School Opening Tuesday 1st September
As promised, I am writing to you, to clarify some detail regarding the full re-opening of school in September.
We are opening the school using a “class bubble” system, as part of a risk assessed plan for safer opening. A “bubble” is a group of children who keep together, as much as possible, as an isolated group from other bubbles.
Start /Finish Arrangements
In order to make the start and end of the school day safer and manageable, we will be using 4 different entry points and a staggered start and staggered end of the school day. We ask that only one parent/carer from a family accompanies a child to school. Parents will not be permitted into the building, unless absolutely necessary and by appointment only. (Appointments with teachers should be arranged by ringing the school office.)
Entry Point 1: School Hall side door (near bin store.)
Entry Point 2: School Hall side door (near Neighbourhood Centre - “Breakfast Club” door)
Entry Point 3: Canopy gate entrance (previously used by everyone entering/exiting the site)
Entry point 4: Main entrance by school office.
Each class is assigned a specific entry point and specific start and finish times, as follows:
Entry Point Class Start Finish
1 Hall (Bin store side) Rose 8.55 2.55
1 Hall (Bin store side) Tulip 9.05 3.05
2 Hall (Neighbourhood centre side) Acer 8.55 2.55
2 Hall (Neighbourhood centre side) Redwood 9.05 3.05
2 Hall (Neighbourhood centre side) Spruce 9.15 3.15
3 Canopy gate Maple 8.55 2.55
3 Canopy gate Elder 9.05 3.05
3 Canopy gate Rowan 9.15 3.15
4 Main entrance Willow 8.55 2.55
4 Main entrance Poplar 9.05 3.05
4 Main entrance Sycamore 9.15 3.15
School Hall Breakfast Club
There will be no breakfast club in the school hall in September. A “Grab and Go” system will be in place with fruit, toast etc, available for the children to collect and eat on their way to their classrooms. These “Grab and Go” stations will be set up for the children to access on entering the school premises at their allotted start times (see above).
Sunshine Street
There will be an option for parents to access this privately run, paid-for service. Contact Mrs Haddon on 07503 154685. Bookings must be arranged in advance.
School Dinners
These remain free for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children. The school dinner service across school will be a mainly cold food service (sandwich selection, fruit etc but also possibly pizza, cheese whirl / sausage roll). The children will be eating in their own classroom, supervised by their class teachers. The hall will not be used for school dinners.
“Closing the Gap”
Thank you to those many parents and children who have engaged with home learning since lockdown in March. It is not easy trying to support your child with such a system, when you have other things to contend with, whether that is running the household, or trying to work from home. We expect that even those of you who have ensured your children have worked each day, there will be lot of “catch up” to be done, to get the children back on track, to reach the expected standard, during the next academic year. For those who have not been able to engage in home learning as fully, that gap will be larger and there will be an even bigger “catch up” to take place over the coming months. The good news is, you don’t have to wait till September, before you start to help this gap to be closed.
During the summer holidays you are strongly encouraged to enable your child to access home reading through Rising Stars and Oxford Owls eBooks (Rising Stars: https://www.risingstars-uk.com/subjects/reading-and-ebooks/rising-stars-reading-planet/reading-planet-for-parents/support-for-parents-carers Oxford Owl: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/). The “All About Me” project, as part of our transition programme, should be completed and either emailed or sent via email to your child’s new teacher by the end of the summer holiday.
There are also the preview work shared by class teachers, which can be sent in by email or via our learning platform “Seesaw”. This will be looked at by your child’s new teacher over the summer break and responded to, at the start of the new term. We want you to encourage your child to start the “catch up” now, so we can build on this when we all return in September. If there are further lockdowns in the next year academic year, schools will be reverting much more to work being completed electronically, so access to electronic devices will be really helpful for your child’s education.
I hope you remain healthy, both physically and mentally over the summer break and that the children will have a happy return to school in September.
Kind regards
A.W.Kidd
Headteacher
Duke Street Primary School
