Latest News

Information for parents whose children receive the benefit based Free School Meal (not the children in EYFS/KS1 who receive Universal Free School Meals) 

 

We are currently liaising with both our current catering company ‘CaterEd’ and the DFE re the details of the recently announced voucher scheme. Our current understanding of the new scheme is that it will be ‘term time only’ and will not be available until Tuesday 14th April. Once we have any more information on the scheme and how it might operate in our school(s), we will be back in touch, but in the meantime for the next 2 weeks our current ‘grab bag’ arrangements will continue.

Here is a lovely 5 minute video explaining coronavirus to children made by Playmobil. It aims at helping them to understand what is happening right now and what they can do to ease the situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DlOGKpMNs4&feature=youtu.be

Here is some up to date information from Devon and Cornwall Police. Please follow the link to stay up to date: https://alerts.dc.police.uk

Thursday 19th March 2020

Dear Parents / Carers,
Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

Following on from my recent updates, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed by the government to close your child’s school to almost all children after this Friday 20th March until further notice. As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are still waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday 23rd March onwards. Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will continue to keep you informed through email, social media and our websites.

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn. Each LAT school is making provision for home learning and details of this will come directly from each school.

If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this.

Self-isolation and illness mean that our schools workforce is significantly depleted and we monitor this on a daily basis. The actions that are being taken, both locally and by the government, are being done with the clear intent of preventing the spread of the virus. As such it is imperative that to keep our children and staff safe our schools receive a thorough clean each day.
This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

If you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

Thank you again for your continued support and understanding at this difficult time.

Yours sincerely,
Simon Spry
Chief Executive Officer
Learning Academies Trust

Dear Parents/ Carers,

You will have seen that schools are due to be closed from Monday for all but a small number of children. Please send your children to school tomorrow and we will update you during the day.

Thank you,

Ms C Brake
 

The Learning Academies Trust would like to reassure you that our schools are still open at present in line with current government advice. This is however becoming more challenging as some of our staff are needing to self-isolate due to unwell family members or based on Public Health England recommendations. We have no confirmed cases within the schools in our Trust.

 

You may notice that your child has a different class teacher or we are putting classes together. We are doing everything we can to stay open to support you and your children during this uncertain time.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation during these unprecedented times and if you do have any concerns, please contact the school.

Friday 13^th March 2020

 

Dear Parents,

I am writing to update you about the election day on Thursday 7^th May 2020.

Prince Rock has been selected as a polling station again. In my view, this is not acceptable. The school has been closed too many times in the last year for election days at great inconvenience to parents and at detriment to the children’s learning.

We have written to the local authority’s education department who agreed that it is “less than ideal” for schools to be used as polling stations but who referred us to the electoral service team of the local authority. We then contacted them and expressed our views. After a delay, we were told by the head of electoral services that they could insist on using the school despite our objections. We suggested the use of a mobile polling station in the car park but this was rejected. We then asked to meet with the head of electoral services to explain our views. Two people who work for the department came to meet myself and Mr. Spry at school and agreed that it is best not to use schools but that mobile polling stations cost money and schools were free. They did, however, agree to go back to the electoral team to request a mobile polling station here as they, like us, could see no alternative.

Since this meeting on Monday, I emailed twice for updates and only received a reply after 5pm yesterday. The local authority have informed us that they will not use a mobile polling station so that we can keep the school open as using the school as a polling station is a “viable option”. I do not understand how they can consider the closure of a school to be a “viable option”.

It is with regret that I have to inform you that the local authority still intend to use our school as a polling station on Thursday 7^th May despite our repeated requests that they find an alternative solution. This will, unfortunately, result in the school having to be closed on that day.

It is possible that the elections may be delayed until the Autumn in light of concerns over the coronavirus. If this does happen, the local authority have said that they will conduct an “exhaustive and detailed review” of the use of our school as a polling station. This is not a promise not to use our school.

I will be contacting our local MP, Luke Pollard, to ask him to speak to the local authority on our behalf. Should you wish to express your views, please contact elections@plymouth.gov.uk

I am very sorry that we have not been successful in getting the local authority to find an alternative location but we will continue to request that they do this in the hope that this will be the last occasion when we have to close the school in this manner.

Yours sincerely,

 

Ms C. Brake

Executive Headteacher

Department for Education Helpline