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Newsletter
Fri 29 May 202029th May 2020
Returning to School on June 1st.
Dear Parents,
School will be open on Monday June 1st for pupils in Early Years, Year One and Year Six.
Your child’s teacher has already spoken to you to find out whether or not your child is returning. They have also told you which group they are in and their start and finish times.
We will continue to provide home learning for every child not returning to school.
We need to take every precaution to keep the community safe at this time, so please read the following important information very carefully. Some of it sounds really unfriendly and I’m sorry for this but the following arrangements are important to us all:
Arrangements for our existing key-worker group – including start and finish times remain the same;
We can only take in children if you have confirmed their return with their teacher – we will not be able to admit any children who turn up on the day. If you have said that your child will not be returning but later on change your mind, inform the office and we will confirm their safe return to school as soon as possible
It is essential that everyone uses the correct gate – even if you have to walk past an open gate to get to the correct one. Gates to be used are:
Key worker group: School Office
EYFS: Playground gate by the school office;
Yr 1: Williams Avenue
Yr 6: Wigton Road junior playground
Unaccompanied children will not be admitted. All children must be brought to school and collected by an adult – but just one adult please, with no other family members present (apart from babies in buggies or prams) – no toddlers walking or on scooters thanks;
Please double-check your child’s start and finish times. Each group’s is different and they must be kept to without any exceptions;
We are not able to accommodate part-time places or casual attendance;
When on the school grounds or outside the school gate please ensure that you observe social distancing at all times;
Please stay at least 2 metres away from your child’s classroom;
In school, groups will not mix with one another at any time – so it’s really important that they don’t on their journeys to and from school;
Adults will not be able to enter the school buildings – there will be no toilet facilities available for visitors;
School dinners will be provided as normal;
At this time, we are only using the newer, larger classrooms – these classrooms have their own toilets and external doors -shared areas such as the corridors or library will not be used;
Children will not share stationery. Reading books will be ‘in quarantine’ for at least 72 hours before being touched by another child. Keyboards will be cleaned before and after use. School uniform can be worn and washed as normal with no special requirements;
During the school day, children will be encouraged to stay 2 metres apart as much as possible but please understand that the Government’s guidance has consistently told us that we cannot guarantee that young children will always stay 2 metres apart from each other;
If a child is taken ill during the school day then they will be quickly isolated and cared for in strict accordance with Government guidelines – they will need to be collected by an adult and taken home straight away;
If your child becomes unwell and is diagnosed as having Covid-19 then please inform school immediately. If at any time we have a confirmed case at school then the Government’s guidelines tell us to close down that particular group and all adults and children within that group must self-isolate at home for 14 days.
Children will not wear face masks in school. Government guidelines tell us that this increases the risk of infection in a school setting.
The school office will be open for appointments only. Appointments can be made via phone or email. Please do not go to the office without an appointment as regretfully, we will not be able to see you. The same also applies to meetings and conversations with teachers.
My very best wishes go to you all.
M Hanks
Headteacher
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Return to school newsletter
Tue 19 May 2020Dear Parents,
As you know, some pupils will be returning to school on June 1st. This is a tricky thing to organise! I’d like to add some more detail to the outline plans I mentioned in my previous letter. Hopefully, it will be helpful. Please remember that the return only applies to children in EYFS, Year 1 and Year 6. All other children – apart from those in our key worker group – will still stay at home for the time being.
Tomorrow, teachers will begin to phone parents of children in relevant year groups to check with you whether your child will be returning. Please remind yourself of the contents of my previous newsletter (13th May). What I write here is in addition to the information I posted previously. There are a number of changes we will have to make in order to best keep our children and our staff as safe as possible.
Children will be in the same group of between 10 and 15 children with the same (in most cases 2) members of staff. Each group will spend the day together – including their break and lunch times. Children and adults from one group will not mix with children from another. This is to avoid the danger of any symptoms spreading from one group to another.
This means that not all children will be able to be with their current class teacher and some of their friends may be in a different group. Please take the time to explain this to your children before they return. It’s important that they understand that they may not be with their teacher and that they might not be mixing with some of their friends.
All children who come to school at this time will have to be delivered and collected by an adult. This includes Year 6 children who may be used to travelling to and from school on their own. We can only accommodate children who are brought to school and collected by an adult. This is to avoid the risk of any symptoms spreading from one group to another on the journey home.
If your child wears a face mask on the journey to school, please make sure that you remove it before they come into class. Children will forget to look after them and we cannot have used face masks left on desks or chairs or needing to be picked up and thrown away.
The school day is likely to be slightly shorter – I will provide precise timings at the end of this week. Please note that start and finish times will be different for each group.
We will not be able to provide Breakfast or After School Club at this time (apart from our key worker group). This is to avoid the risk of any symptoms spreading from one group to another. All children will need to be delivered and collected on time.
The school office will operate on an appointment only system. Appointments can be made via phone or email but otherwise it will be closed. Please do not go to the office without an appointment as regretfully, we will not be able to see you. Parents will not be able to enter the school buildings – nor will they be able to speak to the teacher in the morning or at home time. Please make an appointment, send an email or use Seesaw if you need to speak to your child’s teacher – this includes their group teacher or their usual class teacher.
I will write to you again at the end of this week and hopefully, by then, we will be able to tell you which group your child will be in. You may have questions that I have not yet answered – please feel free to email or phone if you need to talk to me or think I may be able to help.
I send you all my very best wishes and look forward to seeing some of you at least, very soon.
M Hanks
Headteacher
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Home Learning and Return to School
Wed 13 May 2020Dear Parents and Children,
Possible Return to School for Some Pupils
I’m sure you will have heard that our government has plans for some children to return to school, possibly on the 1st June. The return date is still provisional and applies only to pupils who are in Year 6, Year 1, Reception and Nursery.
There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding this plan – I will keep you updated as and when we receive more information from the Department of Education.
In the meantime, I can tell you that:
Children of key workers who currently come to school will still be able to attend.
All children who attend will be taught in small groups of between 10 and 15 pupils. Children from one group will not be able to mix with children from another, even at break times, and will be taught by the same one or two members of staff.
We will adjust start and finish times to avoid any potential congestion at the school gates.
We will introduce clear routines for hygiene and movement around the school that reduce unnecessary contact and minimize any risk of contamination.
During this time, we understand that most pupils will still be at home and teachers will continue their current excellent work supporting home learning.
Home Learning
I know some of you have been worried about the amount of work being done at home and whether you’re getting it right. Our teachers provide a certain amount of work each day that all children should do. We are also providing additional opportunities for those children who are able to do more. It is not always easy to know how much is enough and when it’s OK to stop. Seesaw counts tasks that have been set but not completed – but please don’t be intimidated by this, no-one is expecting everyone to do everything!
Parents must never feel guilty if children have been unable to complete some tasks because of other constraints on your time. I know that some of you are working from home, some are struggling with sharing screen time with several children and some have developed your own home routines for getting through lockdown. This is fine. Cooking, gardening, going on walks, exercising, playing board games together are all excellent ways to spend your time – so is just doing stuff and chatting together.
I don’t think it’s a good idea for school to set a minimum time. If I told you that children should work for 90 minutes a day for example, then as soon as they were in the 92nd minute, they’d be complaining and telling you it was time to stop! Just remember, we should expect our children to do what they do as well as they can – but that doesn’t mean they have to do everything -nor should they do it all at once.
Every class teacher is available to answer any questions from children and adults and please, any uncertainty about workload and timings is exactly the sort of thing they can help you with. My advice, for what it’s worth, on a normal day with no other distractions, would be to read, to do the daily maths and English task to the best of your child’s ability (don’t expect them to work for too long without a break) and then to choose one or two other pieces of learning a day – these extra pieces might be finished that day or might stretch over several days. It would also help to make absolutely sure that junior children know all of their times tables and younger children all their number bonds to twenty.
I wish you all continuing good fortune over the next few weeks of lockdown and send you all my best wishes.
M Hanks
Headteacher