How we will reopen our school safely

This page lets you know how our school is organised so that we can continue to bring all children to school safely.    We hope you find the information useful, you can also find the information in letter form on our Newsletters page. If you have any other questions, please just ask us.

Full return to school from 8^th March 2021

The Government have now provided schools with ‘operational guidance’ to plan for a full return to school next week. All children will be expected to return but with a system of controls (safety measures) continuing to be in place in school. Although the measures we will have in place are similar to those of the autumn term, please take the time to remind yourselves of that information.

All of the arrangements set out in this letter will be reviewed regularly on our return but will most likely remain in place until at least May half-term and some beyond this, although we will let you know as things change, including if we can ease some measures sooner.

This virus has not yet gone away, and we want to continue to maintain the safe environment we established in the autumn term.

Timings of the school day

DROP OFF

• Staggered timings will remain in place to minimise the number of parents and children accessing the site, through the gate, at the same time.
• This will also minimise the number of children together in the porch areas.
• Start times are by surname to make dropping of siblings much easier. Please keep to these times.

• Only 1 adult should accompany the children being brought to school.
• Care will need to be taken at the gate area; social distancing notices are on display as a reminder. Please try not to cross the marker line.
• Parents will not be allowed to enter the building without a pre-arranged appointment and contact should be made by telephone or email.
• Children in Classes 1 & 2 will be directed through the car park to the main entrance and adult supervision will be in place, including C1 staff to gather younger children.
• Nursery children returning to Hazel Dene should enter via the yard entrance as previously.
• Classes 3, 4 & 5 will enter school as normal, across the yard, and they will be expected to socially distance throughout, including in school.
• Please DO NOT approach members of staff unless you are wearing a face covering. This includes passing messages to Mrs Fletcher / other greeters on a morning, and at pick up. Please continue to keep a safe distance – staff will move away from you if you are too close – please don’t be offended by this. In the event of staff becoming ill or needing to isolate, this will affect the attendance of your children.
• If you need to share information, Mrs Medcalf will pass on any messages if you contact school by telephone. Teachers will call you to pass on any information you may need.

PICK UP

• Pick up is a time when the greatest congestion of the school site occurs. Rather than alter the timings further, we recommend that all adults wear a face covering during this short period.
• A social distancing area has been marked between two lines at the end of the Nursery garden fence. Please use the markings as a waiting guide when picking up, and please do not cross the second marker line. Only C1 & C2 parents/carers should use this area.
• We expect parents to take responsibility for their own social distancing actions when dropping off and picking up – 2m is still recommended.
• Short staggered timings will remain in place to minimise the crowd, however this will be helped further by families leaving the site immediately after collecting their children, rather than waiting for, or chatting to, others.

• Year 5 and 6 may come to school/go home themselves with parental consent (please return the consent form), but they must also practice social distancing.

During the day

• Social distancing will be maintained whenever possible (in class, in corridors and outside) and children will be expected to respect the personal space of others.
• Our classrooms will be arranged so that children are not facing each other, and desks will be as far apart as possible, depending on the number of children in each room. Any group rooms used will be cleaned after use.
• Break times and lunchtimes will be staggered to reduce the numbers of children moving around the corridors at the same time.
• Outdoors, each group will be allocated an area in which to play/learn, so they aren’t mixing with others. Childcare/Nursery & Reception will use their own outdoor areas.
• Handwashing/sanitising will be a regular requirement during the day – and will be a minimum of on entry, before and after each break time and before and after lunch.
• Lunch for C2-C5 will be eaten in the classrooms (this will be reviewed at Easter), C1 will use the hall. Taylor Shaw’s 3-week menu will be used, and children will choose their lunches at the beginning of each week. Usual FSM/ParentPay arrangements apply for Years 3-6; Infant free school meals apply to Reception and Years 1 & 2; Nursery/Childcare continue to pay Mrs Garside.

Clothing / Equipment

• Children should return to school in full uniform. Coats should be brought – break times will be outdoors and the weather is not yet settled!
• Wellies should be returned to school – C1 & 2 have their own storage areas, C3-5 will use the welly sheds.
• Every child MUST bring their own filled water bottle – this will be sent home daily for cleaning and returning. Water bottles will be kept in class on children’s desks. Cups will not be provided.
• There should be no jewellery worn and all hair long enough to be tied up, should be.
• Small bags may be brought to school to carry reading books and homework – these will be stored in the porch areas for C1 & 2, and in lockers for C3-5; coats will be kept in classrooms. Nothing else should be brought into school – everything needed for learning will be provided.
• PE Kits: to minimise disruption due to changing, the whole school will have PE on a Thursday afternoon – children should come to school in their PE kit for the day. Where a class is doing Forest Schools, you will be notified.
• It is not recommended that children wear face coverings in school, however, if your child wears a face covering for their journey, this MUST BE REMOVED before they enter the building and their hands washed/sanitised immediately.

Behaviour / Learning

• Our children normally behave well – we expect this to continue on their return.
• Our Behaviour policy remains in place but children will be reminded that the ‘Right to be safe’ continues to take priority over all others – a Charter has been developed for this.
• In addition to normal sanctions, for any child found to be spitting, deliberately sneezing or deliberately breaking social distancing rules whilst in the school, we will contact parents and expect the child to be taken home. This behaviour will not be tolerated, for the safety of everyone.
• We expect to return to teaching a full timetable of all curriculum subjects. Initial assessments will take place so that teachers can assess gaps and plan learning accordingly.
• We will let you know about interventions and other support programs in due course.
• Where children are asked to isolate as part of their household, or class, we will return to emailing Remote Learning Grids so that they can carry on their learning alongside their class.

Any learning/work completed during lockdown can be returned to school on 8^th March.

The work will be stored for a quarantine period and teachers will check and discuss with children afterwards.

It is understandable that your child may be anxious or worried about what they have missed. The most important thing is that they return to school and that we focus on attendance and on our usual routines. The Government has provided some money for us to support children in a range of ways, but we will spend our time over the next few months (and years) targeting this support in the right way. The current buzz-words are “lost learning” and “catch-up”, but these will mean different things for every single child in our school. With good quality teaching and support, children will do well.

Parents / Communication

Unfortunately, the operational guidance continues to restrict any ‘audience’ events or gatherings such as Family Fridays and Assemblies. At the present time we will not be planning any events with visitors for the foreseeable future, and any decisions about this will be dependent on government guidance beyond June. We still plan to have some fun events with the children, and we’ll make sure you can see this via Twitter.

Communication with parents will primarily be by text message, where reminders are needed, or letters by email, as we have managed to do during the lockdown period. Please ensure you have activated your ParentPay account for each child and ensure your email addresses and mobile numbers are correct.

Health & Safety / Risk Assessment

No school can guarantee the complete safety of the children and adults, increased pupil numbers brings increased risk and we are doing all we can to adhere to guidance which states that groups should be as consistent as possible, and should rarely mix, if at all.

With this in mind, our ‘groups’ will be based around classes, and all activities will be done together, or with children from the same groups. Only some members of staff will move between groups. This will mean that if symptoms of Covid-19 are identified, only a small number of children will need to be sent home.

Initially, there will be no breakfast club or after-school provision in school as this would mean children and staff mixing from across all groups. This will be reviewed once we have returned to school, and government guidance / restrictions are updated. Where we feel we can introduce this provision, we will.

A comprehensive, full return to school risk assessment has been carried out but is a working document and will be updated or amended depending on how our systems work, and if new guidance is provided. It has been completed with the support of the Local Authority, but no-one in school is a scientist or virologist and so the best effort has been made to keep the safety of everyone at the forefront of planning. The controls in place within the risk assessment include, but are not limited to, the advice and guidance we have provided above.

Coronavirus symptoms at home or in school

Pupils, staff and other adults must not come into the school if:

• they have one or more coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms
• a member of their household (including someone in their support bubble or childcare bubble if they have one) has coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms
• they are required to quarantine having recently visited countries outside the Common Travel Area
• they have had a positive test

They must immediately cease to attend and not attend for at least 10 days from the day after:

• the start of their symptoms
• the test date if they did not have any symptoms but have had a positive test

If anyone in school develops a new and continuous cough or a high temperature, or has a loss of, or change in, their normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia), we must:

• send them home to begin isolation – the isolation period includes the day the symptoms started and the next 10 full days (siblings will also be sent home)
• advise them to follow the guidance for households with possible or confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection
• advise them to arrange to have a test as soon as possible to see if they have coronavirus (COVID-19)