Dear Parents and Carers,
I write with the frustrating news that we will have to close some elements of our service over the next few days due to staffing issues.
Friday Baby Room – 14th June 2024
Our smaller Friday baby room provision will be closed TODAY, as ALL our substantive and experienced staff are either off work sick or on annual leave. As you know it is important for us to ensure that there are enough consistent staff working with our babies, making sure they are comfortably cared for by people they know and have an attachment with, sadly we cannot make this happen tomorrow.
You will be refunded for this day.
Nursery School and Nurture Space (POD) – 17th June 2024
This provision will be closed to everyone all day on Monday, 17th June.
This is because we already have a significant number of staff off on long term sick leave, some with illnesses that are extending beyond a few days, but also because many of our staff are taking an annual holiday to celebrate EID, which falls across 2 days.
Usually we can cover this with our substantive staff team or supply – but due to existing sickness and lack of availability with agencies this is not possible. For example, at least 8 of our lunchtime support staff will not be in work on Monday.
Our Baby Rooms and EYs2 Room will be open as normal.
I can only apologise for the huge inconvenience this will cause you and your family. I know what its like to suddenly have day-care pulled out from under your feet when you are a working parent and also acknowledge this is a fabulous learning day lost for our nursery school children.
As a leadership team we are doing all we can to resolve our staffing crisis and support the team into work. As with every year we began in September with a solid staffing model, which included enhanced staffing to ensure consistency. We attempted to mitigate against staff sickness, recruitment difficulties and the challenges that life can unexpectantly throw at any of us. Little did we know we would have so much to contend with.
Please rest assured that we continuously put the safety and needs of our children first in every decision we make regarding our service delivery.
Thank you for your understanding with this.
Kind Regards
Lucy Driver
Executive Headteacher
