I am writing to reassure you that The Mulberry Bush is following government advice to ensure the health and wellbeing of our community, children and staff in respect of Novel coronavirus (2019-nCov). Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are carefully monitoring the coronavirus situation and have published information and advice for the public. As the situation is rapidly developing, please check the online advice for the most up-to-date information:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Here is the latest schools bulletin:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-isolation-for-residential-educational-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-isolation-for-residential-educational-settings

As we have had one person in the school showing symptoms of the virus, we took the decision to immediately isolate that person and those who had come into contact. We have worked in close partnership with families and Local Authorities to identify a number of children who could be kept safely at home. Like other schools in the UK, we do not know how long this situation will last, but we are adapting our provision over Easter and beyond to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children, with a view to being fully operational again after Easter, should circumstances allow. This will of course depend on advice we receive and therefore we will publish new information as and when we receive it.

Additionally, following the UK government guidance, we have taken the decision to switch to remote working for all non-essential staff to ensure that we are enabling everyone to protect themselves through appropriate social distancing and to minimise the risk of transmission within the school. All planned face-to-face meetings have been switched to video calls, wherever possible. All service leads are contactable via the website and our staff are doing fantastic work while self isolating to maintain relationships with our most vulnerable children.

Thank you for all your support during this extremely difficult time. If we all play our part and follow the advice we are given, hopefully we will be able to return to normal before the end of the school year.

John Diamond
CEO, The Mulberry Bush