Inspired by recent events Katy has been busy researching Black Lives Matter and thinking about how this links to us as a Church of England School.   Please see attached which has been unedited and is Katy's thoughts.

Well done Katy! 

Wishing everybody a safe and happy weekend.   It has been lovely to have the Silver bubble children join us this week as well as seeing some of our Reception and Year 4 children.   Thank you to all at home for your continued work to support your children as well as your participation in Zoom calls, we hope children found them beneficial.   Also a thank you to the staff for their support for the Zoom, I know many families have appreciated their child just having a chat and seeing their teachers present and future! 

The CMAT headteachers met today to plan for September and have been pleased that the guidance means that much of what we would want to be able to offer can happen.   Likewise we have taken time today and will continue over the weekend to take stock as to what we think the best support for the children’s return will look like.

I propose to send parents a little prospectus of sorts for the return to school in the final week of the school term.   This will give me an opportunity to inform parents as to arrangements, timings for arrivals and dismissals (and lots of other logistic type arrangements) as well as some information about anything else that might be different for you and your child for what we anticipate will be the Autumn Term at least.

For those wanting some sense of security around before or after school care to aid working plans, the guidance would suggest that this should be open if at all possible.   We will have to do our best to manage this differently.   The government state that provision should be made as safe as possible by:

• Maintaining consistent groupings as far as possible

and/or

• Social distancing pupils

It is likely we will have to try and do a bit of both at times, but it is imperative that we know who is coming and when.   The flexibility for last minute booking may not exist as it may have done in the past.   As such to help me plan groupings etc then I would ask that parents complete the form attached below and return it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. at their earliest convenience and by no later than Wed 15^th July.   Staffing will then be allocated accordingly to groups.

Please enjoy any new freedoms that the lockdown relaxing will bring over the weekend, but do so mindful of your own safety and that of others.

Please see a link below from the AVA Project (focused on keeping people free from harm) below, for reference and for those who might be in need:

https://avaproject.org.uk/resources/?categories=sexual-abuse%2Cchildren-young-people%2Cdomestic-violence#content-anchor

Thank you to all of the Reception and Year 4 pupils who came in today for their class photos (taken individually). It was lovely to see many of you and even nicer to see your faces light up when you saw your friends. Lots of you have really grown!

I am pleased to say that the DFE guidance today has confirmed what a full school return will look like in September.   For us in school, much is already in place with provision to date, some of this will be scaled up and replicated in September just with larger groups, but we are confident that we can work within the wide parameters that have been issued.

All children will be expected at the moment to return to school full time.    It would also appear at first glance that before and after school clubs will be able to run as per the guidance so far. I will share an update as to how this might work when it has been risk assessed.

I will work over the weekend and the start of next week with senior staff on arrangements and logistics and be ready to communicate these to you towards the end of next week, if not earlier.

Finally a big well done to our Year 4 children who collected their Leavers Bibles and awards from school after their photograph.   We are sorry you haven’t had your proper moment to mark your time in church and I hope you will get involved with the photo and video opportunities that have been shared to celebrate your last year with us.   The Year 4 staff and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!

It is apt that today was for YR and Y4 pupils, as many of the Y4 parents will testify the first days at St Nicholas feel like only yesterday and now their children are at the point of transition.   It was lovely that a small group who started school together, replicated their first day of school photo today as a group and I thought I would share.  

Thanks all for a lovely day.

 

Darren from Bradsports has confirmed that they missed the second page of names when printing the hoodies for the Year 4 children and as such 11 names were omitted.   He will be contacting all the parents to return the hoodies and print new ones.  He has apologised and said it was a genuine mistake - sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you to Mr Gough for organising this.

Hoodies 

We understand that some Year 4 families are disappointed that their child’s name is not on their leavers’ hoodies. Last night, the permission form that parents had completed was cross-referenced with the list of children sent to Bradsports with permission for names to be printed and we can confirm that this was accurate. 57 or so parents had given permission for their child’s name to be printed. Please bear with us, as we contact Bradsports at some point today whilst also managing the school photographs and awards etc.

In most recent years school has not arranged hoodies and this has been the domain of parents, mainly due to the issue around data.   As you can imagine we have to be very careful in allowing the printing of children's names etc.  This is usually a long winded process and so is best organised between parents themselves.   

This year Mr Gough, Mrs Swan and Mrs Brady were keen to coordinate this however through school as they felt that this was very difficult for parents to coordinate without the school given that we were in lockdown and that the children were not in school.    Staff did not want the children to miss as many of the normal end of term rites of passage as possible.

As with all other communications currently, we are managing many aspects of school life virtually but please be rest assured that those parents that did give permission, this has been accurately recorded and this information had been provided to Bradsports.   Thank you to Year 4 staff for organising this.   

 

Photos today 

As soon as the photographer arrives at school and assesses the light, then we will text all parents and tell them which entrance to use to come into school.   We look forward to seeing everyone who is able to come along.

Please see a photo update from Miss Griffths regarding the frogs; they have now been released into the pond!

Once the photographer has chosen the space he will use for photographs, we will text parents to let them know, which gate they will need to use to enter and exit the site. We aim to inform you about this around 9am, once the photographer has arrived on site and made the decision. 

For Reception and Year 4 Families, who are not able to attend tomorrow

 

In the attachments, please see alternative provision we have arranged for those who cannot attend for their photograph tomorrow, with the opportunity to send one for the photographer to use. The school and photographer cannot take responsibility for the quality of the photos that parents send in, whose children are not able to attend.

Please see here for information for parents from DFE about children attending out of school settings during the coronavirus.

Please see here for a video about Covid-19 for little ones.   Many may have already seen it, but we wanted to share for anyone who has not.

Just a final reminder that tomorrow we have our photographs for Reception and Year 4. You should have received a text telling you which group your child has been allocated to and the corresponding time slot (please see the original attached letters). If you have not had confirmation of your child's group, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you haven't yet already, please confirm whether your child is attending or not, and if they are having their photograph done, whether you give permission for their photo be shared on the group photograph.

Reception: To confirm attendance and give permission, please click here

 

 Year 4: To confirm attendance and give permission, please click here

Throughout the pandemic we have heard from parents who were previously not eligible for their child to receive free school meals who now are.    We anticipate that this could be an increasing number of new families over the remainder of the year as the economy is hit by the after effects of the lockdown and new restrictions that limit trading capacity.  As such I will share again the procedure for registering your eligibility to claim this which provides your child with free lunch in school, parents access to 6 weeks holiday food vouchers and in the future additional income for the school to support learning.   If any parents are unsure or need help with this then please do contact the school office  01902842998  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. who will be happy to help and advise you.

The information and eligibility checker that you need can be found here.

DfE has published a summary of attendance in schools and colleges since Monday 23 March and early years settings since Thursday 16 April. Some of the headlines are:

 

• Approximately 15.6% of pupils (1,483,000) were attending schools and colleges on 25 June, up from 12.2% on 18 June.
• Over 95% of state-funded primary and secondary schools were open in some capacity.
• Attendance was highest in year 6, with approximately 41% of all year 6 children in attendance on 25 June, up from 34% on 18 June. Attendance was around 34% in year 1, up from 26%, and 36% in reception, up from 29%.
• Approximately 74% of secondary schools, excluding FE colleges and special post-16 institutions, were open to year 10 and/or year 12 on 25 June, up from 60% on 18 June.
• Approximately 13% of year 10 and year 12 students were in attendance on 25 June, excluding students in further education colleges and special post-16 institutions, up from 10% of year 10 and year 12 students in attendance on 18 June.

We anticipate that attendance at school will be a legal expectation again from September.  It is expected that the DFE guidance around Sepetmeber opening will be published tomorrow/Friday.  As soon as that is communicated we will update any plans and arrangements and inform parents as to the plan for the full return.