Thank you so much to all the families who returned the information online using the parent survey as requested. We urge you all to let the school know if you have a different email or would like hard copies sent out of these important communications. During the current climate contact details are essential, so please let us know if they change as soon as possible.
We were delighted that so many parents responded positively to the survey and we can provide a place to every parent across school who responded with no more than 15 children in each new bubble.
For those who are online learning fans, there will no longer be learning uploaded to Seesaw from June 29th. Please use the Oak Academy programme of online learning, BBC Bitesize, TT Rockstars and Myon Learning independently. The groupings and spaces for Y5 to YN are confirmed at the end of this letter.
Bubble guidance
Please note that DfE guidance states that if we ever change any children from one ‘bubble’ to another, or if we need to cover staff – a gap of at least 7 days is necessary. For that reason I want to be entirely transparent to the year groups of returning children about our practices. We are unable to exclude the families of critical workers from school as per government guidance, and so they will continue to attend next week. We therefore will have a very small number of children who have been at school particularly in Y2 (7 pupils daily) and Year 3 (8 pupils daily), who will have been in an existing bubble in school, who will be joining the newly created bubbles. None of these children have been showing any symptoms of coronavirus and the statistics in the community suggest no new cases have been coming through in Northumberland for the past week. I am confident that we have minimised all risks possible, other than keeping staff out of class with anyone for a week between bubbles which is not achievable.
If you are particularly concerned about this, you are entirely free to keep your child away from school and they can join their designated bubble from the following week (starting Monday the 6th July.) Please let your class teachers know though so they can prepare (office staff will be following up on attendance if we were expecting you to be in school.) To reassure you though, all desks are 2m apart, stringent hygiene procedures are in place. The
guidelines minimise cross infection between bubbles and so given the current infection rates in the community compared to the risks of children being away from school for yet another week, we feel that the benefits outweigh the level of risk.
Our adults socially distance for all parts of the working day, with different spaces to eat their lunches, different toilets allocated, even different photocopying facilities, only Sarah Koratzitis and Melissa Costello will have been in school with Y6/Y3/Y2 pupils until Thursday the 25th June when they all graduate.
If your child has been allocated to any group led by one of these staff and you choose to keep your child away until a full week has passed we appreciate that decision, but ask that you inform school.
Outline of our protocol for reopening
- You will receive an email next week with your child’s allocated class. This is non negotiable and has been carefully considered taking a mass of information into account (friendships have been considered!).
- Next week will be the last week of online learning other than Myon, TT Rockstars, Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize which we can signpost for new learning.
- Every child in Y5 will be issued with a new chrome book to use in school.
- We are relaxing our usually high expectations about school footwear, so trainers can be worn alongside usual school uniform. Advice is that uniforms are washed nightly so that children attend with clean, fresh uniform each day.
- Uniform purchasing information was posted onto each class Facebook page. The school has had all the spare uniforms professionally laundered so let us know if you would like some.
- New children returning to reception who have not already attended, will be with Rebecca in a class combined with the nursery children led by Danielle, half the class will be timetabled to use the outdoor space every session and key workers will be allocated that you will be informed about by 3rd July 2020.
- Children returning for the first time are asked to bring back all equipment from school on the first day. This will be treated appropriately, and thereafter we will not be accepting anything being brought into school other than necessary medication. Empty bags will be sent home on the first day back.
- Parents of Y5 pupils allocated to Sarah Koratzitis, Melissa Costello and Allison Morton are aware that they have been caring for a different bubble until Thursday the 25th June/Friday 26th June. If they choose to leave a week before coming to the new bubble, they will inform school by 29th June 2020 to avoid wasting office time chasing absences.
- School will notify parents for future changes using the school Facebook accounts and email addresses supplied by parents.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY You should stay at home if your child presents with any of the symptoms of coronavirus. Drive thru test centres can give a response to Covid-19 tests within 48 hours and this is working well.
Attendance and Punctuality
All classes have steadily increased both the attendance at school as well as engagement in online learning this week.
We have noticed that there has been a huge improvement in punctuality which has really supported us to be able to ensure that social distancing can take place safely at drop off and collection times. Thank you so much.
