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St Josephs Primary School, Slate Street, Belfast

Letter from Miss Weir

31st Dec 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,  

As you are probably now aware, the Minister of Education this morning issued a statement regarding the reopening of schools. I fully appreciate that the information below may cause difficulties for you but know that you understand we need to follow government health and safety advice during this pandemic.  

The minister has guided schools to use the first scheduled day of term to plan for both supervised learning in school for children of key workers and vulnerable children with the rest of the children provided with remote learning at home. Consequently, there will NOT be any children in school on 7th January.   Only children of parents who are key workers or classified under the term ‘vulnerable’ will be able to come to school for ‘supervised learning' on Friday 8th January. All other children will now return to school on Monday 11th January.  Both groups will receive the same tuition either in school or at home. Normal face to face teaching will not resume for all children until Monday 11th January. 

There will be NO school meals provided in school next Friday. Parents of ALL children entitled to free school meals will receive a payment to cover the period of school closures. 

Please see the list of Key Workers below to see if your child fits this criteria.  

Please note BOTH parents/carers (or a single parent/carer) must fulfil the criteria of being a key worker for their child to qualify for supervised learning on Friday 8th January .   KEY WORKER DEFINITION; Public safety and national security, Health and Social Care, Education and childcare, Transport,  Utilities and Communication,  Financial Services, Food and other necessary goods, Essential retail, Key national and local government  

I appreciate the inconvenience this may cause but I am sure you understand this is entirely out of our control and we will continue to keep you informed of any further changes the Minister decides to make.    Like you, we also would love all our children to return to school for learning but realise this is not possible at this time due to the extremely high levels of infection being recorded.  

In the mean time please enjoy the rest of the Christmas holidays. May I take the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. God bless you all.     

Kind Regards,  

Miss M Weir Principal