RE: Year 3 September Opening Arrangements

Dear Parent or Carer,

As we come to the close of another school year, there is still so much to do to get ready for the next one. I thank you for your patience and hope that the new school year will be more settled.

Those of you who were able to return your children to school will know that there were lots of changes to our systems and organisation, looking forward to September and whole school reopening, there will still be a need for alterations in order to operate safely as a school. The new year 3 children will be moving over to the junior site so they have a few new things to consider.

We will be operating following government guidance and putting in place several controls to minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19. You can see a full copy of our Covid-19 risk assessment on our website. We will regularly update this as guidance changes.

Whilst the government have indicated that the prevalence of coronavirus has decreased, the NHS Test and Track system is up and running and it is important that our whole school community work together to protect each other. I would love nothing more than to operate a normal school day, but unfortunately, I cannot and I ask for your patience and understanding once more.

Drop off & Pick up

Our plans for September aim to keep children in clear and consistent class/year bubbles. This will help school to limit the number of contacts children have with different people whilst still allowing them to have a school curriculum.  In order to do this, we have arranged some staggered starts and ends of the school day with 5-minute windows for classes to access safely. I know that the staggered start times at the start and end of the school day will be problematic for those of you who work or who have a number of children in different classes across the school but we have to follow the guidance and reduce the mixing of children as much as possible.

It is important that families stick to their allocated times and practise social distancing whilst picking up or dropping children off.  Your child’s entrance and exit door may be different so please ensure you have the correct information.  The timings of the school day are different but there is no reduction in teaching time.

Unfortunately, parents will still not be allowed on our school site, we ask that if children are accompanied to school one family member only to reduce crowding.

Year 3

3NT to enter and exit via the Side gate, start and finish times are 8:50am-3.05pm

3BW to enter and exit via the Side gate, start and finish times are 8:55am-3.10pm

3LY to enter and exit via the Side gate, start and finish times are 9:00am-3.15pm

The side gate is situated at the top of Montague opposite the Joseph Lappin entrance.

As you can see the timings are tight, each class is allowed 5min intervals in the hope that this prevents too many children accessing doors at the same time. If this doesn’t work we may have to change to 10min intervals.

Children who arrive late will have to wait until all classes have accessed the building and then will be allowed to enter after them. Where families have siblings in other classes with different start times, we ask that you bring the earliest first and work forwards.

Lunches

The school meal service will be back to operating in both school kitchens, the menus will be posted on the school website. Only children having a school meal will be allowed into a year group sitting in the hall. Packed lunch children will be asked to bring a disposable bag and to eat their lunches supervised in their year group areas. Lunch service will be staggered to prevent year group bubbles mixing. The children in each year group will be allocated a slightly different lunch to allow all children to be able to access our halls. The year 3 lunch will be 11.45am -12.30pm.

Breakfast club & After school clubs

For the first week of the new term there will be no clubs. This is due to the fact that children from different bubbles are not allowed to mix, which causes some difficulties with staffing as we usually have children from Rec to Y6 in the clubs. We will be reviewing these arrangements during the first week back and will let you know what has been decided.

Keeping us safe

I hope that the arrangements have not made anyone anxious about coming back to school, the risk assessments and controls are to make sure we are all safe. The most important thing will can do is wash hands regularly and try and keep our distance. In September there will no doubt be additional guidance-I can’t wait!!

For the start of the new school year we are back to full school uniform please with hair tied back.  I know this is a long letter with lots of details but I needed you to have as much information as possible before we finish. School ends 12 noon on Friday 17^th July and reopens for children on Wednesday 2^nd September.

Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to welcoming you back in September

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation

Yours sincerely

Mrs Walsh

Headteacher