Dear Parents/Carers

Thank you for your patience as we continue to plan to welcome back more children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 as well as more vulnerable children and children of critical workers.

We are working hard to make sure that the school environment is a welcoming and safe place for pupils to return to and that the nurture, care and wellbeing of children is at the heart of what we do. This has proved to be an enormous task logistically, incorporating all the daily DfE guidance documents into our planning, many of which have only come out recently. To this end, despite working relentlessly since the Prime Ministers statement about primary schools reopening, we will not be in a position to start this face to face contact on 1^st June. During the week commencing 1^st June we will be welcoming more vulnerable children and children of critical workers into school and helping them to settle and adjust to the new school routines and classroom environments.

When we are told it is safe to do so and all the appropriate adjustments are in place, we will be implementing a phased return timetable starting with the Reception children.

When groups/year groups return to school

To support social distancing and minimise the amount of adults on site, we ask that only one parent/ carer drops their child off each day. We will also be introducing staggered start/ ends to the school day. You will receive further information about dates and times as part of the phased return.

It is important that you adhere to the timings specified to your child as we will be working hard to ensure that different groups arrive at different times, in order to follow social distancing guidance.

As parents/ carers please make sure you are aware of others around you and that you maintain social distancing at all times. Please refrain from using the school office/ main reception area and either telephone or email school instead.

Please can you talk through the following with your child, in advance of their potential return to school, to help this to be as safe and smooth transition as possible:

• Hand-washing. At school, children will be washing their hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and running water.
• Social distancing on the school site. Everyone on the school site will be very conscious about keeping a 2m social distance wherever possible – within classrooms, other rooms and buildings, corridors and outside. We will be putting up posters, marking the floor areas with tape and stickers and other visual reminders of this.
• Classrooms.  Chairs, desks and other items in classrooms will be moved and adapted to enable social distancing wherever possible.
• Equipment. We’ll be making sure that children don’t share equipment with each other – including pencils, pens, books etc.
• Playtimes/breaks. It will be a change for children to not be playing in close contact with each other. We will talk to the children about this and ways to have creative playtimes/breaks that keep a social distance. The children will be playing with the children from their learning group at playtime and lunchtime.
• Lunches. School will make sure children are socially distanced at lunch times- they will stay in their learning groups. Equipment for lunchtime will be carefully cleaned and children must not mix cutlery, or share/swap food.
• Following instructions from school staff. In order for everyone to stay safe, it is essential that all children carefully follow instructions from school staff on everything mentioned above and the way that our school will operate for the rest of this half term.

Home learning

We will continue to post our weekly home learning plans on the school website and this will form the basis of the provision for the children who are attending school.

School uniform

We expect children to wear uniform but understand that they may have grown in the last couple of months. Although we still intend to take children outside for physical activity, they will not be using P.E or sports equipment and they will not be getting changed into their P.E kits. Instead, we ask that children come to school in their school shoes (if they still fit) or trainers, so they have appropriate footwear.

Website

We have added a new tab to our website entitled COVID-19 guidance. We will use this section to keep you up to date with useful information.

Thank you for your help with this as we all play our part in preparing for the wider opening of school. As soon as we have been advised it is safe to open school to more children and have completed our own local evaluations, we will be writing to you to confirm dates and arrangements.

With best wishes,

Mrs R Forde