, please do so.
Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time.
Mrs Kearney
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School Closure further information
Fri 20 Mar 2020Dear Parent/Carers
A few more updates
Lunches
Caterlink have confirmed now that grab bags will be available for FSM children but you must order them online as usual. If you do order, then please pick them up as we don’t want to waste food and money.
On-line learning
We have put together a list of websites which offer free access to learning resources during this time, there are many more out there but this should keep everyone busy for a while! We will also put them on the website under the tab’ Free On-line Learning’ https://www.larchfieldschool.co.uk/free-online-learning/
Should your circumstances change during this period
During the school closure if your circumstances change, please go on to our school website https://www.larchfieldschool.co.uk -Parents-lunch menus-Free school meals and register with RBWM for Free school meals. If you require any help or advice with this please contact Mrs Baker on angela.baker@larchfieldschool.co.uk.
It is unfortunate that this could potentially be our last day in school for a very long time and it sadden me to think there is a realistic chance that we may not be able to say a proper good bye to our fabulous Y6. It would have been nice to have more children for our last day than we have.
Anyway, I realise that I sent you all an email last night with our carefully thought out plans for supporting key workers during this challenging time, however the Government have now decided in the late hours to publish a suggested list of key workers.
Can I please ask that their directive around social distancing, self-isolation and keeping the virus at bay should still be clearly taken note of. Please find below their late update in summary, please remember if you can safely care for your child at home then it will help with the efforts we are all making to get our community and country back on track.
If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be
- If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
- Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
- Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.
- Residential special schools, boarding schools and special settings continue to care for children wherever possible.
Key Workers list:
Parents whose work is critical to the COVID-19 response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined below. Many parents working in these sectors may be able to ensure their child is kept at home. And every child who can be safely cared for at home should be.
Health and social care
This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributers of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
Education and childcare
This includes nursery and teaching staff, social workers and those specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response to deliver this approach.
Key public services
This includes those essential to the running of the justice system, religious staff, charities and workers delivering key frontline services, those responsible for the management of the deceased, and journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting.
Local and national government
This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response or delivering essential public services such as the payment of benefits, including in government agencies and arms length bodies.
Food and other necessary goods
This includes those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines).
Public safety and national security
This includes police and support staff, Ministry of Defence civilians, contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic), fire and rescue service employees (including support staff), National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas.
Transport
This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the COVID-19 response, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass.
Utilities, communication and financial services
This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.
Kind regards, I’ll no doubt be in touch with you later in the day!
Mrs J Kearney
Headteacher
UPDATED DOCUMENTS:
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School Closure from end of Friday 20th March 2020
Thu 19 Mar 202019 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
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School Closure from end of Friday 20th March 2020
Thu 19 Mar 202019 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
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What to do if my child is unwell during the Coronavirus?
Fri 13 Mar 2020We have been advised to offer the following advice to families who have a child who is unwell, and wondering whether to send them into school.
- If your child develops a new or continuous cough or high temperature, they should remain off school for 7 days
- 37.8 c and above is considered to be a high temperature
- There is no new Coronavirus testing taking place, only those people who are hospitalised will be tested
- People with symptoms are being told not to call 111. Instead, they are to go on the NHS website or 111 online
- The current advice which has been given to us is that this only applies to the individual child who is unwell
Thank you
Larchfield Primary & Nursery School
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Book Week 2020
Tue 03 Mar 2020Wow! What an amazing start to book week! We have Mrs Jones' book hunt in full swing so keep your eyes open as you are walking home - many thanks to those parents who have hidden them outside their houses for me!
We have the alphabet hunt in place and I cannot wait to see what you come up with.
Please remember that you are more than welcome to book an appointment to come and read with your child's class but contact school quickly before all the slots get taken!
Here are a couple of snaps from our visual literacy afternoon!
Hope your children are as buzzing as we are about reading!
If you want to know more about read a million, please visit: https://www.worldbookday.com/
We are looking forward to seeing everyone's costumes on Friday :-)
World Book Day is a registered charity. Our mission is to give every child and young person a book of their own.
