Just in case you haven’t seen the calendar for school lately, I wanted to make everyone aware of the upcoming PD Days. These are days when the teaching staff receive training on important things within education such as safeguarding, first Aid, maths etc. School is closed to children on these days.

There will be one on Monday 2nd November 2020 and there will now be another on Monday 4th January 2021 (this is instead of Friday 18th December – school will be open that day).

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Julie

Thank you so much for your patience and consideration for others when you have dropped your children with us in the mornings. We hope that the new times make things a little easier and that you have less time to be hanging around?  A special well done and gold star to the parents in Year 3 and 6 who have organised themselves along the 2 pavements in socially distanced lines – superb!

Because today was a bit squashed for Year 4 and 5 in St. Luke’s drive, I am trying something different tomorrow. I myself will place my old, decrepit body right at the end of St. Luke’s drive and at 8:40, will send the Year 4 children up the drive to the gate and into school as a group without parents needing to go up the drive with them. (Year 3 children are now not coming in with any parents so the older children can too.) This means the year 4&5 parents will no longer have to go through school and out through the car park either. Year 5 children will then be sent up the drive and in through the gate at 8:50. This means we can keep the 2 bubbles separate from each other.

We would ask that any parents of year 5 and 4 do not come any earlier than their allotted time and that while you are waiting, you make 2 separate lines (one per year group) on separate sides of the gate and that, rather than hang around blowing kisses at your beloved, you move away as soon as your child has gone past me so that the pavements are cleared quickly.

We are very aware of the rising number of cases and do not want our school to be having to close bubbles or even the whole school again so we really need you to be doing your social distancing too. By keeping you off the playgrounds in the morning, it reduces the chance of the children picking up an infection just that little bit more.

Lastly, if your child is later than their slot and the gates are shut, please just get them to come to the office and we will take them to class. If the gates are open they can go straight into their room.

Hope this makes life a little safer for us all.

Julie

Our lovely ladies in the kitchen have offered to start cooking our toast again and Mrs Perkins, Mrs Smart and myself are happy to sell toast in 4 batches so that the children are kept apart.

So if you would like your child to have a piece of hot buttered toast at their morning break, please give them 20p and we will sort out where they will buy it from tomorrow.

Julie

The Governors have spent a long time now sifting, sorting and interviewing and have chosen the replacement for me in January. She is Miss Tracey Cartwright who is currently Deputy Head of St. Matthew’s Primary school. Tracey is very experienced in both teaching and leading and is very excited to be taking the reins after Christmas.

It has taken a while because the Governors have spent a long time thinking about a great fit for our community and they really have chosen well with Tracey.

Tracey is going to be coming into school every Wednesday to get to know everyone in and out of school. She will be around with me on the gate and playgrounds and I’m sure will appreciate a hello from you all.

I know that being the parents that you are, you will give her the care and support she will need in January and beyond.

Thanks, Julie

Thank you so much for your patience this morning. You were really good about keeping the kids out until their allotted time and were very smiley when you left them for some reason??

We are meeting again tonight – after we’ve experienced a day in the new normal – and we will let you know of any changes that we decide on so keep looking out for those and sharing them please.

Mr Spragg is making a video of the one way system that we will need to use at the end of the day which he will post later and there are also some footprints painted on the playgrounds for the end of the day when you come and collect to help you distance.

The exit gate tonight for everyone is the car park gate so just be wary of the cars that may be pulling out. Year 4 and 6 parents will need to enter along St. Luke’s drive and exit through our car park as their drive is one way.

Year 3 and 5 parents will enter through the pedestrian gate on church Road and leave via the car park too.

Finishing times are Yr 3 2:50,  Yr 4 3:00, Yr 5 3:10, Yr 6 3:20

Hello all.

We have been in school this morning and have hopefully now got all our Ts crossed and Is dotted and are ready for the morning.

You have no idea how excited we are to see the kids back and start working together again. We will continue to revise plans as necessary to make sure that everyone is happy and healthy but please don’t hesitate to call if there is anything you think we could do better. Please be patient as we try to get to grips with this new normal and be assured that everything we will have in place is there for the safety of the whole community.

I’ll continue to check my emails tonight so if there’s any last minute question or panic, please contact me.

If not, I will look forward to seeing everyone at their staggered start times whilst I’m on the gate tomorrow.

Julie