Newsletter 26th June
Free School Meals
All children in school have lunch as normal – either a school meal or packed lunch. If your child is still at home and entitled to free school meals then you should now be receiving free school meal vouchers. During lockdown, due to difficult financial circumstances, many more children will now be entitled to free school meals. If you think your child may now be entitled but you have not yet registered, please check if your child can get free school meals - and find out how to apply - on the London Borough of Waltham Forest website.
Dear Parents,
We now know that the government hope that schools will be reopening to all pupils in September (unless circumstances change in the meantime).
Prior to that, we will be opening a Year 5 group for the last few weeks of term.
Year 5 parents please read the newsletter dated 29th May which contains important information regarding procedures and routines that will enable your children’s safe return to school.
While the government have updated guidance on keeping a safe distance apart it is worth repeating that in primary schools, the safety measures have never been based on trying to keep individual children socially distanced from one another but rather on keeping children in ‘bubbles’ – groups of no more than 15 children with 2 or 3 members of staff who spend their days together without mixing with children or adults from any other group.
We expect these bubbles to remain in place for the next few weeks with schools opening for all pupils in September. However, the bubble idea could still be in place in September, so each class bubble of 30 children may still have to stay away from children in all other classes as much as possible. To work safely, this could require staggered start and finish times – I will contact you when we know more.
If you would like your child to return to school for the last few weeks of term please note that we have spaces for key workers’ children and a limited number of spaces in our Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 groups. If you would like one of these spaces please check with the office and we will confirm their return date as soon as possible. Because we have to keep children from different groups separate, we are only able to offer after school care to children in the key workers group.
Some Reminders from Earlier Letters
It’s still important that all children must be brought to school and collected by an adult – we cannot risk children from different groups mixing together on the journey to and from school - just one adult please, with no other family members apart from babies in buggies.
Home Learning
Teachers from all year groups continue to post work every day and are still available to help if you contact them via email (on the school website) or Seesaw.
The following and Health and Safety guidance from the Government still applies in school:
- During the school day, groups of children socially distance from other groups by staying within and only having contact with children in their own group of no more than 15;
- 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 you must inform school immediately. If at any time we have a confirmed case then we close that group and everyone in it goes home to self-isolate for 14 days;
- At the present time, the Government’s guidance still tells us that children should not wear face masks in school as they create a risk of infection spreading in school through young children taking them off and leaving them lying around.
School Office
The school office is 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 with teachers.
Best wishes to you all - stay safe!
M Hanks
Headteacher