Returning to Park Grove latest as at 26.05.2020

Dear parents/carers of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children,

We wrote to you recently to tell you that we hoped to begin a staggered opening of the school to your children, starting 1^st June.  We also explained that this was only a possibility and might not happen.

You will have seen from the letter sent out from Ebor Academy Trust on Friday that guidance has changed and that further risk assessments need to be carried out.  I can tell you that there were in fact 41 updates to the Department for Education guidance in the space of one week.  I am sure that you can appreciate how difficult it is to make plans for something so important when every day the guidance is changing.  The plans we make one day are not acceptable the next, making this a near impossible task.

One thing that Ebor and Park Grove have been very clear about from the beginning is that the safety of our pupils and staff is the most important thing and this will be our highest priority when considering allowing any additional children into the school.

After extensive meetings, emails and conversations with the senior leadership team, governors, staff and Ebor Trust, it is clear that we will not be ready to open on 1^st June.  We are not yet able to keep everybody safe and we are not willing to risk the health of your children, our staff or their families.

It is ultimately the responsibility of Ebor Trust to ensure that every Ebor school complies with the risk guidance set out by the government.  They therefore need to go through the risk assessments carried out by every one of their 24 schools in fine detail.  After this, each risk assessment will need to go to the Trustees Board meeting to be signed off.  This meeting will not take place for two or three weeks due to the enormity of the task.

I cannot give you a date at this point of when we hope to begin our staggered approach to the opening for Reception in week one, Year 1 in week two and Year 6 in week three.  I can tell you that the earliest we anticipate starting this approach with the Reception children will be the week beginning 22^nd June.  This is to allow us time to write the risk assessments to new specifications, go through it with Ebor Trust, have it signed off by the Trustees and prepare the school for opening.

I apologise that new information keeps coming to you and plans keep changing.  I can only reiterate that this is because every day guidance also changes for us.

The teachers are missing the children so much and are desperate to have them back in school, but it is not worth risking their health to do this.  This letter is a snapshot of where we are at the moment, but please keep checking Parenthub (emails if you do not have Parenthhub) because as you know things are changing all the time.

There are no changes to the provision for children of key workers at this time.

Best wishes and stay safe,

Jo Sawyer

Headteacher

j.sawyer@ebor.academy