Graveney Primary School
‘Learning and Achieving Together’
21st May 2020
Dear Parents and Carers and families,
I would like to start with a huge thank you to all members of our school community. Your kind emails and messages have supported me through the colossal task of planning our re-opening. Thank you to everyone who has also completed our first online questionnaire, your responses have enabled us to make the following decisions. I have now met (virtually) with our governors and all the staff, following many hours reading through guidance and numerous zoom meetings, together we have established our school re-opening plan.
I believe that our family friendly school, should remain that, this is an important part of Graveney Primary School. The wellbeing of our pupils and staff is our key priority and to achieve this we must support those families who need us. During this lockdown, the staff in school have continued to keep our school open for vulnerable and key worker families, our next phase will be an extension of our current provision. I would once again like to thank all the staff for their dedication to our school which has helped us keep this provision available (even during our normal school holidays).
To prevent the spread of coronavirus, our school will create as safe an environment as possible, by cleaning and using a range of measures, these protocols and procedures have been created following risk assessments and the guidance from the government and our unions. Pupils will be encouraged to maintain personal hygiene by washing their hands regularly and also keeping their own learning space clean.
Teachers will continue to provide Homelearning for all pupils who are not in school. This will remain until such time as ‘normal’ school is able to be resumed. In order for the teachers to maintain this provision, and also teach in school, we will be offering a reduced teaching week within school. Teacher’s will therefore be teaching in class on and Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
On Wednesday all teachers will have their PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) time, this will give them time to prepare lessons for both their Homelearning pupils and also for their bubble. Pupils of Key workers who require our support on a Wednesday will still be able to attend school, they will be supervised by either myself or one of our HLTA’s. If you will require your children to attend on a Wednesday, please let me know as soon as possible.
Pupils who are returning will be supervised in groups (bubbles) in school. Each bubble will currently be a maximum of 9 pupils and will have 1 or 2 members of staff with them (depending on the age of the pupils and SEN provision needs). These will be across all year groups to support all our key workers. Families who have indicated to the school that they would like their child to return will be contacted by a member of our teaching team. This new provision will begin on Monday 8th June 2020 at the earliest, this will be dependent on the latest Government advice.
I would like to re-iterate that if you have made the decision to keep your child at home during at the current time, the school understands your reasons for making this decision and we will continue to support you and your child with their learning. Our Homelearning support will continue until we are able to have all children back in school. Please do not bring your child back to school without prior confirmation from us that they have a space in one of our bubbles.
Drop off and picking up time have been staggered. These will be at the following times for age groups:
Bubble 1 – 8.50am & 3.00pm Bubble 2 – 8.55am & 3.05pm
Bubble 3 – 9.00am & 3.10pm Bubble 4 – 9.05am & 3.15pm
This is to reduce the number of pupils and parents accessing the school together.
You may have children in two different bubbles! If so please bring them in and collect them together and let us know which time slot you would prefer. Pupils should be dropped off at the school gate in the morning, all children will need to wash their hands before going into their classrooms.
At the end of the day pupils will be bought to the playground to meet you, there will be a one-way system marked out in the playground for you to collect your child and then return to the carpark, this will help us maintain social distancing.
When in school pupils should now wear their school uniform with trainers. They will be following a structured timetable which will help us to make use of all the space we have available and minimise groups mixing with each other. Each group will have a separate playtime and lunch break so that all children have much time as possible outside.
All children will need to bring a packed lunch into school until we are able to confidently provide hot dinners safely for the children. These will be eaten in their classrooms (or weather permitting outside). We will provide all pupils with an individual pack with their own learning resources. Please do not allow you child to bring in any other items from home, including their book bag, ruck sack or PE kit at this time. There will be no ‘Show and Tell’ sessions, so no toys from home are to be bought in.
This is a challenging new way of operating our school and as we progress through the pandemic, there will be many more changes ahead for us… all the team here at Graveney want the very best for you and your child. Thank you for your support as we move into the next phase of returning to ‘normal’.
During Term 6 there will be no extended school services, such as breakfast and after school clubs, this is due to the need to keep our children in small isolated groups within school. These will resume when restrictions are lifted further and it safe for us to do so.
Please continue to contact the school either by telephone or email, I regret that staff will not be available for face to face meetings at this time. Whilst we are all missing you, this remains the safest way for us the communicate with you. Please do let the school know if you have changed any of your contact details at this time.
Looking forward to the day when I am able to welcome the whole school back…
Kind regards to all of you
Alison Blackwell
Headteacher