Recent letters shared with parents and carers.

• September Reopening Information for Parents

  Fri 17 Jul 2020

  Phase 2 Re-Opening (September 2020): Information for Parents

   

  • All children in Years 1 to 6 are expected to return to school on Friday 4^th September 2020.
  • Children in our Nursery and Reception classes will be having a phased start to the school year and every family will have received their own letter about when their child is due to start school.

   

  Groupings

  Class	Start Time	End Time	Dropping Off and Collection Arrangements
  N Amber	8:30am 12:30pm	11:30pm 3:30pm (2:30pm)	Before and after school wait on KS1 playground spots marked 1. An adult will come and collect your child and return them to you.
  R Turquoise	8:40am	3pm	Before and after school wait on KS1 playground spots marked 2. An adult will come and collect your child and return them to you.
  R Garnet	9am	3:20pm	Before and after school wait on KS1 playground spots marked 1. An adult will come and collect your child and return them to you.
  1 Jade	8:50am	3:10pm	On arrival, children go straight into class through classroom door. At end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS1 playground and children will be sent to you.
  1 Crystal	9:10am	3:30pm	On arrival, children go straight into class through classroom door. At end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS1 playground and children will be sent to you.
  2 Pearl	8:40am	3pm	On arrival, children go up the fenced path from KS2 playground into back classroom door (parents remain on playground). At end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground at the bottom of path and children will be sent to you.
  2 Diamond	9am	3:20pm	On arrival, children go up the fenced path from KS2 playground into back classroom door (parents remain on playground). At end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground at the bottom of path and children will be sent to you.
  3 Ruby	8:50am	3:10pm	Parents remain on KS2 playground, children go straight in through the front door and into the cloakroom. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be brought out to you.
  3 Emerald	9:10am	3:30pm	Parents remain on KS2 playground, children go straight in through the front door and into the cloakroom. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be brought out to you.
  4 Coral	8:40am	3pm	On arrival, children go straight in through the fire escape near the table tennis tables and upstairs. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be sent to you.
  4 Opal	9am	3:20pm	On arrival, children go straight in through the fire escape near the table tennis tables and upstairs. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be sent to you.
  5 Onyx	8:50am	3:10pm	On arrival, the children go straight into class. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be sent to you or can walk home alone.
  5 Sapphire	9:10am	3:30pm	On arrival, the children go straight into class. At the end of the day, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground and your children will be sent to you or can walk home alone.
  6 Topaz	8:40am	3pm	On arrival, children go in through the skills room and straight upstairs. They will leave through the dining room door. If being collected, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground or child can walk home alone.
  6 Amethyst	9am	3:20pm	On arrival, children go in through the skills room and straight upstairs. They will leave through the dining room door. If being collected, parents wait in a socially distanced way on KS2 playground or child can walk home alone.

   

  • Children will be in their classes of up to 30 children. You have already been told which class your child is in for September and who the adults in their class are.
  • The teacher or TA will be with the class at break time. There will be one consistent adult (two for Reception) supervising one class for the whole of lunch time. In many cases, this is the class TA.
  • The children from within each class will not be able to interact with children from other classes within the school. This is to keep the possibility of cross-contamination to a minimum as the government have accepted it is impossible to expect primary school children to fully socially distance.
  • Staff working across classes will be kept to a minimum.
  • Class staff will be cleaning throughout the day and our cleaning team will be in school twice a day to ensure a regular and rigorous cleaning procedure.
  • As per government guidance, classrooms are being reorganised so that all children will be forward facing.

  Dropping Off and Collecting Arrangements

  • Please see the table above the start and finish times for the school day for each pod of children and the arrangements for dropping off and collecting.
  • Please endeavour to come as close to the start and finish times as possible to avoid coming into contact with other parents and children.
  • If you have more than one child, you can send them both into their classrooms at the earliest start time. At the end of the day, you will need to collect one child and then wait for the other to finish. Children will not be let out early. Please socially distance while waiting on the school site.
  • We encourage parents of children in Year 6 to work towards not entering the school site once your child is settled back into school routines.
  • Please all remain vigilant of social distancing when around the school site and arrive only a couple of minutes before the start / end time for your child’s school day. These have been staggered to help keep you safe.
  • Nursery, Reception and Year 1 parents and children should use the Pudding Lane entrance only. The small gate will only be for entering and the large gate will only be for exiting.
  • The internal path between the two school playgrounds can be used but is one way from KS1 (Pudding Lane) to KS2 (Gadebridge Road) only. It is too narrow to safely have two way traffic on it.
  • Children and Parents in Years 2 to 6 should enter using the Galley Hill gate only. They should exit using the Gadebridge Road gate only. We apologise for the additional walking time this may bring but it is essential to keep everyone safe.
  • Children will be asked to wash their hands as soon as they enter the classroom. We are installing hand sanitiser stations at points where children do not enter straight into their rooms.
  • At the end of the day, please be respectful of our whole school community and ensure that you wait in a socially distanced way. Children must remain with their parents.
  • The Galley Hill gate will only be available to enter and exit through during the school day if you need to go to the office. Please be aware of others going up and down the path and wait for them at the end to allow for social distancing.
  • Only one parent can attend the school premises to drop off or collect a child (plus siblings where no other childcare is available but they MUST wait with their parent).
  • We ask that only one parents steps inside the school office area at a time. There will be markings for others who are waiting to queue.
  • Parents (and other visitors) will not be invited inside the school building apart from in very exceptional circumstances. We apologise in advance that we may not seem as welcoming as usual but it is for your safety as well as ours.
  • Initially, the play trails will not be in use at any time and will be cordoned off. Please do not allow your child to go on these before or after school.
  • Breakfast Club will be running from Monday 7^th September. This will take place in the big hall to ensure there is space for the children to social distance. Initially, we will not be serving food and so there will be a reduced cost of £2 per child, per day.
  • We are working with Coaching Me to allow after school club to also open in the big hall each day.
  • Initially, there will be no further after school or lunch time clubs taking place.

   

  Uniform and Personal Belongings

  • Children should all wear their usual school uniform.
  • All children should have their PE kits in school every day (these can be brought in on a Monday and left for the week). They will be expected to wear them for P.E. lessons. As P.E. will be taking place outside, please ensure your child has appropriate footwear and jogging bottoms if the weather turns cold.
  • We request you not to send children to school in shoes with laces unless they have the capacity to tie these for themselves.
  • The children will be allowed to bring in their book bag or a small backpack each day. These should only contain essential personal belongings needed for school.
  • All children will be provided with their own pack of resources (pens, pencils etc) to use during the school day. They must not bring any pencil cases or other equipment into school.
  • EVERY CHILD will need to have a named water bottle as we will have no means to provide them with water otherwise.
  • Children may also need their lunch box, a rain coat, a hat, sun cream and possibly hand cream due to the increased amount of handwashing that will be taking place.
  • No other personal items should be brought into school whatsoever. We will not be having any show and tell sessions and unfortunately, we will not be able to distribute birthday sweets or similar.
  • If your child took home their inhaler or epipen when school closed, please ensure that these are returned on the first day.
  • We will be issuing reading books again in September. These will be put into ‘quarantine’ for 72 hours before being sent home with another child.
  • The advice is that face masks should not be worn in school however we feel this is personal choice and we will allow staff and pupils to wear them if they wish. We will however inform you if your child does not seem to be able to wear a mask properly.
  • Staff will of course wear PPE if dealing with a child who develops symptoms in school or for intimate care when appropriate.
  • We strongly recommend that mobile phones are not brought into school. If you feel that it is essential for your child to bring their phone to school, they will need to take it to the office and put it in a box provided. They will take it back out of the box at the end of the day themselves. We take no responsibility for any phones left in school.

   

  Lunch and Break Times

  • Children can have their usual choice of school dinners or packed lunch.
  • Lunch boxes will be stored in the classrooms.
  • Herts Catering will be returning as close as possible to their usual menu with red, green and packed lunch choices each day.
  • Universal and benefits related free school meals will be resumed. All of those who do not fall into these categories will be charged as usual.
  • Lunch and break times will be staggered to reduce the likelihood of children coming into contact with others who are not in their class.
  • Children from Years 1 to 6 will have their lunches in their classrooms each day.
  • Children in Reception will have their lunches in the big hall each day.
  • Lunch is likely to be late for some children compared to what they are used to. Parents can supply a healthy snack (fruit, vegetables or bread sticks) for their child to eat at break time.
  • One consistent adult (two for Reception) will supervise each class at lunch time. For many classes, this will be their usual class teaching assistant.
  • Each class will have a designated area to play in during break and lunch time so they do not come into contact with those from other classes. They will each have their own bucket of playground equipment to use.

   

  Learning

  • A full broad and balanced curriculum will return for children in all year groups.
  • Our key purpose is to educate your children. Every child will be expected to attend school every day (unless genuinely unwell or self-isolating).
  • Children will be reminded how to wash their hands thoroughly and will receive health and hygiene learning when they return in September.
  • We have had a school focus on well-being for a number of years now. This will remain the case.
  • One of our school priorities for the next school year is to further develop outdoor learning. Please ensure your child always has appropriate clothing for the weather with them (i.e. a sun hat, a waterproof coat etc).
  • We cannot hold any whole school events at this stage. Assemblies will be taking place within classes. We are hoping to put together virtual sharing assemblies during the year if necessary. We will also be looking at being as creative as possible to allow other events to go ahead, including parent’s evenings, using virtual communication platforms if necessary.
  • Local school trips that allow for social distancing and can be walked to can now go ahead. We will also be enhancing our curriculum by organising theme days and learning to learn days within classes.
  • We are continuing to work on our strategy for remote learning in the event of classes all having to self-isolate or in case of a further full or local lockdown. We will provide further details around this when we return in September.

   

  Suspected Cases / Illness

  • CHILDREN, STAFF AND PARENTS MUST STAY AWAY FROM THE SCHOOL SITE AND SELF ISOLATE AT HOME IF THEY, OR ANYONE IN THEIR HOME, HAVE EVEN MILD SYMPTOMS OF CORONAVIRUS (high temperature, persistent cough or loss of taste / smell). We cannot stress how important this is to protect our whole school community.
  • Children who develop any symptoms in school will be immediately isolated and kept in a ventilated room away from all others. You will be called to pick them up immediately and we thank you in advance for ensuring you arrive to collect them promptly.
  • Any child or member of staff who gets symptoms must immediately isolate for 7 days. If a member of their family gets symptoms, the staff member or pupil must isolate for 14 days. Please inform us as quickly as possible if this is the case.
  • We strongly encourage anyone with symptoms to get tested as soon as possible and to let us know the results in a timely fashion.
  • If there is any confirmed positive test results, all children and adults who have been in the same class must self-isolate for 14 days and cannot come into school. Please inform school as quickly as possible of any positive result so we can ensure the class can be closed.
  • It is our expectation of all parents and staff members to fully cooperate with the Test and Trace system and to keep the school informed. We MUST keep our whole school community safe.