As further restrictions are lifted in England from Monday 17th May, we hope that this will be another cautiously positive step towards society returning to normal. Nevertheless, as you will be aware from recent news, any easing of restrictions must be done with great care and consideration of new variants. With this in mind, I must share with our community that, although changes are occurring for the general public, guidance for schools has changed very little.
After the experiences of lockdown, the main premise for us all is to keep children in school. One of our challenges with this aim is that, with cases still being possible, the isolation period for close contacts remains 10 days. Therefore, in order to reduce the potential of high numbers of children having to self-isolate, schools will continue to be organised in bubbles and leaders will manage their school sites with the same measures that are currently in place.
Although we would like to be fully back to normal, we will continue to do all we can so that your children’s learning has as little disruption as possible, even if this means working in our current structures for a few more weeks.
The letter below from the Gateshead Council (click on link), expresses the Local Authority’s collective view on this matter. This letter will be sent out by all schools in Gateshead so that there is a shared understanding across our communities. We will be sending a hard copy of this letter home with your child at the end of the day.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter and your efforts to work with us to keep your children safe.
Mr M. Malik
Parent Carers Letter_May 17 Changes
