Dear Parents and children,

It is now over a week since we were instructed by Public Health England to close our school, and that seems so long ago.  We are now planning for re-opening next Monday, 5th October and we look forward to seeing all our pupils once again.

COVID 19 arrived in our school last week, despite all our efforts to minimise any risks.  We do not know how, or where it came from.  All we know is one of our school family members caught it, either inside school or outside in the community.  That person did not deliberately seek to catch it. At a time when rates of infection across the country are rising, it came to our school.   So many parents were very understanding then, and have been since, realising that that the school closure was beyond our control.

You will know from the television, radio and papers that there have been many other partial closures or even full closure across Lancashire and elsewhere.  Several other primary schools in Lancaster and beyond are closed.  I read this morning that some 9,000 pupils in Liverpool are currently in self-isolation. Either way, we at St. Josephs are not alone.  We were not the first school to close, and sadly, we will not be the last.  COVID 19 sadly is now part and parcel of everyday life.

We had just got back to normal and return to school when this closure was forced on us.  I will again apologise for the impact that our closure has had, and how it has affected you all.  It will have affected your contact with other family members and friends.  It will have affected your work.  It will have taken all of us back to the days immediately after March 23^rd, and we were all stuck indoors.

The advice and guidance we continue to receive all point to the steps we already have implemented, nothing else has changed.  We will make sure our bubbles stay as far apart as possible, and levels of personal hygiene are maintained. To minimise further risk, we will take a number of additional steps, beyond those we have already introduced, such as wearing face masks in corridors and the hall (Please see most recent post ‘End of Day Collection Times‘).

You will be pleased to know that the member of our school family has quickly recovered. All staff have self-isolated since we closed.  Some have had tests, and all have returned negative.  At the point of writing, no members of staff are displaying symptoms.   We are all ready to go from next Monday.

I hope that, following reading this, that you feel able to send your children back to school.  If you want to discuss matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Head@st-josephs-lancaster.lancs.sch.uk

Yours truly,

Mr. S Belbin/Miss R. Griffiths/Mrs L. Beaumont