Dear Parents,

 

We know many of you are anxious about what school arrangements will be in September, so we wanted to write to you as soon as it was possible to let you know. We are really looking forward to getting all of our children back and getting things back to as normal as they can be – but at the same time we have a lot of guidance that we need to follow in order to make things as safe as we can so there are several changes to many parts of the Church Vale day. Please note that it is the expectation that all pupils return after the summer – holidays will not be authorised and families need to be aware that there are still countries which, if visited, still require a 14 day isolation period once you return – the government are continually updating this list.

 

Timings of the new school day

Guidance states that we need to stagger the start and end times of different bubbles. It is really important that children turn up just before their allocated time. Children who turn up too early or too late run the risk of coming into contact with other bubbles which increases the risk of transmission. Should positive cases emerge after September, we need to ensure our bubbles have not come into contact so that we would only need to shut the affected part of school and minimise the disruption to our children and our families. Doors will open 5 minutes before for all.

 

If you have siblings in different bubbles who need to travel together, they can come at the time of the earliest child’s start time and leave when the last child finishes their school day. If your child is able to walk home, they can continue to do so but please ensure that you are confident in their ability to maintain social distance if they’re not with an adult.

 

Entrances and Exits

Each class will have their own entrance in September. Year 3 will use the 3/4 cloakroom door; Year 4 will come in and out through the ICT room and Year 5 will use the 5/6 cloakroom door. All other classes have their own door.

 

Breakfast Club / After-School Club

This has been the hardest aspect of reopening to organise in a way which adheres to the guidance and is why many schools are not offering this in September. We know that many of our working parents rely on wraparound care and would find it virtually impossible to get their children to school and get to work so we are determined to try to support these parents as much as we can.

 

We will be offering breakfast club from 7:15am and after-school club until 5:00pm

 

• We are asking parents to please only use it if they have no other options on that day – we will need to try and segregate the different bubbles which is very challenging when it could contain children from 4 different bubbles who are not allowed to mix.
• You need to have booked a place by the end of the previous day.
• Breakfast and afterschool club will only be for working parents who have no other options
• Please do not turn up earlier than 7:15 for breakfast club
• Breakfast club will continue to run in the mobile unless numbers get so high that we are unable to continue to do so safely.
• After-school club will run a little differently. Numbers are always higher for the first hour so we will run it as follows:
  • Up until 4pm, there will be 4 separate after-school clubs; one for each of the phase bubbles (one for Foundation; 1&2; 3&4 and 5&6).
  • At 4pm, any pupils who are being collected will need to be collected from their key stage cloakroom door.
  • At 4pm, children who need to stay until 5pm will all be taken to the mobile where they will be together in the room but with different bubbles separated as much as possible at different tables. Again, we are asking that working parents only use this when they have no other options.
  • Children who are being collected between 4pm and 5pm need to be collected from the mobile.
  • Please be aware that picking up later than 5pm will incur a £20 fine which must be paid before you can use this service again – our staff who agree to work in after-school club have already had a very long day by the time it gets to 5pm and they deserve to be able to go home on time – we hope you understand.

 

PE

Schools need to reduce the number of objects which are travelling between home and school. As a result, from September, children will need to come to school in their PE kit on their allocated PE day and will stay in this kit for the whole day. Each class will have one allocated day and we will make sure you know what day this is in plenty of notice. Also, please ensure that children are not wearing any jewellery on their PE day.

As a reminder, PE kit needs to be:

• Black or navy jogging bottoms / tracksuit bottoms
• Black or navy shorts
• A plain white t shirt
• They can wear a black or navy tracksuit top or sports top too
• Appropriate footwear for sport

 

Reading Books

Despite the requirement to reduce the number of objects which move between home and school, reading has not become any less important. Therefore, we will still be sending reading books home. Classes will have a book changeover day – books ready to come back to school will be put into a quarantine box for 48 hours and cleaned before they will be put back onto the shelf for another child to choose.

 

Water Bottles

Most of our children are fantastic at bringing their water bottle and remembering to take these home each day so that they can be washed and filled with fresh water. Some of our pupils though routinely forget to bring theirs or rarely take them home to be washed – this is really important when we return in September as we do not want children to be having to use a shared cup.

 

Other changes to the school day

• Children will stay within their year group bubbles for the majority of the day. For the purposes of breaktimes and lunchtimes etc. we will have children in ‘phases bubbles’ (Foundation; 1&2; 3&4, 5&6).
• There will be no large events such as whole school assemblies.
• School dinners will go back to being hot dinners in September rather than sandwiches. You can of course still send your child with a packed lunch if you wish.
• There will be no tuck shop for the foreseeable future.
• When we return in September, we will not be offering any after-school clubs.
• Regular handwashing will take place for all children throughout the day.
• Staff will perform additional cleaning with antibacterial spray throughout the day for commonly touched surfaces in the classrooms.
• Due to the need to prioritise, reading, writing and maths, each class will only have 1 PE lesson. However, all classes will try and have ‘physically active minutes’ spread throughout the day when it is not their PE day.
• No parents or carers will be able to come inside school unless to attend an appointment.
• Educational visits will not take place until further notice.
• If a child or staff member displays symptoms, they will be isolated and will need to go home as soon as possible. They will then need to arrange for a test urgently and cannot return until they have proof of a negative result. School are led to believe that we will be supplied with some home-test kits for such an eventuality during the Autumn term.
• In the event of a confirmed positive test for Covid-19, we would shut down that bubble for 14 days. Pupils in that bubble and all people within their household would then need to strictly self-isolate for 14 days.

 

Church Vale will be moving to a cashless system

Coins and notes present a high risk of transmission which is why most shops are currently only offering card payment. In light of this, and to make running school more efficient, we will be moving to a cashless system using a service called ParentPay. You will receive a text asking you to reply with your email address in the coming days. We will be adopting a cashless system from September and Mrs Kirk will be writing to you with all of the details that you will need in order to get signed up.

 

The ParentPay system will be used for all transactions such as:

• breakfast and after-school club
• trips and tuckshop once they are able to take place again
• water bottles, reading folders, badges, uniform etc.
• most importantly… school dinners

 

We hope that you appreciate why we have had to put all of these measures in place. We want the Autumn term to be as fantastic, enjoyable, and as normal as it can be for our children. Thank you for your continued support, understanding and cooperation.

 

The Staff of Church Vale Primary School