Letter to all Parent regarding Reopening Information for Monday 8th March 2021

                                               

2^nd March 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are very much looking forward to welcoming the rest of our pupils back to school this coming Monday, 8^th March.  This is an announcement which we have all been waiting for with great anticipation and we are ever hopeful that schools will remain open. 

The following arrangements are in place in order to facilitate a smooth transition on and off site daily.  Please take note of the timings and allocated gates.

 

Year 5 and 6 children with signed parent consent to walk home alone will exit via gate 1 (school office gate)

See the attached map for gate locations.  Please note that the gate in Thatches Grove is for exit only.

I ask that you stick rigidly to timings to support us in keeping year groups separate as per the guidance from the DfE.  Any children who miss their year group slot in the morning, will need to be brought around to the school office.  Whilst I appreciate that there are at times exceptional circumstances, I do ask that you try to stick to the timings set out by the school.  It can be very disconcerting for a child to start the school day outside of their normal routine with their peer group and this has already been an incredibly unsettling year for them.

 

Please also remember that whilst on our site, it is still a requirement to wear a face mask at all times.  Pupils can only be accompanied by one adult to reduce the number of people on site and avoid congestion as much as possible.  Please do not be offended or become angry with a member of staff who may approach you to remind you of this.  We are doing everything that we can under challenging circumstances to keep everyone safe and this relies on the cooperation of all stakeholders.

 

As in previous letters, the year group pods will remain in place with playtimes and lunchtimes staggered to ensure that year groups remain separated whilst on site.  The school kitchen will continue to provide both a hot meal and a packed lunch offer.  Children can of course bring their own packed lunch to school if they wish.

 

We would prefer parents not to use the main office but rather to contact via telephone or the school office email:

 office@roselane.bardaglea.org.uk

Please do not use the class email accounts, as these will be closed at the end of the week when remote learning ceases and pupils return to full-time education.  If you wish to speak to your child’s class teacher, it should be via the office.

If in an emergency, you are forced to attend the site, please be aware of the signage around social distancing and ensure that you remain behind the yellow line should there already be someone in the foyer.  Once again, only one parent will be able to access this space for any given period of time.

It is important to note that the school office will be available for telephone calls only until 9:30am as this is a designated entry point for specific year groups during this time.  Late children will only be permitted access after this time.

Likewise, in the afternoon, telephone contact only from 3pm until 3:45pm once pupils are off site.

 

On Monday, we ask that you return to school the remote learning packs even if they are incomplete.  This will form part of our assessment around what adaptations will need to be made to the curriculum so that all our pupils are able to be successful this year. 

Children will need to be in full school uniform and should return with a full PE kit.

Please do not send hand sanitiser or cleaning products in with your child.  We have both hand sanitiser and soap available in every classroom as well as in corridors and intervention areas.  These are topped up throughout the day so that everyone on site is able to keep his or her hands clean.

 

Looking ahead, we have decided to move World Book Day to next Friday, 12^th March so that our whole school community can celebrate together.  Activities centred around books have been woven into lessons throughout the day to ensure that our first whole school activity of 2021 is a special one.  Please do not feel pressurised into purchasing special costumes.  Your child will enjoy being creative with you using everyday items from your home.  We also ask that you are mindful though of props that come into school as part of a costume as well as choosing characters which could make some of our younger or more anxious children to become unnecessarily distressed.

Presently, there are no plans in place for testing of primary aged children although Public Health England do encourage weekly whole family lateral flow testing.  This is voluntary but I do urge you to collect these test kits from a testing site as a further layer of protection for our site.  Since January, staff have been testing twice a week to ensure that every adult on site is Covid free and this is an additional reassurance that we offer you to help ease any anxiety you may have about the return to school next week.

 

For the remainder of the term, we will be following a Transitional Curriculum in our Literacy lessons.  These will be based on the text “What we’ll Build” by Oliver Jeffers.  We are focusing on working together to build something – friendships, trust, a community, an awareness of others.  This is particularly fitting in the context of our shared experiences of the pandemic.  We are hoping that this transition will build the necessary bridges into further learning and as a staff, we will be ensuring that we keep our children, our community and ourselves positive and focused on the opportunities that lie ahead by working together. 

We are not going to use phrases like “falling behind” and “catch up” as these can be overwhelming to children and cause anxiety. 

We are committed to providing quality first education for our children with a broad, balanced and rich curriculum, supportive of all learners. Together, we can ensure that our children are successful.

 

Finally, I wanted to share with you a piece which summarises our approach:

 

Don’t tell me I’m behind.

Don’t tell me I’ll be held back forever.

Don’t tell me I need longer at school.

Don’t tell me I’m lost.

 

Tell me I can do it.

Tell me you’ll help me.

Tell me you believe in me.

Tell me we’ll do it together.

 

Yours sincerely,

The Children

 

 

Thank you for your understanding and support in what has been an extremely challenging time for all stakeholders in the school community. 

As we move forward together next week, I ask that as a community, we work together rebuilding and keeping the children of Rose Lane Primary at the heart of all we do.

Yours sincerely

 

 

Jacqui Barnard
Head Teacher
Rose Lane Primary