Dear Parents

Happy New Year - I hope you had time to relax with your families over the holiday. The staff are genuinely devastated to start the term with another lockdown - we really miss the children already. I will of course keep you updated, although I stress that we find out what will happen in schools by watching the same press conferences as you! I want to take this opportunity to thank our staff who have worked tirelessly to put everything in place, from moment of the announcement on Wednesday 30th December that Chelmsford schools were closing to most students. They have arranged training sessions and held meetings during the holidays, evenings and weekends, and re-written plans for online learning. We hope that the remote learning and video calls have been useful so far - there is more to come and we will arrange more targeted teaching where appropriate. We have all had a bit of a learning curve this week and we thank you for your perseverance with our Google Meet calls, I was delighted to find an audience of 80 for today's assembly!

Just to remind you, all teaching staff are teaching key worker groups full time, including covering lunch times in some cases, so our answers to emails may be delayed as a result. The office is not currently manned, as our staff follow government guidelines to work from home where possible. As a consequence please email us at parents@writtleinfantschool.com rather than calling, as although I am mostly in the office, my commitments mean that I may miss your call. Emails are monitored constantly.

We are still looking for a parent governor and if anyone would possibly be interested please contact me to discuss the commitment involved. Please don’t be put off by all of the arrangements for Covid - they are well in hand!

We recognise that the majority of children will not be physically attending school and that it is likely they will spend longer periods of time online, which may increase their vulnerability. Please be aware of this and share any concerns that you find, so we can help if possible and alert other parents where necessary. Our E-safety page provides a comprehensive list of useful websites for parent with regard to staying safe online.

Finally, we have all had a lot to think about in the past few weeks, but please don't forget to apply for your primary school place, or Year 3 place at the Junior School, by 15 January 2021. Applications can be made online via www.essex.gov.uk/admissions. It is absolutely essential that you don't miss the deadline, or you could lose out on a school place.

Stay safe.
Helen Castell