Coronavirus update 18.03.2020
Coronavirus Update
The update yesterday focused mainly on financial implications of the country, however the guidance from PHE remains the same:
If someone in your household is unwell
Children experiencing a high temperature or a new continuous cough should stay at home for 14 days. Likewise, if someone in your home falls ill, the whole household will be told to isolate itself for 14 days. Please note that anyone showing new symptoms must ensure they self-isolate for 7 days, regardless of how many days they have already been isolated. Please see:
Children with underlying risk factors
For children with underlying risk factors, or whose family members may have underlying risk factors, the school will be understanding if pupils are absent.
Pupil Absence
The school is currently experience high levels of pupil absence. Please keep the school informed of the reasons for any absences via the school office or via email to head@chestnutsprimary.com and admin@chestnutsprimary.com . We would appreciate you letting us know of any exposure, symptoms or test results.
Staff absence
As you can imagine, the guidance has had an impact on our staff, and we currently have a number of staff self-isolating for a variety of reasons. I can only see this number increasing over time, which will affect our ability to run a full service. We are working together to ensure that we can keep children safe and that they continue to be happy at school.
In the event of a full or partial closure of the school, we will be informing parents by 7.30am on the day via email and a message on the front page of our website.
Home Learning
The senior leadership team met today to discuss our strategy for supporting home learning in the event that schools are asked to close. I have no information as to whether this is likely to happen but as a precaution, we are preparing for this eventuality. Remote learning would be communicated through the website.
We will be sending an exercise book home with your children for this purpose (and will leave some in the school office if a member of the community needs to pick one up for a child not currently attending school).
Good hygiene
The school will continue to stress the importance of good hygiene, encouraging children to wash hands regularly.
Social Distancing
Please could all parents respect the advice on social distancing, including avoiding unnecessary contact with groups of people, including restaurants and pubs. Thank you all for your support at this difficult time. We are trying our best to provide a calm and reassuring environment for our children. We really appreciate your cooperation and understanding as we work together through this crisis.
Attached to this update is some advice from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) on how to speak to your children about Covid-19. Please do take the time to read it and feel free to share widely.
To support families that are already in self-isolation, below are some helpful links to resources that you and your children can access at home. Please be aware that in the event of a full school closure, we will be sending home more detailed, directed work - the below is for children currently in isolation or social distancing.
RobinHoodMat Learning Projects
Helpful projects for maths, reading, spelling, writing and more - start here
Top-Marks
Maths Games
Cbeebies: Reading and Writing Learning Area
Reading and Writing activities
Times Tables Rockstars
20 minutes each day if your child is in Year 2 or higher (children have logins)
Prodigy Maths
A Maths-based Role Playing Game
SpellingShed
A spelling App (children have logins)
Phonics play
Phonics games for EYFS and KS1
Please also don’t forget that knowledge organisers for the current topic on the class pages on the website. Maths curriculum maps for each year group can also be found under the Mats section in the website.