You can read the government’s operational guidance for schools regarding COVID-19 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/schools-coronavirus-covid-19-operational-guidance
You can read our Coronavirus Blog from lockdown 1 here
https://stapleford.herts.sch.uk/coronavirus-blog/
Wednesday 3rd March 2021
Dear Parents and Carers
RE: COVID-19 Pandemic – 8th March Reopening of Stapleford Primary School
I am delighted to inform you that the school will be reopening to all pupils on Monday 8th March. To do this safely we will be following the School (COVID-19) Operational Guidance published by the Government.
You can read the full document here
I apologise in advance for the length of this letter, but it is important that you are aware of our protective measures.
The following actions will be put in place.
Prevention
You must always:
1) Minimise contact with individuals who are required to self-isolate by ensuring they do not attend the school.
2) Ensure face coverings are used in recommended circumstances.
3) Ensure everyone is advised to clean their hands thoroughly and more often than usual.
4) Ensure good respiratory hygiene for everyone by promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach.
5) Maintain enhanced cleaning, including cleaning frequently touched surfaces often, using standard products such as detergents.
6) Consider how to minimise contact across the site and maintain social distancing wherever possible.
7) Keep occupied spaces well ventilated.
In specific circumstances:
8) Ensure individuals wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) where necessary.
9) Promote and engage in asymptomatic testing, where available.
Response to any infection
You must always:
10) Promote and engage with the NHS Test and Trace process.
11) Manage and report confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) amongst the school community.
12) Contain any outbreak by following local health protection team advice.
Stapleford bubbles:
Drop off and collection of pupils:
Staggered arrival and departure times | ||
Class Bubble | Start time | Pick up time |
Pre-school | 8:45am | 11:45pm |
Class 4 Nursery | 8:50am | 11:45am |
Class 4 Reception | 8:50am | 3:00pm |
Class 3 (Cloakroom entrance) | 8:40am | 2:50pm |
Class 2 (library corridor entrance) | 8:50am | 3:00pm |
Class 1 (library corridor entrance) | 8:40am | 2:50pm |
Breakfast Club and After School Club:
Breakfast Club and After School Club will run from Monday 8th March 2021 and be based in the school hall.
Breakfast club will run from 7:45am – 8:50am (as Class Bubbles open children can leave Breakfast Club)
After School Club will run 3:00pm – 5:00pm and be based in the school hall. Due to staggered finishing times some children attending ASC will stay in their classes until ASC commences at 3pm.
To ensure we cover our staffing costs the prices for Breakfast Club and After School Club have been revised. Since the 3rd September 2020 the costs have been:
*Please note, there is no longer a sibling discount.
Children and staff will be kept in their Class Bubbles for the day but will mix with children from other bubbles if they attend wraparound care.
Tables, chairs, resources etc. will be cleaned with antibacterial spray after each session.
Staff and children attending wraparound will practise social distancing as much as possible.
Regular hand washing will be an expectation.
Tables will be set up so that children are facing away from each other when eating.
Windows will be open to promote good ventilation.
Outdoor activities will be used where possible during wraparound care.
Breakfast Club and After School Club will each have a selection of balls, playground toys etc. that will not be shared with other bubbles.
Playtimes
During playtimes the children from each bubble will be contained within a designated area. The number of staff on duty at playtime has been increased to manage this. Each class will have their own selection of toys/equipment that they do not share with children from outside their own bubble. After playtime/lunchtime all classes will enter the building using different entrances. Everyone will be expected to wash their hands as they come back into school. Each class has been allocated their own sink to use for handwashing.
Lunchtimes
Children will eat lunch in their classroom.
Attendance
The Department for Education have made it clear that school attendance will be mandatory again from Monday 8th March 2021. This means from that point, the usual rules on school attendance will apply, including:
Holidays
Please do not book holidays during term time. After such an extended period of absence I would hate anyone to miss more of their education for something that can be avoided.
Volunteers
With the exception of school governors, no volunteers will be permitted on site until further notice. Governors are permitted on site but they will maintain a 2m social distancing gap from all pupils and staff.
Curriculum
All subjects will be taught from when the children return to school.
Teaching time will be prioritised to address significant gaps in pupils’ knowledge with the aim of returning to the school’s normal curriculum content as soon as possible.
In the case of another lockdown we will provide home learning activities to complete.
For children in nursery settings, teachers will focus on the prime areas of learning, including: communication and language, personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and physical development.
For pupils in Reception Year, teachers will also assess and address gaps in language, early reading and mathematics, particularly ensuring children’s acquisition of phonic knowledge and extending their vocabulary.
For pupils in key stages 1 and 2, teachers will prioritise identifying gaps and re-establish good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics), identifying opportunities across the curriculum so they read widely, and developing their knowledge and vocabulary. The curriculum will remain broad, so that pupils are taught a full range of subjects over the year, including sciences, humanities, the arts, PE/sport, RE etc.
Primary assessment
Following the cancellation of statutory national curriculum assessments due to be held in summer 2021 at key stage 1 and key stage 2, the Department for Education will not publish any national, regional, local or constituency statistics for any primary school assessments for the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
Pupil wellbeing and support
Pupils may be experiencing a variety of emotions in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, such as anxiety, stress or low mood. This may particularly be the case for vulnerable children, including those with a social worker and young carers. It is important to contextualise these feelings as normal responses to an abnormal situation. Some may need support to re-adjust to school; others may have enjoyed being at home and be reluctant to return; a few may be showing signs of more severe anxiety or depression. Others will not be experiencing any challenges and will be keen and ready to return to school.
Year 6 have been signed up for the “Positive Minds” 10-week programme to support their mental health, well-being and transition to Year 7. These one hour sessions will be being delivered outside of the school day to maximise teaching time for all subjects.
Year groups 1-5 will receive extra Philosophy for Children P4C sessions. They will be delivered virtually, using Google Classroom, to support the children’s mental health and well-being. This will provide an excellent opportunity for the children to talk about anything they are worried about. These sessions will be in addition to the normal timetabled P4C sessions. They are being delivered outside of the school day to maximise teaching time for all subjects.
P4C on line for Class 2 + Year 5 and Class 3 alternate Thursdays after school
P4C within school Class 2 and Class 3 will attend on alternate Thursdays.
P4C within school Class 4 will be on Friday morning
P4C within school Class 1 – will be on Wednesdays
All staff will:
Please make the Class teacher and SENCO aware if your child is struggling so that the school can provide more focused pastoral support.
School nursing services are available to support the health and wellbeing of pupils. They offer a range of support including:
Behaviour expectations
When children return to school on Monday 8th March 2021 school rules will be communicated to pupils clearly detailing the consequences for poor behaviour or deliberately breaking the rules. Pupils will be told how the school will enforce those rules including any sanctions. This is particularly the case when considering restrictions on movement within school and new hygiene rules.
Physical activity in schools
Schools are able to work with external coaches. Joe Clemo (PE Coach) has been asked to work extra hours to support the fitness, mental health and wellbeing of our pupils.
Mr Clemo will run a daily mile activity for the children on the days he is on site.
For the remainder of the spring term Mr Clemo will provide a “Post Lockdown Fitness Club” for classes 1, 2 and 3. These sessions will be funded by the school and held on the school field after school.
Pupils will be kept in consistent groups and sports equipment thoroughly cleaned between each use by different individual groups.
Contact sports will be avoided and all PE sessions will be outdoors.
If it is raining the hall will not be used for PE.
Contingency plans for outbreaks
For individuals or groups of self-isolating pupils, remote education plans (home learning planning) will be put in place.
In the event of a local outbreak, the Public Health England (PHE) protection team or local authority may advise a school or number of schools to close temporarily to help control transmission. In this eventuality the school would close but remain open only for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, whilst providing remote education for all other pupils.
Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is another lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, the school will immediately begin to offer remote education.
Day to day
I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for continuing to support your child’s learning at home during this period of closure. I know from personal experience that at times this has been extremely challenging and that both children and parents have their good days and bad in regards to home schooling. Thank you for persevering.
Finally, I would like to wish everyone the very best of health as we exit lockdown three. Hopefully you will all enjoy the respite from home learning. We are all looking forward to seeing the children next week.
Yours faithfully
James Shillito
Headteacher