Dear Parent/Carer,

Coronavirus Statement 20/03/20

From Monday 23/3/20, school will only be open for those children of parents and carers who have been identified as keyworkers or the children have been identified as having a safeguarding risk and subsequently contacted by school today (Friday 20.3.20).  This has been confirmed with Northumberland’s Director of Education.

Our staffing levels are expected to be significantly reduced during this time.  No other children can be admitted into school unless they are identified by social services as at high risk i.e. they are in danger at home.

I must inform you that at the time of writing this we have had a number of pupils and staff leave school with coronavirus like symptoms or who are self-isolating due to having been in contact with someone with the symptoms which I expect will no doubt increase over the next few days and put the health of those attending school at significant risk.

Government advice is to minimise social contact in order to slow the spread of the virus, staff and pupils attending school completely contradicts this advice.   However the directive of national and local government is that we must maintain a childcare provision for key worker and ‘at risk’ pupils, if we are unable to staff this through Cleaswell staff, staff from outside, i.e. from County Hall and leisure centres who do not know the pupils, will provide the care.  This will become an increasingly likely scenario.  If the situation with regard to staffing becomes unsafe we will be forced to reduce access to or close this provision.

We realise that this is a very challenging time for everyone, however, ensuring that pupils (and staff) are as safe as possible is always our first priority.   We will keep parents updated via our website and Facebook page and will endeavour to open when it is safe to do so. 

On behalf of all the staff of Cleaswell Hill School we wish you all the best of health through this extremely uncertain time and very much look forward to welcoming your children back to school in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Jackson
Headteacher