Dear Parents 

September 2020 Return  

Further to the Education Secretary’s statement regarding the return to school after the summer holidays, I am very happy to inform you that, from Thursday September 3rd, we will be opening our doors for all children in all years. Our new Reception children will be starting their phased entry into school from Mon 7th Sept.  

When we return, please let me reassure you that we will continue to ensure that the health and safety of all staff and children is given the highest priority; all current Covid-19 procedures will continue and all the advice and guidelines from the Government and Public Health England will be followed. All actions to reduce the transmission Covid-19 will continue to be underpinned by striving to minimising contact and mixing between bubbles and ensuring absolutely rigorous and frequent hygiene procedures are followed.  

I will inform parents of full operational plans for September before the end of term but in summary: 

• Social distancing rules will still be applied before and after school when children arrive and are collected. 
• Arrival times will be staggered and the one-way system around school will continue. 
• Children will work in whole-class ‘bubbles’. There is no requirement for social distancing within each bubble. 
• The school kitchen will reopen and children will eat their dinner in their ‘bubbles’. 

I am so pleased that we will be able to welcome back all our children in September but realise that, for some, there will still be worry and anxiety around returning. A full and detailed plan for our return will be published shortly but please do contact me directly if you have any concerns at all. 

Before and After School Provision 

From September, I am very excited to announce that we will providing our own before and after school wraparound provision. This will start on Thursday September 3rd and will be available from 8am in the morning and until 6pm in the evening. 

 The initial cost will be: 

• £5 for the morning session – 8.00am until 8.45am 
• £10 for the evening session – 3.15pm until 6.00pm 
• £12.50 if both sessions in a day are booked. 

As this is a new business venture, I will be reviewing these costs at the end of October after analysing half a term of usage. I am hopeful that these costs will not have to change and that, importantly, we are not looking to make a significant profit. The business model has been designed to ensure we provide the most affordable solution possible for our community. It is also important to say that every penny of any profit will be for our children. During the first half term, we may not be able to offer a place for all children who apply, but we will strive to ensure our wraparound provision is available to all from 2nd November. Mrs Giles will be contacting parents shortly to ascertain possible numbers for September and Mrs Andrew will be posting details about the application process.

Mr Langford 

Dear parents

Further to the Government’s announcement today that lockdown restrictions are being eased and that the social distance requirement of 2m is being reduced to 1m, I am posting to explain the impact that this will have on our current provision for key worker children, vulnerable children and year 6 children.

Children and staff are kept safe in school primarily because we are working in ‘bubbles’ and we have incredibly strict hygiene procedures. We have striven to adhere to the 2m distancing rule but this is simply not possible in our school setting. Children in classrooms and workspaces are currently spaced out as much as possible to ensure a 2m spacing; reducing this to 1m will have very little impact on our ability to increase the size of our bubbles and welcome more children back. We are also constrained by the Government guideline that no bubble will exceed 15 children.

Our situation will therefore not change in the near future. There may be small variations to our number but there will not be a wider opening as a result of today’s announcement. I reiterate that those children attending in YR or Y1 are only attending because they are key worker or vulnerable children. We have not approached anybody to widen this offer and nor would we do so!

The longer this situation continues, the more families need their children back in school so that lives can be restarted; there are many families desperate for their children to return to school and I am acutely aware of the ramifications of decisions I am regularly having to make.

I am very willing, of course, to discuss any request made for a space if one of the household is a key worker and I thank you all for your continued patience and support.

 Mr Langford

Dear Parents

Website Upgrades

Our website has undergone a number of upgrades recently including the addition of a blog and an increase in security. Hopefully for most, your experience of using the site will have been uninterrupted. If however your view of the site is displaying strangely, a refresh of the page should help your browser to download the latest version of the website:

Windows and Linux browsers: CTRL + F5

Apple Safari: SHIFT + Reload toolbar button

Chrome and Firefox for Mac: CMD + SHIFT + R

Also should also check that your browser is taking you to an address that starts ‘https:’ (rather than ‘http:’)

Mr Langford

Dear Parents

I am very concerned to maintain the most stringent safety measures we can for those children and staff attending school at the moment. Incredibly stringent procedures have been put in place to ensure, as much as is physically possible, the safety and wellbeing of all staff and pupils.

I have become aware that some people in our local school community have been ignoring the government guidance on social distancing and have attended parties where no respect for the current pandemic was shown.

If we have evidence that parents of children attending, or due to attend, school have not adhered to government guidance on social distancing, we will require their child to stay away from school for 14 days.

I am sure that the vast majority of our parents will support us in this measure to keep everybody as safe as possible.

Mr Langford