Dear Parent or Carer,

You will be aware we have entered our third national lockdown which means: You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.

You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You can find all the guidance you need on the government website.

You will also be aware that this lockdown has included the closure of school places, to all but vulnerable learners and learners of critical workers identified by the Department of Education which include workers 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. Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school if required. This includes parents who may be working from home. All other learners will work remotely from home.

Your child’s school will have contacted vulnerable learner families to make arrangements for school attendance, this is highly encouraged.

Schools have been working hard to establish which families require a critical worker status place. We would like to remind parents the DfE have advised schools:

Parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.

With this in mind, we do ask parents and carers who do fall into the category of critical workers to consider whether it is necessary for your child to attend school. If only one parent/ carer is a critical worker, do you really need a school place???

As you know, the purpose of the national lockdown is to reduce the overall number of social contacts in our community. Central government have resisted restrictions on attendance at schools since the first lockdown but, in the face of the rapidly rising numbers of cases across the country and intense pressure on the NHS, we now need to use every lever at our disposal to reduce all our social contacts wherever possible.

Some of our schools have seen significant demand for school places, but they are working hard to support as many parents/carers as possible.

If you are able to support your child to learn at home we would encourage this so that we can collectively reduce the transmission rates of this virus and ensure that the availability of school places for critical worker/ vulnerable learners is equitable.

Your child’s school has worked extremely hard in a very short timescale to ensure remote learning for children and young people learning from home. We are very grateful as a council for the hard work of our schools in Blackpool.

We do ask you to support the council in keeping to the lockdown rules and explaining to your child why these rules are necessary in the current situation.

Finally, we would like to thank all our parents and carers for the support you have given since the first lockdown and we know you will throughout the remainder of the current restrictions. We know it is not easy for families who have children and young people working from home – but together we will get through this.

Yours sincerely,

Diane Booth
Director of Children’s Services