Information on current school arrangements, including how school is organised, and what pupils should bring.

Information updated on 1/11/20  Updates are shown in red. 

See below for information on:

• School Timings
• Attendance
• Grouping
• Preventing viral transmission
• The curriculum
• Wild Wood Club
• PPE
• Staggered start and end of the day
• School lunches
• Remote learning
• Contingency plan
• What pupils should bring to school
• Visitors to school

School timings

The guidance states that if we can, we should continue to have pupils arriving and leaving schools at different times in order to reduce the number of parents on site.

Gates open at 8:55am and  3:05pm.

Families need to continue to maintain social distancing and avoid unnecessary contact with others.  Each class has a 5-minute window to drop off children, which means that families who have to go to different at the same times can move around the school site. 

Please try to arrive no earlier than 2 minutes before your class opens, otherwise you will get mixed up with another group.

We ask that you do wear a mask or face covering when on the school grounds.

Attendance

The Government has made it clear that school attendance is 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, children who are ill, and children who are following the rules about self-isolation.

Grouping

Pupils are taught in their class ‘groups’ and staffing is pretty much back to normal.  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 run a timetable with different breaks and lunchtimes for different class groups.  Groups are not be allowed to mix in the playground, lunch hall, for assemblies etc.   We run assemblies through zoom, in order to bring classes together.

We 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 are key. 

• Pupils, staff and visitors cannot come into the school if they have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, or need to self isolate having tested positive.
• Anyone developing those symptoms during the school day will be sent home.
• The NHS Track and Trace app is now available and we ask that all staff, visitors and families actively engage with NHS Test and Trace procedures.  
• When entering school we have a QR code for vistors to scan using the NHS app to record that they have visited the premises. 
• Information on the app can be found here. 
• Where we have people displaying symptoms we will look at what essential actions we can take to further reduce the risk of transmission
• Cleaning continues to be of a high standard and done regularly
• We 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 are organised to minimise the movement of pupils and staff. This means that in Year 2 - Year 6 pupils sit in rows facing the front of the classroom
• Staff continue to maintain distance from pupils, and other staff, as much as possible
• Parents, carers and other visitors can only come into school when essential.  Where possible we maintain contact through phone calls, texts, emails and zoom.  

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 meeting the personal and social needs of pupils, assessing learning and where there are gaps in learning, and supporting pupils to catch up. 

We have some PPA lessons running as normal with specialist staff teaching pupils subjects such as music and French, but with pupils remaining in their normal classrooms.

Wild Wood Club

The government guidance accepts that when we run wrap-around care pupils will be moving into a different ‘group’ for that part of the day.  We now have Wild Wood Club open in both the morning and afternoon. Wild Wood Club follows the school COVID-19 Risk Assessment and we track which pupils attend.  If you want more information or would like to request a place, please email our manager Anna on WWCbookings@spurcroft.w-berks.sch.uk

Personal, protective equipment

Pupils are not allowed to wear face coverings in school. We are following Public Health England guidance on this. Staff will wear PPE for first aid, cleaning and when making close contact with pupils.  Visitors are requested to wear face coverings when on the school site.

School lunches

Our kitchen is open and able to provide hot meals for pupils.  Meals are served in classes. 

The current price of school meals is £2.35

Remote learning

Remote 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

In the case of a local or national lockdown, we expect that we may be asked by the Government 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)
• Weather appropriate resources:  suncream/sun hat or cap; raincoat; warm coat, gloves, hat 
• 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.
• Families will be informed when children need to wear Outdoor Learning clothes or PE kits.

Visitors to school

We are working with our professional visitors to school such as music teachers, Speech & Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists and Social Workers. All visitors will follow the guidelines identified in our Risk Assessment.