The children all looked very impressive this morning - I can tell that they had all taken extra care with their appearance in preparation for their photographs. It all went very smoothly and hopefully when we see the results all the effort will have been worthwhile. They could only do individual photographs in school this year because of the pandemic.

It has been another week where Covid 19 has dominated the headlines – I do not think I can remember a time when it was not in the news –I now look longingly back on the days when Brexit dominated the headlines. The good news that came from all the announcements is that schools are going to carry on as they are which makes all of us in Little Heath very happy. I would like to remind parents though that they do need to socially distance whilst they are waiting to pick up their children. I have had some people contact me to tell me that they are concerned about groups of adults talking together whilst waiting for their children to come out. All parents should try to come as near to the collection time for their child as possible and then leave as soon as they have picked up their child. I would also like to remind parents not to park their cars in School Road during this time. We need the road as empty as possible to allow parents to socially distance. Unfortunately, the staff carpark is next to the school so staff will need to use the road but that is all. I hope we can all follow this guidance because if we all do our part we will be able to keep the spread of the infection down to a minimum.

Next week we are starting to serve hot meals in school again. I know a lot of the children are very happy about this and the kitchen staff are also happy to be making something other than packed lunches. The majority of the children will still be eating their lunches in the classroom but, as with all our procedures, we will be reviewing it to see if we need to make any adjustments.

That is all for now. I know the temperature has dropped and we have had some rain but it does look like we will have some sunshine over the weekend. Remember to all keep yourselves safe and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning.

 

The weather this week has been great and it does make me feel like it is summer and not the beginning of autumn. As I mentioned last week this has made it particularly good for the Year 6 who have been doing their cycling proficiency this week. It was lovely having this activity in school because it gave me a reminder of how school used to be with lots of extra activities and sports taking place –let us hope that we can return to those again in the not-too-distant future.

As with everywhere, we cannot avoid the Covid conversation because it is dominating our lives at the moment (much as I wish it was not). You may have heard that there are some members of the school community who are or who have been self-isolating at home due to possible symptoms of the coronavirus (COVID-19). As you will be aware, many of the symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19 (cough, high temperature), are common in children and can occur in a variety of infections.  Therefore, as advised by Public Health England we will only ask a whole class to self-isolate at home if a child or staff member of their class has had a positive test confirming COVID-19 and we have had none of those in Little Heath so far. If this is the case, we will be informing parents of children within the class at the earliest opportunity, and will be advising them to self-isolate at home for 14 days.  The rest of the household of the contacts will not need to self-isolate, unless a member of their household is displaying symptoms (or has had a positive test result with or without symptoms). Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings .

As always, any child or staff member who has any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 needs to: inform the school; arrange a test via www.nhs.uk/coronavirus and self-isolate at home whilst awaiting the results.  Symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 are a new continuous cough and/or high temperature and/or a loss of, or change in, normal sense of taste or smell. If you are unsure if the symptoms are Covid-related please contact 111 for guidance. I know there has been a massive backlog with the tests and we have had people complain to us about the wait which means that children cannot be in school. However, if a child needs to isolate for any reason the school will provide home learning for them so that their education does not get too disrupted.

Next week in school we have the photographer coming in on Friday to take individual pictures of the children so you may want to take extra care with their appearance on that day. Have a good weekend – the weather looks set to last so we should enjoy it while we can.

 

As always, even though we have only been back a week, it feels as though we have never been away. That is especially strange since we have not all been together since March –it is amazing how quickly you can get used to a routine even when it is a new one.

The children all appear happy in school - it is lovely to see them all on the playground at lunchtime running around and playing with all their friends – we certainly hope that we do not have to take that away from them in the coming months. In class they are all getting used to the workings of school although I do think that a couple of them are finding some of the conditions of school learning difficult to get used to again. We were expecting this and we know they will get used to school life again but if your child is feeling a little anxious please reassure them that this is perfectly normal and they will soon get used to school routines again. If you find that these feelings persist after a couple of weeks, please speak to their class teacher. Remember that if you need to speak to any member of the school staff that you must contact them by either email or telephone as parents are not allowed on site at the moment.

I know we have made a few changes to the beginning and end of the school day in how parents drop off and pick up their children and we are all getting used to new routines but I am surprised that some parents are still trying to drive up to the school entrance to drop off and pick up their children. We have always actively discouraged this practice as it makes it an unsafe environment for the parents and children but I am especially surprised that people are still doing it now when due to social distancing parents and children are having to use the road. Although I have no legal right to stop this I think it is our moral duty to unite together during these challenging times to keep everyone as safe as possible. I hope I do not see people driving down School Road from next week to drop off and pick up their children.

May I also remind parents that children from Nursery to Year 4 must be collected from the teacher by an adult and they will not be allowed to walk across to where their parents are parked. Can I also ask that if you want your child picked up by an adult other than yourself that you inform the class teacher or school office. Without this permission, children will not be allowed to go home with that adult.

Looking forward to next week we have the Year 6 taking part in cycling proficiency which is great so please take care on Monday as there will be more children coming to school on bikes. The forecast also looks very good for next week so they could not have picked a better week to do their cycling proficiency in. Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

It has been really great welcoming everyone back this week. I know all the staff have been very excited about returning and I hope the children and yourselves have felt the same. I am sure that some of the you were feeling a little anxious about the children coming back but let me reassure you all that from our perspective all of the children have appeared very happy and glad to be back which makes us really happy. As I mentioned in one of my previous letters we did say that we would review all of the strategies that we have put in place to help make the school a safer place during Covid and we have decided to change one strategy already. We introduced staggered starts and ends to the day to try and help manage the flow of parents to make it easier for social distancing but this has not happened as we expected – if anything I think there were more parents waiting outside than there have ever been. Therefore, from Monday 7th September we are going to go back to the regular way which was explained to you in a letter sent out today. I am sorry if any inconvenience has been caused but there may be a few other things that we have to change to ensure that things run as safely as they can for the children and we thank you for your patience during these unusual times. I was pleased to see the children returning to school looking very smart in their uniforms. However, we have had one or two children not wearing the appropriate footwear. We do ask children to wear formal, waterproof black shoes which are not sneakers or canvas – can you please ensure that they do have the correct footwear in school. That is all for now. We are having a themed week in school next week based around ‘Chemin a Papeete’ by Gaugin and I am sure that the children will be telling you all about it. Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning – it is great to be actually able to write that again.