Information on school arrangements for September, including how school will be organised, and what pupils should bring.

Things you need to know for September

See below for information on:

• Attendance
• Grouping
• Preventing viral transmission
• The curriculum
• Wild Wood Club
• PPE
• Staggered start and end of the day
• School lunches
• Anxiety in children 
• School uniform
• Home learning
• Contingency plan
• What they should bring to school
• Building relationships
• Visitors to school

Attendance

The Government has made it clear that school attendance will become compulsory again, and that they expect every child to return to school.  Exceptions to this would be for pupils who are shielding due to medical conditions.

Grouping

Pupils will be in their class ‘groups’ and staffing will be pretty much back to normal. There is a shift in focus now from small bubbles’ (which has enabled pupils to social distance) to class size ‘groups’ where possible.  Consistent groups reduce the risk of transmission by limiting the number of pupils and staff in contact with each other to only those within the group. 

Where we can social distance we will, but when we can't, the important thing is that we keep different 'groups' as separate as possible.  In order to keep groups separate we will need to run a timetable with different breaks and lunchtimes for different class groups.  Groups will not be allowed to mix in the playground, lunch hall, for assemblies etc.   We plan to continue running assemblies through zoom, in order to bring classes together.

We will continue to be guided by the Government and Local Authority on the size of groups and will seek to make groups larger as soon as we are told that it is safe to do so. 

Preventing viral transmission

Preventative measures will be key. Much of the good practice that we already have running in school, will need to continue such as:

• Pupils, staff and other adults will not be able to come into the school if they have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, or have tested positive in the last 7 days
• Anyone developing those symptoms during the school day will sent home
• We will need staff, pupils and families to actively engage with NHS Test and Trace
• Where we have people displaying symptoms we will look at what essential actions we can take to further reduce the risk of transmission
• Cleaning needs to continue to be of a high standard and done regularly
• We will support children to maintain robust hand and respiratory hygiene with a focus on handwashing for 20 seconds and  ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ with coughs and sneezing
• Classrooms will need to be organised to minimise the movement of pupils and staff. This may mean that we have fewer group tables and more pupils sitting in rows facing the front of the classroom
• Staff will need to continue to maintain distance from pupils, and other staff, as much as possible
• Parents, carers and other visitors will not be able to come into school unless absolutely essential and pre-arranged

The curriculum

The guidance states that we should work to offer 'a full curriculum' by the summer of 2021 In the short term, there will be a focus on assessing pupils learning and where there are gaps in learning, and supporting pupils to catch up. 

It looks likely that we will be able to have PPA lessons running as normal with specialist staff teaching pupils subject such as music and French, but with pupils remaining in their normal classrooms.

 Wild Wood Club

The government guidance accepts that if we do run wrap-around care pupils will be moving into a different ‘group’ for that part of the day.  We are planning a gradual re-opening of Wild Wood Club, and to start with, the club will only run in the afternoon.  If you are interested in a place for next year, and have not already contacted our manager Anna to find out more, please email her on WWCbookings@spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk

Personal, protective equipment

Pupils will not be allowed to wear face coverings in school. Public Health England does not recommend the use of face coverings in schools (based on current evidence). They are not required as pupils and staff are mixing in consistent groups, and because misuse may inadvertently increase the risk of transmission.

The use of PPE will remain the same as it is currently – for first aid and cleaning.

Staggered start and end of the day

The guidance states that if we can, we should continue to have pupils arriving and leaving schools at different times.

Below are the drop off and pick up times for classes. Children will need to be dropped at the school gates and parents / carers will not be allowed within the school grounds. Drop off and pick up times are therefore staggered to maintain social distancing and help avoid families coming into unnecessary contact with others.  We have built on the system that we currently have, with around 30 pupils entering through an entrance at any one time.  This current system is planned to support all groups to stay separate in the playground and avoid large numbers of families crossing on the paths around school.  Each class has a 5 minute window to drop off children, which means that families who have to go to different gates have time to get to these before the next class go in. 

In September we will be doubling the number of families and pupils entering the grounds.  I know that for some families there will be a wait between the drop off or picking up of children.  Once we have worked through the first week, we will look to reduce the amount of time the whole process takes, if that is possible.  Drop off and pick up will be from the same gate.  Please arrive no earlier than 2 minutes before your gate opens, otherwise you will get mixed up with another group.

School lunches

Our kitchen will be open and able to provide meals for pupils. The school kitchen will provide cold lunches at the start of term in September.  Once we are settled back in we will review when we can move to hot meals, and whether we will be able to use the hall again or save hot meals in classes. 

The current price of school meals is £2.35

It is our ambition that we move to hot meals as soon as possible.

Pupils who are showing high levels of anxiety

It would be really helpful for us to know if your child is overly anxious about returning to school.  Please contact your child’s current teacher on their year group email.  Staff will then be able to offer you some guidance on how you can support your child and consider any further support that school can put into place.  

School uniform

We will be asking that all children return in September in their uniform. The new guidance states that pupils should wear school uniform as “uniform can play a valuable role in contributing to the ethos of a school and setting an appropriate tone.” It goes onto say that uniforms do not need to be cleaned any more often than usual, nor do they need to be cleaned using methods which are different from normal. In Early Years, pupils are able to wear a pale blue polo shirt. 

Home learning

Home learning, which mirrors the in-school curriculum, will be provided for pupils who are shielding or self-isolating.  This will be through a mix of online and paper resources, and involve interaction with teachers.

Contingency Plan

Currently, there is no government guidance on what to do if we need to return to half class sized bubbles.  However, in that case, we would hope to run a part-time timetable so that all pupils have access to school, and when they are not in school, pupils are working on projects or consolidation activities at home.  

In the case of a local or national lockdown, the guidance is saying we should plan to remain open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, and provide remote education for all other pupils. If this occurs we will be looking to build on our current remote learning support and offer:

• a curriculum that reflects what pupils would have been learning in school if it were open 
• access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos from government approved providers
• lessons led by pupil’s own teachers to allow interaction, assessment and feedback
• printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access
• appropriate teaching for younger pupils and pupils with SEND

What should children bring to school?

• A water bottle
• Their lunchbox if needed (don't forget we are a nut-free school)
• Suncream
• Sun hat or cap
• A rain coat 
• Their pencil case on a Monday 
• A box of tissues to leave on their table
• Children can bring in bags if needed. To make storage easier, bags should be as small as possible, eg a PE kit type bag.
• Outdoor Learning clothes and PE kits when these are needed.

Building relationships

Making good friends with children in their new class is going to be key in September.  We have seen this in action this term, with children in school bubbles developing new friendships and playing well with pupils they would not normally play with.  We have seen only a very small number of fallings out or arguments, which have been resolved quickly and easily.  This has been achieved by giving pupils opportunities to get to know each other, and play together, and the fact that the vast majority of children enjoy playing with other and naturally seek to build up relationships with those around them.  We will build on this next term as part of our ‘recovery curriculum’.

No one wants pupils to lose touch with their old friends, and pupils were great in class and in assembly this week in coming up with ways that they can maintain these relationships.  They have come up with fantastic ideas for project work and fun activities, using technology such as zoom and email where they can interact with their old friends.  They even came up with the idea of writing letters to each other! Pupils also identified that they could meet up and play together after school and at weekends too.  Teaching staff have been asked to plan collaborative learning and social activities into the curriculum.

We have arranged the lunch and break times so that pupils are often sharing a playground with another group of pupils of the same age.  We will be working with lunchtime staff to support pupils to play socially distanced games with other groups.  While they cannot go into each other’s zones, they can talk over the boundary and play games such as charades.  Children are highly inventive in their play and we will be sharing ideas as we work to help them maintain these friendships.  When we can, we will enlarge the size of the groups interacting outside. 

Visitors to school

We are working with our professional visitors to school such as music teachers, Speech & Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists and Social Workers and our aim is to have them back in school as soon as we can.  All visitors will follow the guidelines identified in our Risk Assessment.  No other visitors will be allowed into school at this point.