26th March parent/carer update

Good afternoon everyone.

Well, each day gets stranger and stranger doesn't it? Today we have not had any children in school at all, so the teachers were sent home as well. We are now asking that those parents/carers who are critical workers let us know by 7am each day whether they require care for that day. This will mean that we can save staff unnecessary journeys during this lockdown period. Please rest assured, however, that we will continue to provide care for these families for as long as we are able to continue.

Mrs Bird and I have been in school, carrying on our work today. Each day we receive a flurry of emails from Essex and the DfE that usually keep us busy here! Very often these come in the evening, so we do keep have to keep checking constantly. There are also all the normal things like setting the budget for 2020-21, paying the staff etc. that we have to keep going with! As I have said previously, please feel free to email us at admin@st-marys-burnham.essex.sch.uk and someone will reply or pass your message on to a teacher if necessary.

Our roofing project is continuing well now, after a wet and windy start. I think it is a little easier for them to get on with things now that the children are not here, so maybe this will help them to catch up after the slow start. Unfortunately Mr Healey is not around for a while, so I am opening up and closing the school for the roofers. I hope that they don't ask me any technical questions!

The Government have said that they will have a national scheme for free school meals in place for Monday 30th. Unfortunately they haven't yet told us what it is or how it will work! We will watch this space and whatever happens we will contact those families who receive free school meals tomorrow to let them know our school's arrangements.

Mr Anderson and Miss Westley have been getting our Google Classroom set up and are now adding the users, so that teachers may use this to communicate more regularly with you during the closure. Once we are all set, we will let you know. Thanks to Mr Anderson and Miss Westley for all their work on this.

I hope that you all keep safe.

Best wishes, Geraldine Denham-Hale