25.02.21 Reopening of school for 8 March Letter for parents carers

 

Thursday, 25 February 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

We hope you and your family have continued to stay safe during this very difficult time. You will be aware that the government have stated that all children must return to school from Monday 8^th March and that attendance at school will be compulsory.

 

Many aspects of school will be as they were before Christmas, but we are staggering the start and end of school a bit more, to ensure that picking up and dropping off times are as safe as they can be for everyone. Please read this letter carefully and share the information with your child and anyone else who will be responsible for caring for your child over the coming weeks.

 

Children of critical workers, who have been attending school.

A number of children have continued to come to school during the lockdown.

In order for the staff to prepare the school for the return of all children, the last day that this arrangement will be in place, will be Thursday 4^th March.

 

School will be closed to all children on Friday 5^th March.

All children should carry out home learning on this day, but staff will not be available to make any phone calls after Thursday 4^th March. Staff will be in school preparing the classrooms for the safe return of the children.

 

Opening hours

The government have suggested that we use staggered start and finish times, to minimise the number of adults on school premises.  We have put the following plan in place for when each of the year groups will start and finish school. These timings will be regularly reviewed.

 

 

	Start of school day	End of school day
Reception children	8.40am	3.20pm
Yr 1 and Yr 2	8.40am	3.10pm
Yr 3 and Yr 4	8.45am	3.20pm
Yr 5 and Yr 6	8.45am	3.30pm

 

If you have children in different year groups then you can bring all of your children in at the earliest time and pick up at the latest finish time e.g. if you have children in Yr1 and Yr 6 then both children can start school at 8:40am and finish at 3.30pm.

 

Dropping children off

RECEPTION CHILDREN - Children will enter and exit through the porta-cabin, as they did before Christmas.

CHILDREN IN YEAR 1 TO YEAR 6

Children in Years 1- 6 are to be dropped off at the pedestrian gate.

We are not permitting parents/carers to come onto the school playground in the morning.

 

 

 

Picking children up from school

Only one person will be able to enter the school grounds to collect their child(ren). Younger children are still able to come onto the school playground with this person, but older children and additional adults will need to wait outside of the school grounds.

 

Parents/carers and children are required to observe social distancing on site and at the school gate at all times, including when entering and leaving the school grounds. This might mean that it takes a minute or two longer to leave the grounds if there is a group of people leaving at the same time.

Please be patient and be prepared to wait.

 

Face Coverings

We ask that parents/carers wear a face covering whilst in the school playground, unless they are medically exempt.

 

Children will not be required to wear face coverings at any time in school.

 

Staff will be wearing face coverings at times in and around school, but not usually when they are delivering lessons.

 

No access into the school building

Parents/carers are not permitted to enter the school building, including the entrance near Mrs Iqbal’s office.  Contact can be made via the telephone.

 

Lates

It is vital that your child is dropped off and picked up at the designated time. We have put these timings in place to ensure the safety of you and your child. Children arriving late, or after the allocated time slot, will affect the health and safety of the children and staff in school, which is completely unacceptable. We will not have additional staff to look after children who are collected late or dropped off early.

 

Breakfast Club and after school cubs

There will be no breakfast club or after school clubs until further notice. This is due to the need to keep staff and children from different year groups separate at all times.

 

Cases of COVID

If there are any positive cases of COVID in the bubbles, the year group will need to isolate for 10 days and move to home learning for this period of time. We will inform you via text if this is the case. Please ensure that we have your up to date contact number and that you have notifications activated on your phone for the School Spider App.

Please check your child regularly to see if they have any of the symptoms of COVID.

Anyone displaying any of these symptoms must inform the school via phone BUT MUST NOT come to the school.

 

School closures

On Thursday 6^th May, all children will need to carry out their learning from home as the school is closed to children and staff as it is being used as a polling station for local elections. Staff will ensure that all children are briefed about their work in preparation for that day and reminders will be on the school website.

 

On Thursday 13^th May, school will be closed all day to allow staff and families, who wish to do so, to celebrate Eid. No home learning will be required on this day, but activities will be available via the on-line programmes on the school website, if any child wishes to access these.

 

Home-learning books

All children were provided with a home learning book, for them to use for their written work during the lockdown. These need to be returned to school, so that the staff can review the work carried out, as a starting point for planning the work for the children. Please ensure that these are returned to school by Wednesday 10^th March.

New books will be issued to the children for them to use, should their year group need to isolate.

 

Comic Relief

On Friday 19^th March we are asking the children to come to school wearing their own clothes for Red Nose Day. They may choose to wear clothes that are red, although clothes of other colours are fine. We are asking you to limit these to home clothes and not send your children in fancy dress outfits at this time.

We will NOT be selling Red Noses this year. They can be purchased from Sainsburys stores although we ask the children to keep these at home and not to bring them to school.

 

World Book Day – Thursday 4^th March

As we will not be in school for World Book Day this year, we are encouraging children to take part in activities related to books, and the teachers are planning these activities for the children.

We are also going to hold a “Reedley Readers’ Day”,  after Easter, and we will be inviting the children to dress up as a book character. We will let you know the date, nearer the time.

 

Thank you so much for your support in these difficult times and please be assured that we are working incredibly hard to create a safe, but welcoming environment, for all of our children to return.

 

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs Sarah Bell

Headteacher