Dear Parents
Further to my communication last week, I wanted to specifically confirm the school’s position with regards to emergency childcare arrangements now that the closure is impacting upon our whole phase.
We share your frustrations completely at this further school closure and along with many other schools across Hong Kong, are continuing to ask for the approach to school closure to be revised and the impact on the children considered. We are aware that school closure can put a great deal of stress upon families, especially when there is more than one child in the household. I would like to reiterate to please contact your child’s class teacher or a member of the Early Years Leadership Team if you are finding any aspect of the home learning challenging so we can seek ways to support as best we can.
In the event that there is not an adult at home to supervise or take care of your child/children, we can offer a limited number of emergency child care spaces at our Early Years campus. The EdB has extremely strict guidelines regarding emergency childcare, which includes NOT running a normal school programme of teaching and learning; failure to comply with these regulations can have serious implications for our whole school. That being said, we are able to offer a safe space, supervised by adults from our setting where children can access their online learning in the event that it is not possible for them to do so at home. The emergency childcare is not being run by class teachers who are delivering the online learning programme from their own classrooms, nor are the children able to join their class teacher for emergency childcare arrangements. In the interests of transparency, I must stress that emergency childcare does not involve the children experiencing a regular school programme of teaching and learning. It involves us providing adults to supervise the children in a safe environment to complete their online learning where this is not possible at home.
We want to support in the best possible way to ensure minimum stress on our Early Years families. Please make contact with me directly at [email protected] if you feel you do not have adequate childcare arrangements at home and would like to discuss the emergency childcare option. In addition, please do feedback to class teachers or the Early Years Leadership team if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding the online learning provision.
Once again, we find ourselves in challenging times, however we must remember we are all part of a school community that values positive relationships and a desire to provide support in any way that we possibly can. I appreciate your patience, flexibility and understanding throughout this period of closure and would like to assure you that at the heart of all we do remains the desire to achieve the best for the children.
With best wishes
Hannah Cole
Head of Early Years