Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you have had a lovely summer and managed to make the most of the intermittent good weather.

I know you will be all be keen to find out how things will be in school for your children when they return to school on Monday 6^th September 2021 at 8.45am and therefore I have put together some of the information that will be of the most use to you.

As the Government previously announced, there will no longer be a need to keep children in bubbles and this will allow us to remove the need to stagger break, lunches and gates etc.

School Times

These will revert to the usual times. 8.45am – 3.15pm for ALL children apart from Nursery 8.45am – 11.55am

KS1 and KS2 gates will be open and staffed from 8.35 each morning as we did previously to allow older children to be dropped off and younger children to get into school on time at 8.45am.

Entry/Exit

Nursery and Reception children will continue to enter/exit through the gate at the top of Finsbury Street. If you are dropping children in the KS1 yard first then you can come through the gate near the new wooden huts and out of the main gate to join the queue on Finsbury Street. The gates at the top of the steps will be locked.

KS1 will enter/exit using the gate at the top of the ginnel as they have been doing and the class doors will be open from 8.35am.

Years 3 and 4 will enter/exit using the corner gate and Years 5 and 6 will enter/exit through the middle gate. The gates will be open and staffed from 8.35am.

KS2 Exit

In previous years (pre-Covid) KS2 parents came into the KS2 playground and stood in different areas. Children often shot off to their own parents when they spotted them and this made it very difficult to keep track of who went with who and when. This obviously causes a safeguarding issue.

We do not wish to keep parents of KS2 children out of the playground when we return as this would mean a huge number of parents all queuing on the pavement/road causing a dangerous situation.  In order to address this we are going to ask you to come into the playground but wait behind a sign with your children’s class on it. Children will come out with staff at the end of the day and line up near the school building. The staff will dismiss the children once they have identified you as they did during restrictions. If you have children in more than one class then please collect one child from one queue and then move to another line. Please can I respectfully ask that you do not shout for your children to hurry up as they will only be dismissed when the member of staff has identified the correct parent. This is being done to ensure your child’s safety.

Hygiene

We will continue to clean the classrooms and touch points in addition to the regular cleaning and the children will be expected to wash their hands at the same times as we have been doing. Cleaning resources will continue to be provided for classrooms and bins outside the classrooms must be used for tissues etc. We will continue to expect children, parents and visitors to sanitise their hands as they enter the school premises. The school will be ventilated as much as possible.

Water bottles, packed lunches and cloakrooms

The children must continue to bring their own labelled water bottles but can bring a packed lunch box if they wish. Cloakrooms can once again be used for coats and bags.

Children with symptoms

We will continue to deal with suspected cases in the same way as we have since March 2020. These children will be sent home for a PCR test and will need to self-isolate until their results come back negative. School must see a negative PCR test before a child can return.

Close Contacts

From 16^th August 2021, children under 18 and adults who are double vaccinated will not need to self-isolate if they are a close contact of someone who tests positive. This includes the other adults and children in their class and the other people in their household.  (unless they develop symptoms)

All close contacts of a positive case will receive a “Warn and Inform “ letter that alerts parents to the fact that their child has been in contact with someone who has tested positive and that they will need to get a PCR test but that the child DOES NOT need to isolate while waiting for the results. (unless they develop symptoms)

As you can imagine, we are desperately wanting to get back to normal but still have some measures in place to reduce the risks. I would like to thank you all for your continued support and understanding as we move to the next phase.

I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 6^th September at 8.45pm.

Yours sincerely, 

Mrs. L Thompson                            

Headteacher