Dear Parents/Carers 25th February 2021
It was announced on Monday evening that as from the 8th March, school will be fully open again. With the only exception being children who are ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ and are required to still be shielding.
We are very excited to have the majority of the children back in. We will still be adhering to a strict risk assessment which may mean that certain activities are more difficult to facilitate. The decisions on what activities can and can not take place will be based on the need to still limit social contacts and where necessary individual risk assessments may be implemented.
Transport will be provided as per usual from the 8th March. Please be aware that whilst on the school buses we will be unable to socially distance your child due to the number of students who will once again be attending school.
We will be having class bubbles within school, accepting that in the vast majority of classes there will be an inability for students and staff to be able to socially distance. As per before lockdown if someone within your child’s bubble tests positive for Coronavirus then your child will be required to self-isolate for ten days. Similarly, if someone within your child’s bus group tests positive for Coronavirus then the rest of the bus group will also need to self-isolate.
As per the government guidelines we will be continuing with lateral flow testing. The government are providing us with a large number of home testing kits as the expectation is for children and staff to complete the tests at home, as due to being at full capacity we no longer have the ability to test everyone within school. We will send out more information regarding this over the next few days, as soon as we are aware of what the exact procedure is in relation to home testing. We are well aware that for a lot of our students it is unrealistic to collect a swab sample and if you choose to opt out of home testing this is absolutely fine and will not affect whether your child is able to attend school or not.
The government have stated that they believe this may be the last lockdown. As a Headteacher, I sincerely hope so. We want all of our students, including those who are currently shielding, back in school as soon as possible and we want our curriculum offer to be as varied and enriching as we possibly can. We do not want significant interruptions to any of our children’s education as we know how detrimental this can be for their development. This can be academically but also in terms of the loss of routines, the reduced socialisation, decreased opportunities to communicate purposefully, the loss of independence and the adverse effect on our families. These are all things that we will be working hard to develop when your child returns to school alongside a nurturing, caring and supportive curriculum to help your child cope with the loss they may feel after being away from school for so long. As I mentioned in my letter before half term we are hopeful that there is light at the end of this tunnel and that things might slowly be returning to normal. For our children, we sincerely hope so.
We are excited to welcome so many of our students back to school. We have missed each and every one of them as they are all equally unique and special. Roll on the 8th March!!
Yours sincerely
Paul McLean
Headteacher