LETTER TO PARENTS AND CARERS IN SCHOOL
SEPTEMBER 2020
Following the announcement from the Government on Thursday (2nd July) that schools will open to all pupils in September, the following arrangements will apply to our school. There cannot be a “one size fits all” approach; each school will be taking a different attitude to their September opening and the Staff and Governors have agreed that this is ours.
Essential factors that have been in place since March will still be as important as ever and very much in evidence:
Government advice is for all children to be in classrooms with desks facing forward. This is not possible in all our classes:
a) because of the shape of some rooms
b) because it’s ridiculous to think that is the way that young children learn best. In the KS1 classes in particular, we cannot have them sitting in rows to learn
If a child becomes unwell in school with a new, continuous cough, high temperature, or has anosmia they will be sent home and the family advised to follow the “stay at home” guidance. Whilst the child is awaiting collection, they will be isolated in school. Full PPE will be worn by the staff looking after the child. The area around the child who is sent home will be cleaned and sanitised immediately.
Each class has its own "Covid kit": hand soap, sanitiser, tissues, lidded bin, antibac cleaner, antibac wipes, latex gloves, thermometers etc. We will continue to clean everything the children touch regularly and to provide children with their own packs of pencils, rules, rubbers etc. If children have their own pencil cases they wish to bring, that’s fine – if they can be cleaned (plastic not soft material). School bags are okay to bring, as well as PE bags with kit in. These can be left on pegs but we recommend that children take them home more frequently to be washed.
We will have to employ staggered starts and ends to the days to avoid people gathering at the “pinch points” – the worst one being outside the main gate. This has been done brilliantly since 8th June, albeit with half of the school coming and going each day, so we plan to carry on in the same way.
Please do not stay and chat with other parents in the playground or outside the main gate. We know that you will be pleased to see each other after so long, just like the children will be, so please can you move into the park to chat or along Green Road! Don’t bring the children early and stand in the playground; just deliver/collect and go please.
Rec class – parents can come into the playground to deliver their children to the staff at the Reception class gates. Whilst waiting on the playground please maintain the required social distance from other parents.
Year 1 – parents deliver/collect children to the teacher via the main gate by Reception class and to the classroom
Year 2 – please use the top gate by the park (ice-cream van side)
Year 3/4 - children should come in via the entrance near the tennis courts/bowling green, walk down the steps and into their cloakrooms. Parents should stay at the top of the steps and socially distance themselves from others.
Year 5 – in through the front gate and round to Year 5 cloakroom.
Year 6 – should all use the Green Road door.
We will continue to use the staggered drop off and collection times:
Yrs. 5 and 6, this is 8.45-8.55am and 3.00-3.10pm
For the rest of the school 8.50-9.00am and 3-3.15pm
We have huge issues timetabling the hall and playgrounds at lunchtimes (due to having to keep class bubbles apart) and may have to alter these times to allow for a distanced lunchtime for the children. We will try our best to keep to the traditional times, but may have no option but to change.
We had previously published a calendar that had Monday 7th September 2020 as a Training Day. We now wish to move this to Thursday October 22nd. So, school will close for half term on Wednesday 21st October. We feel that this will give us the long break everyone will need over half term.
On Monday 7th September we will only be open for:
Rec: we are offering four transition sessions to Reception children over the first week, from Tuesday 8th - Friday 11th September. Parents can choose when to send their child in, be it morning or afternoon each day to fit in with availability and work commitments. They can’t do both sessions in one day!!
Morning = 9 am – 11.30 am
Afternoon = 1.15pm – 3.15 pm
These times are only for the transition sessions. When the children move to full days, the times as outlined above will apply
We will see on Friday 12th September if we need to continue to phase the Reception children in over another week. This will be communicated to parents via the text messaging service (Teachers2parents)
Everybody else will return to school on Tuesday 8th September. We would ask that all children in Years 3 – 6 bring a packed lunch for that first week. Children in Years 1 & 2 will be able to have a school meal under the Universal Free School Meals Scheme. Children are now allowed to bring lunchboxes. These should be of a material that can be cleaned at home, outside and inside every night.
All children should wear school uniform from Monday 7th September.
Although the children will have to stay in bubbles and not mix during the day, apparently the same rules do not apply to wrap around care! So we will be able to do Breakfast and After School Club provision. Breakfast Club will be from Tuesday 8th September.
£3.50 from 7.45 am and £3.00 from 8.00 am
After School Club: £12 per session to be booked with Ms Core.
Holiday Club can also go ahead as planned. Ms Core is sending a separate letter to parents and carers. New Reception parents and carers who may need holiday provision should ring the office to speak to her.
Leeds City Council provides us with risk assessments for every aspect of school’s September opening. These will be put on the website after we have received and updated them.
School attendance will be mandatory again from the beginning of the term. So it’s all in- and hopefully staying in! A small number of children will still be unable to come to school because either they have had a positive test or had close contact with somebody who has. Apparently we will have a small number of Coronavirus tests in school to issue to children or Staff if needs be. If rates of Covid19 rise in local areas, schools may be shut down again and learning will go back online.
For the first half term, children will be adjusting to getting back into full classes and full days of work. They will be exhausted. Because of this, we will not be running any of our lunchtime or after-school clubs until after half term. We will also be limiting our trips out of school, sporting fixtures etc.
Our curriculum will be as broad as it can be for most children, however, there will need to be more of a focus on literacy and numeracy for those children who have not engaged at all with the work teachers have been setting on the V.L.E. during lockdown. Staff will consult with parents very early on in the term if your child (Yrs 1 – 6) needs booster sessions. We will invite you into a meeting with the Head and class teacher to discuss the joint home-school approach to catch up work. We have employed additional members of staff to enable us to have as many adults as possible working on teaching and learning with the children , using the money that the government has given us (and a little dip into our savings…)
So that all of the children who have not been in school can catch up with classmates they haven’t seen since March, we are going to hold some socially distanced meet ups for each class. We will also be asking the children to clear their trays out so they will need to bring a carrier bag with them that day for their old exercise books and belongings. Children not in school should enter via the KS1 playground gate and go up to the top playground to meet their classmates, current class teacher and next year’s teacher. Because we have nearly all of the Reception and Yr. 6 children in, this will not include them, because they see each other every day!
Monday 13th July, from 10.30 a.m. ~ Yr. 1
Tuesday 14th July, from 10.30 a. m ~ Yr. 3
Wednesday 15th July from 10.30 a. m ~Yr.2
Thursday 16th July from 10.30 a. m ~ Yr. 5
from 1.30 p. m ~ Yr. 4
Next week will be the last week of work being set online. Usually we have "Health and Fitness Week" for the last week of term and go off timetable completely. This isn’t possible this time but the children in school will be doing Community Work instead: weeding, painting, sweeping, tidying, sorting, cleaning the minibus, picking litter up in Meanwood. So we encourage those at home to do the same for their families or community.
We will see you all back as a whole school in September, God willing. Nearly forgot: the small matter of who will be teaching your children in the next academic year……!
Rec: Ms Arnold (Mon) and Mrs Parker (Tues – Fri)
Yr 1: Mr Smith
Yr 2: Mrs Scopes (Mon- Wed) and Ms O’Dwyer (Thurs – Fri)
Yr 3: Mrs Midgley (Mon -Tuesday) and Mrs Bowie (Wed – Fri)
Yr 4: Mrs A. Johnson
Yr 5: Mr Martin
Yr 6: Mr Platt
We need to appoint some Teaching Assistants due to two members of Staff getting new jobs and a maternity leave, so these will be announced in September!
What have I forgotten? I'm sure somebody will let know and I will update this information accordingly!
Helen Eagles
HEADTEACHER
3rd July 2020