School announcement in response to recent directive

19th March 2020

School Announcement in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Further to the Government’s announcement about school closures made on 18th March.

As things stand:

1. We understand mainstream schools will close this Friday (20th March) and not re-open until further notice.
2. Schools with ‘vulnerable children’ including special schools (this includes West Kirby School & College) will remain open for as long as possible, to support the children in their care.

The DfE (Department for Education) is aware that special schools (including ours) may still have to close if their staffing levels are too low or if they have students who are particularly vulnerable to infection. Whilst we are planning to remain open for as long as possible to as many students who are in the greatest need as possible, the DfE understands that we may have to run reduced operations and may ultimately have to close if staff numbers drop below a safe level to continue operating.

Where schools (such as ours) actively want to stay open for as long as possible, the DfE supports this. Equally, they understand that we have a duty of care towards our staff and need to keep them safe too, which will likely mean we need to run a reduced level of operation, or may have to close if we cannot continue to offer a safe service.

We recognise the anxiety and worry that our parents, carers, pupils, staff and suppliers will likely be feeling right now. We understand there has been extensive changes and there will be many questions you will need answers to, whilst we don’t always know the answer, we will do our best to keep you informed.

We have the following information to share with you:

General information:

Our school aims to remain open until regular Easter holidays begin. School will close, as planned, on Friday the 3rd April and open again on Monday the 20th April

 

If you are a pupil:

Please contact your teacher if you need any help or information, or you can speak to one of the staff members who rings your house during the week. If you can’t do either of these you can email any teacher via schooloffice@wkrs.co.uk or call us on 0151 632 3201. If you are feeling like you need some extra help, please contact

Childline: telephone: 0800 1111 – they can talk to you if you are worried about Coronavirus, or if you have anything you are worried about

www.kooth.com – they can talk to you about your wellbeing

 

If you are a parent / carer

If you need to contact the Teacher of your child, please contact them directly, or contact our reception on 0151 632 3201. Please do not visit the School in person before getting authorisation from the School, as you may be refused entry.

If you have an emergency and urgent situation concerning your child, their health or their welfare, please email 999@wkrs.co.uk outlining the situation with your contact details, and a member of the School Senior Leadership Team will respond to you as soon as possible. You may also wish to contact local social services.

If you are struggling with the changes and you need some wellbeing support you can contact: mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing/  

 

If you are a member of staff

Our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) will be rotating their on-site attendance at the School, but are all still available and working during normal working hours (health allowing). If you need to speak to a member of the School SLT please contact them on their work mobile phone or work email address.

If you visit the School

The School reception may be operating a reduced service and on some days may not be operating at all. We will be restricted access to the premises to only authorised staff, pupils and essential deliveries for the near future. Please do not visit the School unless it is absolutely necessary. If you visit the School during normal hours and our reception is closed and the School is not accessible, please call reception on 0151 632 3201 or (in the event of emergency access being required) call our Premises Manager on 07584 678711.

If you are a supplier

Our Finance Team will be working remotely from 20th March, meaning they will be unavailable to speak to by phoning the School. All paper documents sent to the School (which are for the attention of our Finance Team) will likely experience a delay in being dealt with and responded to. If you are a supplier, please email all Finance related enquiries to finance@wkrs.co.uk. Invoices should be sent electronically to this email address in order to ensure that your payments are not delayed. All emails to our Finance Team should receive a response within 48 hours, but please be patient if a response takes a little longer.

If you need to speak to our Premises Team

Our Premises Team will be on site during normal working hours, but may not be available to be reached through the School’s reception (if it is closed). If you need to contact our premises team please contact our Premises Manager on 07584 678711 or email mhall@wkrs.co.uk.

If you are delivering goods to the School

Please contact our Premises Team to check that we are open and the delivery can be accepted.

The measures and current position of the School maybe subject to sudden and frequent change as the ongoing situation develops. The School will communicate with parents, carers, staff and suppliers, to keep you abreast of the further decisions the School will need to take over the coming weeks and months.

 

We are here to support you all in any way we reasonably can with the resources available to us.

The wellbeing, safety and health of our pupils and staff will remain our top priority and the decisions we take will be centred around our ability to operate a safe service and place of work.

Thank you for your understanding at this time.

Sian Thomas

CEO & Principal