Dear Parent / Carer,
As we start the first day of the Summer holidays, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Summer Holiday. It has been another challenging year for everyone in the world of education, in school and for all our families as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic so I would like to start by thanking you all for your additional understanding, patience and support over the last few months.
I would also like to thank staff across the whole school who have made it possible to support those of you continuing your learning at home but also making it possible to remain open throughout the whole period to our keyworkers and children attending from Reception, Year1, Year 6. In addition, they have also supported transition for Year 2 pupils moving to Upper School. It never ceases to impress me the resilience, determination, and commitment of the whole school.
Also, I fully appreciate how demanding and exhausting the endeavour to home school has been therefore on behalf of all the staff and Governors can I thank you as parents / carers for all that you have done to support your child through this unprecedented period and keeping in touch through messages, emails, sending pictures and completing tasks shared on our school website.
Now we are looking forward to September and plans to reopen to all pupils and considering what this will look like, we are of course excited to plan for a return to school for all pupils. Myself, Senior leaders and The Governing Body have been constantly reviewing the provision we have been able to provide over the last four months and are now developing detailed plans to make sure we can safely welcome all of our children back in September. Thank you, once again, as parents and carers for the patience, support, and kind comments during these past few difficult months while we strive to continue to support all in our school community.
Currently, risk assessments are being developed in line with current government guidance to ensure that protective and safety measures are in place for all staff and children when Reception to Year 6 return to school on Thursday 3rd September 2020 with Nursery restarting on Monday 7th. Both school sites will continue to look different and some routines will be somewhat different too.
Restart Information
Year Group | Start Dates | ||||
Nursery
15hrs Children |
3rd – 4th September
Virtual Home Visits |
Monday 7th – 9th September,
8.50am- 11.30am |
14th – 16th
September 8.50am – 1pm |
21st – 23rd
September 8.50am – 2pm |
28th – 30th
September Full Session 8.50m- 3pm |
Nursery
30hrs Children |
3rd – 4th September
Virtual Home Visits |
Monday 7th – 11th September,
8.50am- 11.30am |
14th – 18th
September 8.50am – 1pm |
21st – 25th
September 8.50am – 2pm |
28th – 2nd October
Full Session 8.50m- 3pm |
Reception | 3rd – 4th September
8.50am – 11.45am |
7th –11th September
8.50am – 1.30pm |
14th – 18th September
8.50am – 3pm |
Full Session timetable | Full Session timetable |
Year 1 – Year 6 | 3rd – 4th September
Reopening Staggered Start and end times to be confirmed |
Full Session timetable | Full Session timetable | Full Session timetable | Full Session timetable |
Reception Children should continue to be dropped off and collected from the school car park and Nursery children dropped off at the gate to the Nursery outdoor play area.
Inside the school building current plans are to maintain bubbles by planning for staff, play areas, playtimes and lunches to be staggered and separated. A ‘bubble’ will comprise no more than 2 classes maximum allowing us to run the day to day routines and procedures required, like lunchtimes. Bubbles will be set up for Early Years (Nursery and Reception), Keystage 1 (Years 1 and 2), Lower Keystage 2 (years 3 and 4) and Upper Keystage 2 (years 5 and 6).
There will be no before or after-school provision in the first week (3rd/4th September), however we are planning to reintroduce Breakfast Club from Monday 7th September 2020. This may initially be for particular year groups and we are looking at the best way to provide a Keystage 2 breakfast club if possible. Breakfast club will be booked in advance and we will contact all families who currently use it upon our return to book places running from 8am. Children will probably need to be sat and socially distanced from other children.
Whilst we continue to look at the potential to run after school clubs, we will not be making this provision available until after the first half term. This will remain under review by myself, Senior leaders, and the governing body. We will decide before the end of the first half term about the remainder of the Autumn term.
When dropping off and collecting we continue to ask that you do not gather on the playground are at doorways and keep to 1 adult per child / family. Should you need to discuss anything with the class teacher we ask that you follow current procedures and contact them by phone or via school email. If your child receives medication, we will ask you to contact the school office to arrange drop off and collection if necessary.
Current procedures for moving around the school including access points, one-way systems and removal of gatherings like assemblies will continue.
Uniform – like now, we will be suspending the wearing of school uniform and ask that your child continues to wear a clean change of clothes each day. For older children they may wish to wear their sports gear rather than bring a change of clothes to school. Children should not bring anything other than themselves, coat, hat (if necessary) packed lunch and water bottle. We must minimise the amount of objects moving between school and home setting. We will provide all other resources required and this will greatly reduce the movement of items between households and the school setting.
Our curriculum will change for at least the first half term to include a recovery curriculum approach, an increase in personal, social and emotional lessons based on Jigsaw Curriculum planning, a range of short tests and check-ups to ascertain each child’s individual needs and requirements. We will however start with foundation subjects for each year group from the second week. Details of the half term curriculum were sent out in my previous letter.
For those children who missed the Year 1 phonics test, the Government has also introduced the requirement to test these children within the Autumn term. All other end of year testing will also resume within the new year.
Some aspects of the curriculum including homework will be placed online using the various e learning platforms that have been established over the lockdown period and we will survey parents in September to better understand children’s internet access. Reading materials are currently running online along with Class Dojo and all these will remain in place come September, especially in case of local lockdowns.
We are currently making plans to ensure that we can provide meals to all children whilst meeting the current guidance not to have children facing each other whilst having lunch – for some classes this may mean that they continue to take their lunch in the classroom they are working in.
We will need to maintain social distancing and maintain appropriate levels of cleanliness, this will include separating Year group Bubbles, accessing through different doorways and at different times. We will update all families with final times and access routes in August along with an update to the current reopening action plan. Hygiene measure will also include using handwashing / hand sanitiser at key points throughout the day, as at present.
If a child becomes ill during the school day, we will ask that they are collected immediately and are taken home. Children who display coronavirus type symptoms or children who live with someone who has coronavirus will not be able to attend school. Isolation and self-isolation rules MUST be followed. If a child or an adult in their group is confirmed as having the virus, the whole group including the staff working with that group, will be sent home immediately to self-isolate in line with Public Health England advice.
Whilst we anticipate these are some of the measures we will be taking to reopen in September we also know that guidance, and therefore plans, may change before then. Further details and any changes will be shared with you with as much notice as possible to support your family and child’s routines from September.
To finish I must also add that as difficult as this period has been, it continues to be a great pleasure and a true privilege to be Head teacher of Leadgate Primary School and I look forward to seeing you all in September.
I wish you a very enjoyable and relaxing summer break and every good wish for success and happiness to all our Year 6 children as they have now left the school to face their future in the Academy.
Your sincerely
Mr M A Watson