Full Reopening of School - Arrangements for September
Mr J Sharp
Dear Parents/Carers
You will probably have heard that the government has stated its intention to fully open all schools in England in September. In addition to the detailed plans and guidance on our COVID-19 page, I would like to set out:
The view from the Department for Education on why, how and when they want schools to fully reopen.
The guidance from the Department for Education on how schools should operate to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading widely.
Our plans on how we intend to implement this guidance for our children, staff and building.
Explain some of the difficult decisions we have taken that we know will cause some families inconvenience and possible distress.
Click the image to go the dedicated COVID-19 page.
Why do the government wish to fully open schools for all children and staff?
“Now that infection rates are falling, we can relax these bubbles and from 20 July we can lift the restrictions on early years settings, who will be able to return to their normal group sizes, although other safety measures must remain in place...
...we are asking schools to make sure that they continue to minimise contacts. This should be done by distancing where possible and by keeping classes or year groups separate from one another...
We all know that the best place for children to learn is in school, which is why I have been so determined to get them back there as soon as we could. From September, attendance will once again be mandatory and no child should be out of school unless it has been agreed...
I am confident that by adopting this carefully planned return in September, we will be in a good position to recover and rebuild our education system and ensure that none of our children lose out...”
How should schools open fully safely?
The government has produced lengthy guidance documents on how schools should fully reopen and implement:
enhanced hygiene measures
keeping groups of children or โbubblesโ separated as much as possible
access to the NHS Test and Trace system to enable quick identification of people with COVID-19 and isolate them and close contacts before they can possible spread the infection widely
You can read those documents here if you wish:
Our plans
We have been working very hard in school to apply this guidance to our own school, as well as receiving professional support from VITA Safety (who support us with Health and Safety). This has been a challenge and needed the input from the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and the Governing Body. As always, our first priority is the safety of the children, the staff, families and visitors to the school and we are confident that our risk assessment and plans are thorough and minimise the risk of coronavirus coming into our school and also from spreading if it does.
It is very important that we make it clear that our risk assessment, plans and procedures are all aimed at reducing risk to the smallest amount possible, we canโt promise to eliminate risk. This isnโt possible for any school, business, shop, hospital etc.
I wonโt repeat the full detailed risk assessment and plans here as they will be placed on the COVID-19 page of the website. They will be updated regularly so posting them here could mean you could read out-of-date information if you come back to this page in the future. However, there are main principles and changes I would like to highlight to you briefly:
All classes will be expected to return in September (including children and staff identified as vulnerable).
School start and end times are staggered to ensure โbubblesโ donโt mix and at designated entrances.
Playgrounds will be split and timings staggered if needed.
Breakfast Club will need to be reduced to around 30 children (currently a much higher number than this).
After School Club will restart and with children from different schools in different bubbles and spaces.
Lunches will not be able to be served to the whole school in the dining room/hall and therefore menu changes will be in place initially.
There will be enhanced hand washing, hand sanitising, other hygiene practices and additional cleaning through the day and after school.
Any child or staff member displaying symptoms will need to go home immediately, arrange a test and follow the instructions from NHS Test and Trace.
Public health authorities will advise the school on what action should be taken if there is confirmation of a positive test.
Parents will not be allowed in the building for the foreseeable future and there will be specific waiting areas for dropping off and collecting children in the playgrounds.
School uniform is expected to be worn again in September, although the days in which the children are doing P.E. they can come and go in P.E. kit which is suitable for the weather.
Entry/Exit from the Building
Start and Finish Times
FROM THURSDAY 3RD SEPTEMBER UNTIL FRIDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER
FROM MONDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER
Reducing the Risk of COVID-19 Spreading
Someone in School Develops Symptoms
NHS Test and Trace
Staggered Start and Finish Times
Having spoken to many of you on the playgrounds this week, we know that the length of the staggered starts and finishes has been the main problem. In some cases families have been waiting up to 30 minutes waiting for another child. We were cautious in setting the stagger at 10 minute intervals to see how quickly we could get the children into classes safely. I have been extremely impressed with the children and we are now in a position to half the length of the stagger. See the table below.
I think it is very important to highlight that this shorter stagger could present us all with different problems. The main concern for me is the number of families exiting the site at the same time and therefore causing crowding at the gates and on the pavements. There are a few guidelines that we will need all your help with:
Please wait away from gates to allow other bubbles in and out at a safe distance.
We will be directing families of different bubbles to wait in different parts of the infant playground. We really need to keep bubbles apart from each other.
Only the families of Nursery children should use the smaller gate on Droylsden Road. KS2 families should use the double gate on Droylsden Road or the gate into the churchyard.
Please keep your children under close control so that they are not playing with equipment and also children from different bubbles.
Please take your time leaving the site so that the pavements arenโt too busy.
Please arrive on time for all your classes and avoid arriving too early and staying on the site any longer than you need to. Children who are collected late will also be supervised under the EYFS canopy by a member of staff. If your child is late in the morning they will have to wait until the bubble entering the school has cleared the cloakrooms so it is very important to try and be on time. Please be aware that for security and safeguarding purposes the gates to the playgrounds are locked 10 minutes after the last class should have entered or exited.
Families who have more than one child at the school may experience difficulties collecting different children at the set time. Please let us know if you are struggling to pick your children up from different sides of the site. We will be looking after these children at designated points away from other bubbles. This will need some further tweaking next week so please bear with us for a day or two.
In the morning, Year 5 and 6 will be escorted by their teacher to the gate under the EYFS canopy to avoid mixing with Reception. They should continue to line up in the same place as they do now.
Whilst we are operating under COVID restrictions there can be no further shortening of this stagger and we really need your help and support to make this work.
Breakfast Club
This has been the hardest part of planning for next year and we know that it will cause some families serious inconvenience and possible distress. We know that a number of schools have closed their breakfast clubs but we have tried extremely hard to ensure that we can remain open. The original purpose of starting Breakfast Club, and why it is funded by Greggs, is to help support children who might not have received a breakfast before school. The government guidance states:
“We recognise that this will be logistically challenging for schools, particularly for clubs that would normally offer support across year groups, where parents are using multiple providers, or where childminders are picking up/dropping off pupils. Schools should carefully consider how they can make such provision work alongside their wider protective measures, including keeping children within their year groups or bubbles where possible. If it is not possible to maintain bubbles being used during the school day then schools should use small, consistent groups.”
From Monday 14th September Breakfast Club will be increased from 21 to 30 children attending each day. I know that in July this was one aspect of the risk assessment that caused a lot of anxiety amongst parents due to worries about childcare and work commitments. At the present time we have 21 children attending from 7 households, and because of the fantastic organisation of Mrs. Tierney, Mrs Horton and Mrs Allen we are going to expand the number to a maximum of 30 children from probably 11 households. I know that this will still leave a lot of families disappointed but we do feel that this is an appropriate number considering the time it takes to bring the children in, send them to the toilet and wash their hands in household groups, serve them their breakfast, sit them in household groups and send them to class.
Here are the main details of the changes:
The first and main priority is safety and reducing the possible number of contacts between children from different families and school bubbles. We know that there are many very good reasons for children coming to Breakfast Club but we must prioritise the safety of the children and staff above all else.
We have decided that we will be taking children from the same family first. This way we are limiting the mixing of bubbles as these children will be mixing at home anyway.
All children must attend every day unless they are absent from school.
All children who attend Breakfast Club will need to arrive before 8.10am so that the protective measures in school can be implemented properly.
These protective measures include: the children not facing each other when eating, not queuing for their breakfast, being given their cutlery and food by an adult, the same adults supervising each day, limited interactions when playing, limited sharing of resources and resources cleaned regularly if they are shared.
This diagram shows how we are reducing the number of possible contacts between households and class bubbles.
We ask the parents do not bring their children to Breakfast Club unless they have had their places confirmed with school. We will not be allowing children in who are not allocated a place Iโm afraid.
One of the questions I was asked in July and again in September is what the criteria would be for inviting more children to attend. We have decided that we will choose children against the following criteria:
1. Families with more than one child in the school.
2. Families with more than one child in the school that attended Breakfast Club full time previously.
3. Families with more than one child in the school that attended Breakfast Club part time previously.
4. Children who are classed as vulnerable.
5. Children whose parents are critical workers.
We still need to prioritise safety, social distancing, limiting contacts across bubbles and hygiene measures as COVID still presents a risk to school and public health. That is why we have prioritised families who have more than one child in the school. I have to be honest and say that we donโt expect to invite individual children at this point considering the number of siblings on the waiting list. It has not been an easy decision to take, knowing how many of you need the places. Nothing is permanent and we will continue to review as we go along.
Please contact us at enquiries@allsaintsnh-pri.mancester.sch.uk ASAP if you feel your details have changed and you fall into one of the above categories.
If you are not allocated a place initially then you may wish to explore other possibilities including:
Family support for dropping off and collecting the children.
Speaking to any other childcare provider you may use.
Speak to your employer about any possibility of being flexible with hours of work. The government has stated that employers should be flexible with their employees.
Look at the staggered arrival time of childโs class and see if that opens up any other possibilities.
I hope you all understand the extreme difficulties presented to us and we do fully acknowledge that we are living in unfair times. Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions and we will try our best to help you.
After School Club
In July we stated that After School Club would start with only our children and then we would review when children from other schools could attend. I am pleased to say that Windsor Road Day Nursery have worked incredibly hard in planning their own thorough risk assessment. Due to this detailed plan and our decision to move clubs to outside, After School Club will be able to bring children from other schools and keep each school bubble apart from each other. They will also be responsible for cleaning before and after the children are in each day. It is the ability to keep the children from different schools separated which meant that we could make this decision.
There was a real danger that this club would have to close if we didnโt make an effort to keep the numbers up and we were very conscious of the pressures on families for childcare support. Their risk assessment is on our COVID-19 page for you to read.
Lunchtimes
We donโt have any changes to report with lunches at the present time. This is still being reviewed and is a very complex part of the day to organise. We hope to move towards the restart of hot meals at some point but this will need careful planning for keeping bubbles apart and cleaning routines.
Uniform
Children will need to wear full school uniform in September. However, on days in which they have P.E. they can attend in their P.E. kit to reduce the amount of changing and to give families more time for frequent washing of clothes. We would advise that the children come in tracksuit bottoms/leggings on cooler days as they will wearing these clothes all day, including playtimes.
These are the items we would like the children to bring in to school each day:
Small book bag and reading book.
Filled water bottle (only water please) with a sports cap with their name on. We are turning the water coolers back on but only adults will be allowed to use them. The staff will supervise the distribution of water where needed. If all children bring in a full water bottle it will significantly reduce disruption to learning.
We have updated our uniform page of the website to better show families what the correct uniform is.
There are other measures we are taking to help reduce possible transmission of COVID-19 with regards to what comes into the building each day. The children must not bring other items into school that arenโt included in the list above. We need parents to sign up to Parent Portal for payments to stop the handling of cash and we are currently changing our paper forms to digital versions.
Finally
It has been extremely difficult to take some of these decisions knowing the range of potential consequences for families. However, we have put the childrenโs safety first in every decision and taken great care to comply with Health and Safety law alongside the directions from the Department for Education. We are constantly reviewing the plans and trying to improve them where possible. Any constructive suggestions from you are always welcome and we need to know how these plans work from your perspective. I am sure that with over 180 families school there will never be complete agreement about what is best but we really appreciate the positive and patient support we have received over the last 5 months and really want to maintain that in the next phase of this pandemic.
Please keep checking Twitter, the News Archive on the website and the schoolโs COVID-19 page for information.
All the staff are very excited about having the children back in school and we hope that the children will be too.
Thank you for your continued support.
