Dear parents/ carers,
If the government meets its 5 tests this Thursday and decides to go ahead with the partial reopening of schools for parents agreeing to send their children back, then we hope to reopen our school to pupils in reception, year 1 and year 6 from Monday 8th June.
When we do reopen, school will run from Monday to Thursday but close on a Friday (except for children of key workers). This is to enable staff to continue to plan for, and support, children working at home. In addition, this will provide time to ensure areas of school and equipment can be thoroughly cleaned for the following week.
For those agreeing to return to school from 8th June, some procedures for parents and children will have to change to enable us to follow stringent government guidelines. Some of these procedures will include: –
• Children from reception, year 1 and year 6 can arrive between 8:50 and 9:00 and enter using their
usual entrance. Home times and collection points remain the same.
• Only one parent/carer should come to the school to drop off/collect their child. Ideally, please do
not bring siblings unless there is no alternative.
• Parents/carers must observe social distancing. Please do not gather in groups or block our entrances.
• Parents/carers are not permitted in the building without a pre-arranged appointment.
• Clothing – the most important thing with clothing is that it is changed daily. For this reason, a combination of uniform and sensible casual clothing can be worn to school. Please ensure your child has a jumper or cardigan as windows and doors (where safe to do so) will be open to encourage good ventilation.
• There will be a designated separate room so that if a child displays symptoms while in school they can be isolated before going home.
• Groups will not mix to limit the possibility of cross contamination and children will remain in their allocated room all day except for accessing outside areas on a rota basis.
• Children will be encouraged to practise good hand hygiene.
• There will be no after school clubs and breakfast club will only be available for children of critical workers.
Please note that anyone who has received, or lives with someone with a shielding letter, will not be able to attend school. Additionally, any child who is found to be mixing with others outside school (i.e. not following government guidance) will have their offer withdrawn.
Due to the very small number of children whose parents have agreed for them to return, we hope to be able to use their normal teaching staff, classrooms, start and finish times. However, as numbers increase this will not be the case and children will have to be split into new groups and provided with designated adult(s)and rooms/areas as well as more staggered start and finish times for different groups of children.
As we need to carry out planning based on the numbers of children you have told us will return, the groups of children we will have by the end of Friday 22nd May will remain unchanged for at least two weeks from the reopening of school. This means that if your child is not on the list to return, they will not be able to come back to school until we send out another survey/invite.
School will continue to remain open for children of key workers while we plan for wider opening.
Obviously, pupil and staff safety is our number one priority and throughout this process we are trying our very best to keep everyone as safe as possible. We will plan and prepare for wider opening very carefully and keep you informed with any developments that arise.
Stay safe and look after each other.
Mr Cornforth
Headteacher
