Dear Parents and Carers,

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement last night, all NCEAT schools are open to key worker children and vulnerable children only. All other pupils will learn by remote learning. These arrangements will continue until at least 15th February, which is the Government’s review date for the current lockdown arrangements.

Like me, I am sure you will have many questions about the details of the lockdown arrangements for schools, especially around things like what will happen with exams. At the moment, the Department for Education (DfE) has not published any detailed guidance following last night’s announcement. We will add information to the new Covid-19 hub on our Trust website as soon as we have any further details from DfE. We will also continue to publish our “Lighthouse” newsletter during lockdown and send out information on our social media channels.

I know that this will be an anxious time for many families. Please be assured that schools have learned a great deal about remote learning since the previous lockdown and are able to support this much more effectively than we could at the start of March 2020. We will also continue to provide as much support as we can for families during the new lockdown, directly if we can or by using our partnerships with other organisations when we can’t do this ourselves.

Best wishes and please stay safe,

Alan Hardie
Chief Executive Officer at NCEAT.