Dearest children, parents, carers and friends of Instow,

I hope this email finds you well and managing some sunshine. Although this is our official Easter break at the moment I felt it was important to write to you and reassure you that our teachers and support staff team have been working in the background to ensure a version of a summer term ahead.

The government is steadfastly maintaining a 'remain at home' policy and our school is no different. If you are able to keep your children at home, even as a key worker, then this should continue until we are told otherwise.

If you need your child to attend school, we have organised a rolling three week rota of teachers and support staff to be available for the children of front-line key-workers and for any children who have an Education and Health Care Plan who may need specialist care within the school environment while parents are working and who do not have a pre-existing health condition. Mrs Turner has already communicated with the families of these identified children.

If you come under these categories, please visit our website and complete a new Google form, to attend school, from Tuesday 14th April. You must complete this form by Thursday 9th April so that our teachers and school cook can plan. On the form you are able to let us know whether your shift starts early and which days you will need child-care.

I know you understand that I have a responsibility to keep my staff team safe, as part of their working conditions and there are at least half of our staff team who must remain at home for health reasons within the family, so I hope you support us with the scaled-down version of on-site schooling in the weeks ahead.

Having said all this, our teachers are organising an overall, looser style of timetable and topic study via Seesaw and Tapestry apps that you all should have accessed by now. We are recommending that you and your children set up a varied routine in the day, so that all family members know when they should/could be studying, balanced with time for exercise and down-time together. Please remember that you, as parents, are the most natural teachers for your children and that your 'teaching' can come in the form of baking, art work, forest trails for daily exercise, identifying cars for a fact-file, or for natural plants and animals, growing seeds, or making and posting cards to relatives and friends.

I will upload this email and information on to the school website - Latest News tab - as well. If any parent-friends appear to not have received this email, please direct them to the website or to email admin@instowcps.co.uk, if they appear to not receive our emails to you all. If you need to make me aware of something, please use the admin@instowcps.co.uk email address.

If you haven't already, make an Easter Garden on a plate or tray and place it outside your front door/garden for others to enjoy this Easter weekend coming? Take a photograph and upload it to Seesaw so that we can all share something together?! Also - we have donated Easter Eggs in the school hall - once we are back together we shall still hold a raffle! Ha ha!!

Stay strong and positive, we are all learning to cope with this vitally important new way of living, so that we keep everyone as safe as possible. Please know you are in our hearts and minds.

Love from Mrs Knight and team xxx