Dear Parents / Carers

As you are aware the Government announced that schools would fully open from Monday 8^th March 2021.  In line with this announcement we will be opening to all year groups. Attendance will be mandatory for all children / year groups.

However, to enable school to be fully prepared and safe we will need to shut at 12 midday on Friday 5^th March to allow staff time to sanitise, move equipment back into main classroom areas etc. We therefore ask that critical worker parents arrange for their children to be collected at 12 midday on this Friday.

Most of the safety precautions we implemented in September will remain for the foreseeable future. We have continued to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment which is reviewed weekly. This can be found on the Penk Valley Trust (www.penkvalley.co.uk  https://www.princefield.staffs.sch.uk/) This outlines all the additional hygiene measures we will be putting in place.

School will remain split into 4 ‘hubs’ (Nursery, Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2) with children and staff remaining within these ‘hubs’ throughout the day.

Can I remind you that whilst we will encourage pupils to socially distance within their hubs, the government does recognise, “early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart” (Coronavirus: implementing protective measures in education settings)

I would like to make it quite clear that, whilst regular reminders, posters and strategies will be used to implement social distancing, most children will naturally not do this.