Hello everyone,
As you know, we are welcoming all children back into school at the start of this term, which starts on Monday 7th September 2020. We are looking forward to seeing you all, it has been a long time since we have seen some of you!
It is very important that all children return to school, it is vital for both their education and wellbeing. Whilst coronavirus (COVID-19) remains in the community, we are doing everything we can in school to minimise any risks from coronavirus by putting stringent control measures in place. We are also working hard to make sure that we have a curriculum in place so that all children catch up with their learning by end of the summer term.
There are a number of essential measures that we have put in place, in line with government guidance. These include:
- a requirement that everyone who is ill, stays at home
- robust hand and respiratory hygiene
- enhanced cleaning arrangements
- active engagement with NHS Test and Trace
- reorganisation of the school to reduce contacts and maximise distancing between those in school.
Reducing contacts in school will be managed by:
- grouping children together in bubbles
- avoiding contact between bubbles
- arranging classrooms with forward facing desks
- ensuring that staff maintain distance from pupils
- ensuring that staff do not have contact with staff from other bubbles.
I am sure that you can all appreciate the challenges that this presents and understand that this will have an impact on how our school is organised whilst coronavirus remains a threat. There are two organisational issues that will have an immediate impact on parents at the start of term. The first is staggered start and end times, which we know is going to be difficult for those families with children in different year groups. We are doing this to reduce the number of people in the playgrounds at any one time. We understand that this is hard, but in order to keep our children and staff safe, this is a necessity.
The second issue is that of the before school and after school club provision. We are not offering any club provision before or after school at the start of term. This is because we need more time to organise this to make sure that it is safe and can be managed in line with government guidelines. We will do everything we can to have this in place immediately after half term.
We have already published detailed plans and our risk assessment, which you can find here.
The government have provided detailed guidance on what parents need to know about their child returning to school in the autumn term
The government have also produced a booklet for parents about the return to school:
