Dear Parents/Carers,

Whilst we remain open as a school, we are very conscious of doing all we can to reduce the risks to our community. We therefore want to inform you of some of the actions we have taken so far:

• All assemblies will be class based until further notice
• Where possible, children will not be asked to sit closely with each other on the classroom carpets
• Cross country training on Wednesday has now been cancelled, as have all the scheduled races
• Children continue to wash their hands thoroughly throughout the day
• Parents dropping off at Nursery and breakfast clubs will now need to drop their children off at the door and not come into school
• Nursery children will be released via the front door and also the garden gate to try and reduce the gathering of parents
• From Wednesday 18^th March all volunteer readers will stop coming into school
• Coffee mornings are cancelled until further notice
• Parents evenings this week have been cancelled – with summary information being sent out instead, with some phone calls being made for cases where the teacher feels it important to go into much more detail
• Teacher training courses have been cancelled to allow staff to stay in school and therefore reduce the risk to them, with staff shortages potentially leaving us with a depleted workforce.
• Deploying more staff into the dinner hall to ensure a rapid flow of dinners and the best possible use of the space we have

Please refer to the NHS website for advice about whether or not to send your child in to school or keep them at home. The school is following all the latest Government and DfE advice. As a school we can not advise you what to do, but please be assured that we are keeping abreast of developments and are doing all we can. Please appreciate that this advice is constantly being updated by Government.

The Newdale team, as ever, are going above and beyond to ensure we operate as normally as we can, with as many precautions being inputted as possible to keep everyone safe. I will continue to keep you updated with any information I receive as soon as I am able. Please keep in touch via the school website, as this is the most efficient way of keeping you informed.

We have had some parents ask about children bringing in their own wash bags with soap etc inside. We have school approved soap and ask that children use that for the time being. We cannot monitor the ingredients of hand moisturizers and therefore cannot allow them in school due to some of children having nut allergies.

Thank you for your continued support during this challenging time.

Miss Cook