Reasons to be cheerful
Hello everyone, I hope you all had a relaxing half term break. Here we are in Lockdown 2 - it is different this time, as school is remaining fully open - but lots of rules are now in place. I will discuss Covid a little bit later in my blog, but first, reasons to be cheerful….
The first thing to be extremely cheerful about is the children. They have come back from half term, with renewed vigour and have settled in beautifully back into the routine of the school. They are producing some excellent work, and I know many of you were pleased to hear positive reports during the Parent Phone Consultations just before half term. I know it is frustrating not being able to chat to the class teacher regularly, as normal, but if you do want to speak to the teacher, then just send me a quick email and I will get them to contact you.
We have a number of exciting things happening in school over the next couple of weeks.
Wednesday 11th November - We will be holding a socially distanced, bubble friendly Remembrance Service at school. We will be holding a two minutes silence at 11am. Poppies are on sale at the school office. No need to speak to the office staff, they are on display in the foyer!
Friday 13th November - Winshill Village will be participating in Children in Need. The children can dress up, on Friday 13th, in rainbow colours, for a donation of 50p. The children will then be taking part in activities within their bubbles, including a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
Week beginning 16th November is Anti-Bullying week. The children will be spending some of the week finding out how to keep safe online and how to respond, if they come across something that upsets them on the Internet.
As Christmas Concerts can’t happen in the usual way, we will be putting on our thinking hats to devise ways that we can celebrate Christmas altogether. We want to involve the children in our decision making, so I am hoping to announce our plans in the next couple of weeks.
Healthy Snacks
A gentle reminder that we encourage healthy snacks and meals in school. Sweets should not be brought into school at all (not even in lunchboxes). For snack, cakes and crisps are discouraged, and we prefer the children to have a piece of fruit or cereal bar. Thanks for your support in this matter.
Flu Immunisations
On Tuesday 10th November, children from Reception to Year 6 will be able to receive their flu immunisations in school. This is not an injection, but a nasal spray. If you wish your child to have the flu immunisation then please fill in the permission form. The link for the permission form can be found here. It is quite a lengthy form, so please bear with it. Any problems, please let school know.
School Uniform
As many of you will know, Clothing 4 went into administration just before half term. I am delighted to inform you that we have a new school uniform provider.
‘My Uniform’ is based at 82 Wellington Street, Burton, DE14 2DS, but for the next four weeks (during lockdown) orders for uniform should be completed online via their website: www.myuniformltd.co.uk; email sales@myuniformltd.co.uk or their phone number 01283 619224. You can download their leaflet here.
And now … Covid!
I don’t want to spend too much time in this blog, dwelling on Covid, as this is a positive post. However, as we are now back in lockdown, I want to clarify a few rules/expectations. These are the rules as they currently stand (they may change in the future), these are the government rules that all schools have to follow. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, regarding the following.
1) School is fully open and attendance is mandatory. I fully appreciate that this is a stressful time, but there have been no positive cases in school (staff or children) and school is the best place for the children both academically and socially. Primary school children are less likely to catch Covid and with less severity than any other age group. However, we still must take precautions, as children can pass the infection on. If your child is “extremely, critically vulnerable”, you will receive a letter from your GP, saying that they should not attend school, if you receive such a letter, please share it with school. According to the guidance, if the child lives with someone who is “extremely, critically vulnerable” they should still attend school.
2) Children should not be mixing outside or in other people’s houses outside of school. (I know it is tempting to think that ‘they are mixing in school, so they will be ok’). The logic behind this rule is that the children are limited to who they mix with in school (their bubble!) and by not mixing outside, they are reducing the amount of contacts they have and therefore reducing the risk of transmission. I would strongly advise adults to limit mixing with other households, whilst on the playground, you should not be mixing with other households according to the lockdown regulations.
3) Informal Childcare arrangements can still happen. So if grandparents or other family members collect the children on a regular basis, then this can still happen. Apart from these arrangements, different households should not collect the children.
4) If you are contacted by "Test and Trace” or display symptoms of Covid 19 - you must self-isolate. This means that you have to stay in your home completely. Please inform school if you are self-isolating and we will ensure that your child has work to do. If your child receives Free School Meals then you will also be eligible for a food hamper, whilst you are isolating.
5) School has a responsibility to report anyone who is not following the rules. Please note that the government has introduced fines (£1000+) for people who break their self isolation. If a member of staff becomes aware that parents/children are not adhering to the rules, then they have duty of care to report them to the local authorities. We will contact you first, in case their is a justifiable reason behind the rule break. Please do not be angry at school if they do make a report, we are just following the guidance, to try and keep us all safe.
More information about the lockdown rules can be found here.
The title of this blog is “Reasons to be Cheerful” and I started off by talking about the children, I am going to end by talking about the staff and the Winshill Community. In these scary and uncertain times, the staff at Winshill Village continue to prioritise your child’s education and well being, despite their own worries and concerns, they ensure that your children are happy and secure in school. I am very cheerful that I have such an amazing staff, and you should be too!
The support of all of the community has been phenomenal. From the positive feedback, to all of you adhering to the collection rules, I am cheerful that I work in such a close knit community. I know that this will end. I know that we will continue to support each other through this difficult time. I know that we will continue to be positive and that we come out of this stronger and closer. If that is not a reason to be cheerful, I don’t know what is.
Stay safe everyone.
Miss Goodson