Dear Parents
I hope you have all had a good summer and that children are looking forward to returning to school and seeing their friends. There are a number of things that I need to update you about before Monday:
Maternity Leave
Miss Jones has announced that she is expecting her second child in January. Whilst news like this is always a bit of a surprise, I hope you will join me in offering congratulations and best wishes.
Obviously, this has implications for class three families and I realise how unsettling the thought of change can be. I am working to ensure that we have a high quality teacher in place to cover her maternity leave, and am actively exploring the possibility of it being someone who is familiar with the school. I will let you know the details of any appointment as soon as it is made.
School times
We will be returning to normal start and finish times from next week. The gate will open at 8.40am ready for an 08.45am start and the gate will close at 08.50am. The day will end with the gate being opened at 3.15pm. There are now no statutory Covid precautions, so face covering are a matter of personal choice as is social distancing. I would ask that you do remember that some parents may wish to be more cautious than others, school wishes to support anyone who continues to feel more vulnerable.
Entrance and exit from the school will be via the front gate only from next week, this just requires everyone to show a little courtesy and avoid situations that lead to crowding.
Indoor Shoes
We are continuing the policy of children changing into plimsols or clean indoor shoes as it has made a big difference to the cleanliness of the school. There are designated places for children to put their shoes for each class. If they have their own decorated and named clothes peg to keep their shoes together even better. Please make sure your child has plimsolls or a clean light weight indoor shoe. By far the easiest thing is for children to wear their PE plimsolls. Two classrooms have lovely new carpets and not walking in mud and dirt will keep them looking fresh for much longer.
Named Clothing
Please ensure all clothing items are clearly labelled with your child's name. Full name rather than initials makes it less of a guessing game when sorting lost property! A sharpie marker is ideal if you can't supply name tags. Write your child's name across the inside hem of red pullovers and cardigans, tiny writing on the maker label does not help. Writing the name inside on the fabric in fairly large writing also reduce the chance of clothing going to the wrong home and being accidentally adopted..... Don't forget to write names inside shoes where it can be easily seen.
School Entrance Lobby
We do ask that visitor wear a face covering in the school entrance until told otherwise.
PE uniform
You will have seen that we want all children to come in normal uniform on Monday but KS2 classes will come in PE uniform on Tuesday. Given the detailed information and long notice, I expect every child to have a full PE kit that is suitable for the season. We will not be accepting multicoloured kit as we did through the lockdown period. If anyone requires help providing the correct kit, do speak to myself or Mrs Eke. It is really important that we achieve the point where every child is correctly equipped if we are to create the climate for high quality sport. Individual class teachers will give you details of the second PE lesson that will take place later in the week, each class will have their own routines for this.
Covid
The guidance has now changed very significantly:
‘Close contacts will now be identified via NHS Test and Trace and education settings will no longer be expected to undertake contact tracing.
As with positive cases in any other setting, NHS Test and Trace will work with the positive case and/or their parent to identify close contacts. Contacts from a school setting will only be traced by NHS Test and Trace where the positive case and/or their parent specifically identifies the individual as being a close contact. This is likely to be a small number of individuals who would be most at risk of contracting COVID-19 due to the nature of the close contact. You may be contacted in exceptional cases to help with identifying close contacts, as currently happens in managing other infectious diseases.
Individuals are not required to self-isolate if they live in the same household as someone with COVID-19, or are a close contact of someone with COVID-19, and any of the following apply:
• they are fully vaccinated
• they are below the age of 18 years and 6 months
• they have taken part in or are currently part of an approved COVID-19 vaccine trial
• they are not able to get vaccinated for medical reasons
Instead, they will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace, informed they have been in close contact with a positive case and advised to take a PCR test. We would encourage all individuals to take a PCR test if advised to do so.
Staff who do not need to isolate, and children and young people aged under 18 years 6 months who usually attend school, and have been identified as a close contact, should continue to attend school as normal. They do not need to wear a face covering within the school, but it is expected and recommended that these are worn when travelling on public or dedicated transport.’
I suspect that this situation may change as infection rates increase this autumn. Whilst I am sure that the risk of serious life threatening illness is now much reduced I am very concerned about the prospect of large number of staff being off ill and the impact this will have. As usual we will try to deal with things in a calm common-sense way.
By far the biggest thing that you can do to help is to keep doing lateral flow tests and to treat colds and sniffles with caution and test if you feel it’s appropriate.
We are going to have to get back to having children in school with colds, and there will no doubt be a lot of general illness this autumn so keeping hygiene routines at home and school will be really important. It goes without saying that children who have sickness and diarrhoea must not return until 48 hours has lapsed since the last instance of illness (not since the start of the illness).
What does the guidance mean in real terms for the school?
There will be times when we will have children in school who have parents or siblings who have tested positive for Covid and are isolating at home; the government expects these children to be in school if they have clear tests themselves.
If staff or children become ill the class will not go home, it may be that one or two really close contacts may be asked to isolate.
We are going to hold whole school collective worship / assemblies, but playtimes will remain split between key stages. Classes will not be split when they share a playtime however. This decision allows the re introduction of bubbles easily should the national or local situation deteriorate, but it is mainly due to the fact that feedback from children is that they have enjoyed having more space on the playground. The split playtimes have had a very positive effect on behaviour and massively reduced injuries. We will have 83 children on roll this autumn, this is close to the maximum the school has ever had and our playground simply isn’t big enough for that number of children.
Clubs
You will receive club booking letters next week with the aim of them starting the following week.
Class Three Entrance
Class Three children will continue to enter and exit their classroom via the door under the canopy. You will see that the fencing around the reception class out door area has been extended. Children will be released from the gated area as they have done in recent years.
Water Bottles
We will be continuing to provide cups and water jugs in classrooms as this removes the chance of stale dirty water being drunk, It also encouraged better manners. Children can still have their own drink bottle at lunch time as part of their packed lunch. We will review this policy but do believe it has contributed to the reduction in tummy bugs along with the other Covid hygiene measures.
I look forward to seeing everyone next week, enjoy the final days of the holiday.