September 2020 arrangements

September guidelines for parents

We’ll be putting these guidelines in place for September. Please remember that there may be additional changes as new guidelines are released or clarified by the DfE.

• We’ll be open to all children. Yay! (Children must come to school unless there are exceptional reasons not to).
• We’ll operate as class bubbles – ie we will avoid one class mixing with another. This includes at break and lunch. Class bubbles will be 30 children.
• Breakfast club requires a place being allocated, and there is no guarantee of a place. Request a place by Friday 24th July.
• Your child won’t need a back pack or bag – please don’t send them in with one. We’ll give them a small and durable book bag. Bags require cleaning, take up valuable space, and are a hazard.
• Children will wear normal school uniform, except on their PE days when they wear PE kit to school.
• Children will have their own pencil case, which we will provide. Again, please don’t send one in.
• All they need to bring in is their lunch (unless school dinners), water bottle, simple book bag (which we are giving them) and coat.
• We’ll be cashless and paperless. Please make sure you can use SCOPay/Tucasi (the online payment system).
• We are minimising the movement of staff around the school.
• PE kit will be worn to school on days that the children have PE. This way we don’t have to change at school – another hazard. We’ll let you know the days for PE.
• Books can be brought home from school, although a quarantine process will be in place.
• For lunch, we’ll offer two hot options each day. Lunches will be eaten in the classrooms.
• Frequent washing of hands will continue.
• We’ll be socially distancing as much as possible, although at times it is very tricky.
• Parents need to contact the school using phone and email, and not come into the school unless in emergencies.
• Homework and spellings will be on Google Classrooms.

Face Coverings/Masks (added August 2020)

We hope this brings clarity to you and your children, and reassures you that we take everyone’s safety seriously. Remember, this is about keeping everybody safe, including the adults who work in the school. Having over 1000 people on site at drop-off and pickup times, and almost 750 during the day, means that we need everyone to play their part. As we reduce the risk at school, it also reduces the risk for families at home.

1. Parents must wear face coverings/masks when on the school site, including when dropping off or collecting a child, or visiting the office (having first spoken to the office via email/phone).
2. Pupils must not wear face coverings/masks whilst in school, although they can wear them to and from school. If a child has particular health needs, then please consult with the school about this. Where they wear a mask to school, we ask that parents take the mask home.
3. Staff won’t be wearing face coverings/masks within the classroom environment (ie within the bubble), but will do so outside of the classroom where a distance of 2m cannot be maintained (for example, when in communal/office areas, walking within school, using the photocopier etc). Breakfast club and lunchtime staff will be wearing masks.
4. Visitors, including those who visit the school regularly to meet with pupils, must wear masks at all times; where this is not deemed possible because of the nature of the work, the system of controls must be strictly adhered to.

Where face coverings/masks are worn, they must be suitable and appropriate in style.