SNMAT Letter To Parents

The following update, written by the CEO of SNMAT, has been sent out to our families today. It can also be found in the 'Letters' section of the website:

 

Parents and Carers,

 

Many of you will be aware that the government altered its guidance this weekend on who can access provision during the current lockdown. In a series of interviews and broadcasts over the weekend, ministers announced these changes and later changed the written guidance that schools must follow.

 

I am writing to you now to outline how the government’s renewed guidance impacts the way that we work. I very much hope that the situation remains constant now until academies re-open fully.

 

You will know that there are two groups of children accessing provision at present.

 

1. Vulnerable Pupils: the government’s guidance has not changed. All vulnerable pupils should continue to attend.

 

1. The children of critical workers: The guidance has changed significantly for this group:

 

Critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.

 

Practically, this means that children should stay at home if:

 

• One parent is a critical worker, and another parent is at home

 

• Work patterns (part-time, shift-work or flexible working) mean that a parent who is a critical worker is available to be at home during parts of the week.

 

The reasons for this change could not be more stark:

 

• The virus continues to spread and any unnecessary contact should be avoided.
• We all must do our utmost to reduce interactions and stay at home.
• Schools must play their part and offer provision only to vulnerable pupils and children of critical workers who cannot be looked after at home

 

To support you, teachers and support staff are doing all that they can to provide high quality remote learning which is tailored to the needs of your children. SNMAT is supporting them to do this and we are seeing some exceptionally positive levels of engagement from parents and children. Our aim is to continue to improve this offer and make our remote learning as good as it can be.

 

Next Steps:

 

Please contact the academy office: office@hps.snmat.org.uk if the changes to the government’s guidance mean that:

 

• you no longer qualify for provision

 

• your work pattern means that you must reduce the number of sessions that your child attends*.

 

* (Many critical workers have already provided details of work-patterns. This information will not need to be re-submitted unless your circumstances have changed since last week).

 

The success of this change of advice on reducing the transmission rate relies on us doing what we can to eliminate all unnecessary contacts. With this in mind, I would like to thank you, in advance, for your support in implementing these most recent changes.

 

I very much look forward to a time when I write to you with more positive news, and hope that this will come sooner rather than later.

 

Look after yourselves and your loved ones.     

 

Chris Moodie

Chief Executive Officer, SNMAT