Dear Parents/Carers,

First of all, we hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas with your families and wish you all a Happy New Year.

Unfortunately it is with great sadness that we have to write to you to acknowledge the ongoing impact of Coronavirus and its effect on normal school operations. As you may be aware, yesterday it was announced that Camden Primary schools have now been included in the list of London Boroughs whose schools will remain closed to all pupils except the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children until the 18^th January 2021. Please see letter from council attached below.

As this change of policy has been announced with such short notice St Dominic’s school will be closed for all pupils on Monday 4^th January and will re-open for keyworker and vulnerable children on Tuesday 5^th January. We are taking this day as one of our INSET days for the year. Whilst we are sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause to families, the school will need this time to ensure that all children who are eligible to attend school have been identified and the appropriate arrangements are in place for remote learning.

To help us with this process, please find attached below a list of criteria for those children who are deemed to belong to keyworker families or are classed as vulnerable.

If you are a keyworker whose child/ren did not attend school during the last lockdown as they were not in one of the eligible year groups, please contact the school using the Admin email address stating your occupation from the list given in the criteria and providing proof of occupation,

If you are a parent whose child was identified as belonging to these groups during the last lockdown you need not contact us as we will already have a record of this and will include any siblings who are in other year groups but did not attend during the last lockdown.

To help families who may have difficulties with accessing remote learning the school will be able to provide devices. The number of devices we have is limited, but if you really need a device, please do contact the school office and we will do our best to make the arrangements for this.

For all children who are not keyworker or vulnerable children remote learning will commence on Tuesday 5^th January. Learning will be placed on Google classroom from 9am every morning, the learning will be in the form of videos/ presentations by the classteachers with lessons to be completed in the home learning books which have already been distributed. Please remember to take pictures of your children’s work so that the teachers can mark it and please do let us know if you are having difficulty accessing Google classroom.

Every classteacher will post their daily timetable on Monday 4^th January, this will outline the times when they will be giving feedback to the children on their work, and hosting a weekly wellbeing google chat meeting with the class.

We would like to thank you for your continued support at this very challenging time. Please do contact the school if you need any support, but in the meantime, stay safe and well until we hopefully open again on 18^th January and are able to welcome all of our children back to school.

Yours faithfully

Ms L Giverin                                                 Miss J O’Prey
Head of School                                            Executive Headteacher

https://news.camden.gov.uk/primary-schools-in-camden-to-remain-closed-for-first-two-weeks-of-term/

Local restrictions

The government has made clear its commitment that education and childcare settings should be prioritised to remain open during coronavirus (COVID-19). This remains the default position for all areas in all local restriction tiers.

Any restrictions on education would only be as a last resort and would only be initiated by central government. In all circumstances, in all settings, vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers should have access to full-time provision. Where circumstances relate to local restrictions, this is clearly set out in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) contingency framework for education and childcare settings.

In line with this, the government has asked a small number of primary schools in areas with exceptional rates of incidence or transmission of the virus to restrict access to children of critical workers and vulnerable children at the start of this term.

The definition of vulnerable children and young people and critical workers is in the following section.

Vulnerable children and young people

Vulnerable children and young people include those who:

• are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
• have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
• have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
  • children and young people on the edge of receiving support from children’s social care services or in the process of being referred to children’s services
  • adopted children or children on a special guardianship order
  • those at risk of becoming NEET (‘not in employment, education or training’)
  • those living in temporary accommodation
  • those who are young carers
  • those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)
  • care leavers
  • others at the provider and local authority’s discretion including pupils and students who need to attend to receive support or manage risks to their mental health

Critical workers

Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections.

Health and social care

This includes, but is not limited to, doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.

Education and childcare

This includes:

• childcare
• support and teaching staff
• social workers
• specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach

Key public services

This includes:

• those essential to the running of the justice system
• religious staff
• charities and workers delivering key frontline services
• those responsible for the management of the deceased
• journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting

Local and national government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:

• the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
• essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies

Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food:

• production
• processing
• distribution
• sale and delivery
• as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

Public safety and national security

This includes:

• police and support staff
• Ministry of Defence civilians
• contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
• fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)
• National Crime Agency staff
• those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas

Transport and border

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.

Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes:

• staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
• the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
• information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
• key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
• postal services and delivery
• payments providers
• waste disposal sectors