New Covid-19 Procedures for September

We hope that you are all keeping safe and well.

You will know that the long awaited government guidance for the full reopening of schools in September was published on Thursday 2nd July. We have added the link below if you would like to read it – if you do, you’ll need to set aside quite a bit of time as we discovered over the weekend when we tried to unpick it and make sense of it all!

We appreciate that some of you may be concerned about your child returning to school in September, especially if your child has not attended school during lockdown. We appreciate your worries and doubts, but we hope that you will be reassured by knowing that we have put in place so many safety measures during lockdown. The children who have been able to return to school have really enjoyed it and we have been both pleased and proud of how well our children have adapted to the new “normal” of school during the pandemic. 

To prepare for and to ensure the full reopening of school in September, we would like to highlight the following aspect of the guidance that we will all be following and request your full support and co-operation to follow, too: 

Key Extract from the Guidance:

“Schools must comply with health and safety law, which requires them to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures. Schools should thoroughly review their health and safety risk assessments and draw up plans for the autumn term that address the risks identified using the system of controls set out below. These are an adapted form of the system of protective measures that will be familiar from the summer term. Essential measures include:

  • a requirement that people who are ill stay at home – if Covid symptoms then a test will be required

  • robust hand and respiratory hygiene

  • enhanced cleaning arrangements

  • active engagement with NHS Test and Trace

  • formal consideration of how to reduce contacts and maximise distancing between those in school wherever possible and minimise potential for contamination so far as is reasonably practicable

How contacts are reduced will depend on the school’s circumstances and will (as much as possible) include:

  • grouping children together

  • avoiding contact between groups

  • arranging classrooms with forward facing desks

  • staff maintaining distance from pupils and other staff as much as possible

We are working hard to finalise our risk assessments and action plans, but have come up with our initial thoughts to share with you.  These outline the principles that we are planning to adopt to ensure we can open fully in September under the guiding principle of:

‘Teaching a full and balanced curriculum in a safe environment for all; ensuring gaps in learning are quickly diagnosed and dealt with.’

Furthermore, we have decided that any changes to the norm (how Winshill Village Primary and Nursery School operates day to day) will be time limited to the autumn term in the first instance. Here are some of our ‘big principle’ thoughts for September, but more detail will follow if necessary:

  • The children will be kept in phase bubbles, as far as possible.

  • We will limit the number of contacts that the  children have with adults, keeping the same staff within that bubble.

  • Nursery children will leave their parent and carer at the main nursery door, following social distancing measures of 2m. Please follow the arrows on the ground.

  • ALL other children including new Reception children will enter via the Year 2 door (where I stand in the morning)

  • Only one adult will be allowed to and maintain a 2m distance between others adults and be punctual.

  • Doors will be open between 8:40 and 9:00 in the morning, please be aware of other children and parents and stagger your approach to the doors. It would be helpful, if possible, if you let your child walk up the ramp by themselves.  I understand that this might not be possible for our youngest children.

  • At the end of the day, you will be able to collect Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 from 3:10pm.  If they have older siblings, you will be able to collect them from 3:15pm. Key Stage 2 will be dismissed from 3:20pm.  Nursery children will be able to be collected from 3:20pm.  Children will exit from their normal year group doors. 

  • All children are expected to attend school as normal and we will be duty bound to follow attendance protocol from the DfE. The DfE has stated that fines will be reinstated for non-attendees in the autumn term.

  • There will be hand sanitizer available throughout the school. We will continue to follow our frequent handwashing systems throughout the day, including hand washing on arrival at school and before leaving. There is an expectation that all children wash  their hands just before they leave home to come to school and on their return home.

  • The enhanced and more regular cleaning of  ‘frequently touched surfaces’ and toilets will be continued.

  • Face masks / coverings will not be worn in  school; any children who arrive at school wearing one, parents and carers will need to remove face masks / coverings before entering school (this is clearly stated in the DfE guidance)

  • We will expect full uniform to be worn in September. Please ensure that your child is wearing sensible shoes that  they can run and play outside in and please avoid shoes with laces, if  your child can not tie their own laces as staff will not be able to help  the children to tie laces or unbuckle shoes.

  • The  school kitchen will provide hot meals and sandwich bags from Thursday 3rd September.  A menu will be sent out to you next week and will be uploaded onto the website. Nursery full-time children will need to bring their own packed lunch.

  • All children should bring a bottle containing water every day.

  • The children should only bring a water bottle,  coat, packed lunch (if applicable) and book bag. Any key rings etc. should be removed from the book bags and ideally the book bag will be a school book bag as these fit neatly in the children’s trays.

  • The infant children will be given a tray of equipment that they will keep with them at their desks. No equipment should be brought in from home.

  • There will be no visitors allowed in school  without a prior booked appointment. Communication with parents will be through email, telephone conversations and the school website in the first instance.

  • Please note that parents will not be able to accompany their children into the school building, this includes Nursery and Reception children.

  • We will follow all regulations around what to do in the event a child or member of  staff becomes ill with Covid-19 symptoms and or we have a confirmed positive Covid-19 test result. These regulations are detailed in the DfE  document linked to at the top of this post.

We think that is enough for now; there is still much to do and details to finalise, but we wanted to give you a ‘flavour’ of how we are forming our plans as we approach the end of what has been a very long term!

We would like to thank you once again for all of the work that you have been doing with your children and for all of the lovely messages of support and encouragement that you have given to all of us at Winshill Village Primary and Nursery School.

Stay safe!

Miss Goodson