Newsletter: 17th July 2020

Posted on July 17, 2020 | By Mr Cole | 1 response

Happy Holidays

It’s definitely true to say I’m not going to forget this, my 13th (!!) year at Woolsery Primary School! I don’t think any of us could have predicated just how much our world could change in just a few weeks and I continue to be very sad for our Year 6 children who leave us today without having completed almost all of our usual Leavers’ Week activities. Thank you for sharing your video work with us this morning in you assembly – we really enjoyed sharing that time with you! I will make the video available via Google Classroom later today so if you want to download a copy you need to do that before the end of Monday when your school accounts will be frozen.

Which ever school you are moving on to in September,  we hope you will be very happy and settle quickly. We are very proud of what you’ve achieved in your Year 6 -such as it was- and will miss you enormously next term.

For everyone else, we’re looking forward to seeing you next term in our New Normal full school reopening… details about that are below. School reopens for children on 7th September 2020.

Have a happy holiday, everyone. Thank you all for your hard work, commitment and support this year. Enjoy a well-earned break!

Drumming Returns…

We’re really pleased to say that new guidelines for the DfE means we will be abe to re-start peripatetic music lessons next term. Initially we will only be re-starting drumming lessons with Laura. If you would like to book your child in for drumming lessons please contact Laura directly on laugrist@hotmail.co.uk . If you are interested in beginning guitar or piano/keyboard lessons with Annie please let us know and we will pass your details on to Annie. At the present time, we are prohibited from offering woodwind, brass or singing lessons.

Youth Club: A message from Louise Leonard….

Atlantic Racquet Centre Summer Activities

Looking for something to keep your child active and entertained during the summer break? Our popular Holiday Tennis & Badminton Camp is a fun-filled 3-day activity week that’s overflowing with great games, serious skills, terrific teamwork, and continuous competition! Whether you are booking them in for a half-day, a full day or all 3 days they’re bound to come home absolutely exhausted and with huge smiles on their faces! We’ve put a number of measures in place to ensure our sessions are safe and Covid-19 secure. To find our more or to book your child’s place visit: https://www.atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk/holidaycamps2020

Thanks to an announcement from the LTA this week advising that groups of up to 15 children are now permitted I’m pleased to confirm that we will be running holiday Tennis & Badminton activity camps at ARC for children aged 7 – 16 years on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer holidays. Prices are as follows:

Half-day: £12.50
Whole Day: £20.00
3 x Half Days: £30.00
3 x Whole Days: £50.00

Tom Vinall, Head Coach ARC.

Stay Safe Online This Summer

Scomis, Our schools’ internet service provider, have just published this handy guide with clickable links for parents. The guide deals with lots of online issues and signposts where you can find more information, as well as publicising online holiday projects:

OLS Newsletter for parents July 2020

Arrangements for September

We have now completed our planning for full opening in September following the latest guidance from Public Health England and the Department for Education.

We are very aware that many of the children who haven’t been in school since March will be very anxious  about returning so before I go into details about how school will work next term, I wanted to reassure all of you that all staff will be very mindful that children will be starting from emotionally very different places, and also that children’s stamina will be lower for many than would ordinarily be the case. We will be putting a lot of personal, social and mental health learning into our curriculum in the early part of the term and will be monitoring how all children settle in very closely.

I am also conscious that below is a very long list of rules which might appear strange, scary, overly controlling and rather inconvenient. However, please remember that all of the rules are there to protect your child and our staff and ensure that, if a case emerges in our community the chances of it being transferred to others is a low as it can be. We are required to operate a zero-tolerance on these items and are not allowed to be flexible on any of the items below:

Basic Details

The DfE have instructed us to increase our existing bubble size from 15 children to a “class size group”. This means that all children in each class will operate as a closed bubble throughout the school day and will not come into contact with children from other classes.

As is the case at the moment, we are required to operate a staggered start and end to the school day, and use both school entrances to minimise overcrowding at drop-off and pick-up times. This means that if you have children in different classes their start and finish times may be slightly different, and they may need to use different entrances to the school. We are still not be permitted to allow parents onto the school site so all children must come into school unaccompanied. We realise that this might be extremely difficult for preschool/reception children and parents but our experience of those that have returned since June 1st gives us confidence that this will be possible and not traumatic!

If parents are dropping children off at school, please remember that only one parent should do this in order to reduce crowding at the school entrances. 2 metre spacing marks are shown outside the school entrances and parents and children must keep to these spaces whilst waiting to come onto site.

We are asking that all children in Year 4 and above come to school without an adult. We will have staff in Hi-Vis on Old Market Drive to supervise crossing of the road, so if you need to drive your child into the village, please drop them on Copper Hill or Auction Way and get them to walk in alone and look for the member of staff to help them across the road. Avoid Old Market Drive if at all possible.

*Sunflowers will continue to offer flexible sessions so pick-up and drop-off in the middle of the school day will continue to be possible.

It is very important that your child arrives in the ten minute window from the drop off time shown above so they don’t get mixed up with other class bubbles. They will go straight to their classroom unless told differently by their teacher.

Playtimes

Playtimes will also be staggered. To enable all groups to have playtimes we will continue to use the school car park as a second playground. Children will always use the same play space and will be the only class using that space at any given time:

If the autumn is kind weather-wise we will also use the school field and this will be segragated so different classes can be out at the same time.

Burscott and Stroxworthy Classes will have an additional afternoon playtime (Sunflowers and Cranford Classes will take playtimes as needed through the day)

Lunchtimes

We will be operating two separate lunchtimes next term. Apart from Ashmansworthy Class, mealtimes will be taken in class.

The first lunch break will run from 11:45 to 12:30 and will be for Sunflowers, Cranford, Burscott and Stroxworthy.

The second lunch break will run from 12:20 to 1:15pm and will be for Alminstone and Ashmansworthy Classes

Each class will have their own dedicated Mealtime Assistant who will be with them throughout the whole break time. The children’s play space will be the same as in the morning breaktime. Ashmansworthy Class will take their meals in the Hall due to the logistical issues with carrying their food up to class in all weathers!

Lunches willl only be bookable via the ScoPay portal. Booking must be completed before midnight before the lunches are required. We will not be able to accept any handwritten notes sent in with your child for lunch orders. the Menu will be available on the Parents Pages on this website in the next few days. School lunches will be available to all children at £2.30 per meal except children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 who can receive funded meals, and those in receipt of Free School Meals.

Personal Kit

Children will not be permitted to bring their own pencil cases in to school so please don’t buy them over the summer break! We have made up a kit bag for every child in the school containing everything they need for their work and they will be the only person to use this equipment.

We will also be asking children not to bring PE Kits into school, only a change of shoes if they aren’t wearing trainers to school (we will permit trainers as school uniform next term to reduce the need to change footwear)

Children will bring home reading books and their reading record book in their book bag. However, they will be the only person in school to handle their reading book and school staff won’t touch them whilst hearing your child read. As we couldn’t collect in book bags when school closed in March, please ensure your child has their book bag on the first day of term.

It is absolutely vital  that your child’s name is clearly visible in their coat, fleece and jumper so if they remove them during the day we know who to return them to. If the item is not named we will need to put the item in quarantine for 72 hours meaning your child could be without warm clothes for several days. Please use either a iron-in label or a laundry marking pen to do this – ball point pens quickly become unreadable and are not suitable for this purpose.

Children may bring packed lunches to school if they wish but the box/bag and all storage items inside must be clearly named. Your child must understand that they must not share their lunch with anyone else under any circumstances.

All children must have a drink bottle containing water. This must be named. We will not be able to supply drinks at lunch time, nor allow children to drink from un-named cups in classes.

Children are encouraged to bring a healthy snack for breaktime but, as with packed lunch, this should be clearly labelled and your child must understand that they must not share their snack with anyone else under any circumstances. The school will not be running Tasty Tuck Shop on Fridays and we are not expecting the NHS Free Fruit Scheme for Infants to run in the Autumn Term.

In line with national policy, children should not wear masks to school. This is because Public Health England does not feel wearing of masks in under-11s is effective or necessary.

Curriculum and Classrooms

As I wrote above, we will be running a very PSHE/Mental Health-heavy curriculum at the beginning of term and will adjust our teaching programmes as school settles back. We will run a full curriculum as much as possible following the ethos of our WILD Curriculum as much as possible. The only curricuulum areas we are not allowed to run are aspects of the music curriculum (woodwind, brass and singing) nor PE activities which either involve physical contact or will lead to children breathing heavily in an enclosed space (for example ball games inside).

Our Forest School programme will resume from the second week of term with Cranford, Stroxworthy and Ashmansworthy Classes having sessions. Please remember to send your child with wellies as we won’t be able to loan out pairs of boots. We will be able to use our own Forest School waterproofs and these will be kept in quarantine for 72 hours after use by any class bubble. forest school days will be:

• Cranford Class: Monday afternoons
• Stroxworthy Class: Wednesday afternoons
• Ashmansworthy Class: Friday afternoons

We still aim to run school trips and visits to suport the curriculum and these are permitted under DfE guidance, but we have some way to go before we can work out how this may be achieved.

Early Years classes (Sunflowers and Cranford) will operate almost as normal with children having free-flow between activities in their bubble and access to a full range of resources to suport their learning, The only thing missing from their curriculum will be singing.

Burscott and Stroxworthy Classes will also look pretty much as normal, but children will not be placed in close face-to-face contact with each other. (Working side by side will be fine). We will make less use of “carpet time” and more teaching will happen at the children’s desks.

Alminstone and Ashmansworthy Classes will be in front-facing rows wherever possible, but this will be flexible depending on the lesson being taught.

Toilets and Hygiene

Other than Sunflowers and Ashmansworthy Classes who have toilets connected to their classrooms, Classes will have designated toilet cubicles and hand wash basins. Teachers will be very flexible in allowing children to visit the toilet during learning time to reduce queues at break times. This means that the school toilets are now gender-neutral (we have taken the boys’ urinal out of use) so your child may come home saying they’ve been in the wrong-gender toilet -please don’t be alarmed by this!

We have hand sanitiser stations at both entrances and everyone coming on to site must use these. Additionally, we have sanitiser and hand soap in all classes and in all toilets and children will be given time to wash hands properly throughout the day.

All classrooms have foot-operated pedal bins for the disposal of tissues and children will be encouraged to practise excellent respiratory hygiene (“Catch it, Bin it, Kill it”)

All hard surfaces around the school will be cleaned multiple times throughout the day by class-based staff and deeper cleaning will take place after school by our cleaning team.

Questions or Worries

If you have any questions about any of the above, or there is something I have not been able to answer so far, please don’ hesitate to email me and ask. I will take some time away from my emails over the summer break, but will get back to you well before the end of the holidays.

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