Dear Parents,
My name is Janet Sherlock, the CEO and founder of Leaders are Readers.
School Closures in England
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced that, to slow the spread of the coronavirus, all schools in England are to close after this Friday, until further notice.
This means that Leaders are Readers will not offer the last two lessons of this term on 21st and 28th March and our physical centres on school premises will remain closed until the government lifts the closure of schools.
Please know that Leaders are Readers remains open throughout this period. We are available for telephone calls and emails.
It is important to note that, whilst children are without symptoms of the virus, they should be working at home. The government expects all schools to produce a package of work for their students. We will post, or email to you where possible, the work for the remaining two lessons of this spring term. Please get your children to complete them, one week at a time. Then please post the completed booklets back to your centre manager, a week at a time, and we will get our teachers to mark and correct them. We will send the corrected booklets back to you. If you have not already done so, please complete our registration form online, so that we have your current correspondence address. You may do this at: https://www.leadersarereaders.co.uk/enrol-now
Leaders are Readers Online School
In April, we resume teaching - online. The government announcement was not wholly unexpected, and we have been planning to transfer our teaching online. We had also been receiving requests from parents who were uncertain of being able to continue to attend lessons at a centre in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, and were reluctant to stop their children’s tuition with Leaders are Readers.
Our Saturday online school will commence on 25th April, a week later than publicised for the start of our summer term. We will run Summer School online too, should the government advise us all to continue to keep social distance.
The lessons in our virtual Saturday School classrooms will be held at the same times on Saturdays as our traditional classes. The Summer School lessons will run from Monday through to Friday, same as our traditional summer school lessons. We, however, intend for the length of the Saturday and Summer School lessons to be slightly shorter than our traditional classes.
In addition to online teaching, we will, of course, continue to supplement with our online maths resources platforms for further practice, available 24/7 to all our maths students. To help all of our children during this challenging period, we are extending membership of the online maths platforms to all of our Reading Programme and Language Sense students, free of charge. We will also add a subscription to an English website which will accelerate learning of spelling, grammar and vocabulary for our Language Sense students.
To participate in the online school, children will need access to wifi and a computer device at home – laptop, desktop or tablet.
We will be in touch with the details of the Online LaR School in the next few weeks.
Our 11+ and 7+ Exam Children
We know how worried you may be that the announcement may interrupt your children’s exam preparations, but please be assured that everyone at Leaders are Readers will do their very best for your children in the next few months.
We are looking forward to teaching your children online in these unprecedented times. Please continue to support your children through what will be a challenging period in their education. Our teachers will, as far as possible, enable excellent remote learning. I would, however, ask for some patience as we roll out a new set of procedures for the team and the children – we are all learning new skills. We would welcome any feedback as we go along so that we can adapt our approach to best fit the needs of our pupils and you, as the parents.
Precautions
Please continue to emphasise the importance of personal hygiene and handwashing in particular. Not all children are keen on doing this regularly and need your encouragement to do so.
Self-Isolation
The situation is evolving rapidly; this is a link to the government advice: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance
These are complicated and unsettling times for all of us. Things are changing constantly and I am committed to keeping you informed. I invite you to visit our website at www.leadersarereaders.co.uk from time to time, for any news and updates . In the meantime, you will be receiving further updates from your Centre Manager regarding the online school process, moving forward.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued loyalty and support, we’re incredibly grateful. I also want to thank our wonderfully enthusiastic tutors, centre administrators and our resilient franchisees who are all working hard to ensure we can continue to serve the children well. All of us at Leaders are Readers look forward to seeing you and your children again, when we reopen our physical centres at the appropriate time. Until then, we shall be meeting online.
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We wish you and your families well. |
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JANET SHERLOCK Chief Executive Officer |
