Good Morning Everyone
We are so pleased and excited to welcome all our pupils back to school tomorrow and we are looking forward to starting our teaching and learning back at school again.
Tomorrow, we welcome back all our pupils in both Primary and Secondary but as I’m sure you are aware there will be some changes specifically for our Secondary pupils. Minibuses and taxis will be picking up pupils at their normal time tomorrow. We sent letters home and posted the information on the website last week but we would just like to give you a reminder and an update about what is going to happen.
Government advice is that pupils in Secondary age groups should wear masks at all times and we will be encouraging pupils to so, even in the classroom. We fully understand that for some of our pupils this could be very difficult and there will no pressure or sanction should pupils refuse to wear masks, we will be merely encouraging this at all times.
Testing- Secondary pupils will continue to have two tests in school this week and a big thank you to those who came in last week to be tested. Again, the testing is not compulsory but we would like to encourage pupils to test and if you have not already done so can you please send in the consent form for your child. If pupils refuse to test, again, there will be no pressure to do so. Unless there is a positive test we will not get in touch with you directly to infom you of the result.
Home testing kits will hopefully be sent home this week once we receive them, this is so pupils can test twice at home starting from next week,the 15th March. If your child tests positive it is vital that they remain at home and follow public health advice about isolating. Staff will also be testing at home twice a week and will follow the same procedures in terms of informing school and isolating. We have also published the updated risk assessment on the school website and the risk assessment for the testing regime. We will be reinforcing the 12 steps of systems of control in school with our pupils on Monday morning which can be found in this document as well as further information about the testing.
Schools coronavirus (COVID-19) operational guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Monday will be all about supporting pupils back into school, seeing their friends, catching up, seeing all the staff and reminding them of the systems of control that exist. We will be taking part in fun activities and celebrating World Book Day. However, having pupils back into school in school uniform should also help to ‘get back to normal’ so for this year no costumes please. We will also be holding an Easter Egg decorating competition with some prizes which have been very kindly donated by the PTA. If pupils have a particular idea in mind they are allowed to bring in extra materials to decorate their eggs, we will be providing the hard-boiled eggs.
Please remind pupils to bring in their work packs tomorrow as staff will be able to build a better picture of where the pupils are in termes of their education if they can see the tasks that pupils have completed. All the returned work will be marked and feedback provided to pupils as well staff using the work to update individual pupil’s Progression levels.
Lastly, a huge thank you to all the support and encouragement school has received over the last two months. As a staff team we have really appreciated the feedback and comments and hopefully when questions, suggestions or queries have been made we have been able to answer them to support both you and your children with either their education or their welfare. Staff have worked incredibly hard to learn new skills, support pupils in school or at home with remote learning as well as manage their own anxieities and worries, home educate their children and continue to offer support and encouragement to each other. We are all really excited to see the pupils tomorrow and are hoping we can have the next three weeks until Easter with no more breaks in education or attendance at Croft.
