Thank you for all the positive comments we’ve received about our daily messages before summer. For the time being, we plan to continue these, but just on a weekly basis. We’ll continue to post other, occasional messages on the website and send other emails, too.
Wow! What a brilliant first week. Our children have returned to school so happily – it’s been an absolute joy to see the smiles on their faces as they arrive at school. Teachers report how impressed they’ve been with how our children have settled. You should feel very proud about how you’ve supported your child so well over the last few months.
We’ve made two important updates to our Autumn for All guide for parents and carers – we’ll tell you about these in this message.
Homework
It’s Friday so your child will be coming home with a homework task: we’re setting weekly homework as we normally do. The key difference here is that Homework Books should stay at home for the time being.
Just as normal, the tasks are posted on the website. Instead of the task pasted into books, children take home a piece of paper with the task on, too. The tasks are a variety of Talk Time, Practice Makes Perfect and Creative, but especially the first two.
Parents can email a picture of the completed task (or task in process) or update about a completed task. (Lots of you were doing this with the home learning tasks we set in Spring and Summer terms). The homework will be reviewed in school, so some pictures would be good!
Emails
Talking of emails, we’re happy for you to continue to use this as the main way for you to speak with your child’s teacher. This might be to send a picture or description of the homework task (rather than sending the Homework Books back to school), or to ask a quick question – the sort of thing you’d normally say to the teacher at the start or end of the day.
We’ve strict policies in place around safeguarding and staff workload, so we’ve agreed a short policy about this – please see page 12 of the Autumn for All guide.
The rule of six
The other update to the Autumn for All guide is reference to the government’s updated rules on social distancing:
When seeing friends and family you do not live with you should:
- follow social distancing rules
- limit how many different people you see socially over a short period of time
- meet people outdoors where practical: meeting people outdoors is safer than meeting people indoors because fresh air provides better ventilation
Limits on the number of people you can see socially are changing. From Monday 14 September, when meeting friends and family you do not live with you must not meet in a group of more than 6, indoors or outdoors.
From 14 September – when the new rules apply – it will be against the law to meet people you do not live with in a group larger than 6 (unless you are meeting as a household or support bubble). The police will have the powers to enforce these legal limits, including to issue fines (fixed penalty notice) of £100, doubling for further breaches up to a maximum of £3,200.
We know you support us in prioritising the safety of all our pupils, parents and staff. If we have concerns, we may have to ask a parent / carer to collect their child from school, possibly to self-isolate for 14 days or until they can provide evidence of a negative test result for Covid-19. This is because we have to be confident children can attend school in a way which does not undermine the safeguarding of others.
Please read pages 13-14 of the Autumn for All guide for more about this.
How to get a test
The main symptoms of Covid-19 are:
- a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
If you or your child is displaying even just one of these symptoms, arrange a test online or call 111. You can get a test by post, at a drive-through or walk-through, or at a mobile testing unit.
Please remember that a high temperature is one of the symptoms of Covid-19. Whilst a high temperature can mean lots of other more minor illnesses, please be cautious: don’t send your child to school (and don’t just hope that some Calpol will help!).
Thank you and well done
We started this week’s message with some thanks to you because your child has returned to school happily and healthily. This is a reflection on how well you’ve been supporting them at home.
Here are some other ‘thank you’ and ‘well done’ messages from us to you…
- Thank you for coming into school as close to the new timings as possible – this has really helped to keep numbers in school low.
- Thank you for keeping your distance from others so well – we know it’s tempting to have a chat, but we’re grateful you’re helping to protect yourselves and everyone else by social distancing.
- Thank you for just having one adult drop off and collect; again, this helps to keep numbers low.
And finally a big one: the prime minister announced this week that attendance in England’s schools was at about 90% this week. At 98.5%, we’re way better than that! That’s absolutely amazing attendance!
Since March, you’ve supported your child so well. It’s clear from their happy and healthy start to the new school year. Again: thank you and well done. Have a good weekend.
