Google Services
Search
Search
Translate
Translate
Interactive Bar
Graveney Primary School
‘Learning and Achieving Together’
Latest News
-
Reopen plans for 8th June 2020
Fri 22 May 202021st 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
-
Parent survey about re-opening
Fri 15 May 2020We are now planning our re-opening. Please can I ask all families to complete this survey to help us with planning our small groups.
https://forms.gle/82hJExausiJdyVAc9
-
Plans to reopen School
Wed 13 May 2020Dear Families
Following on from my message to you on Monday the guidance has been produced recommending that schools plan to reopen from 1st June 2020 (this will be on the 8th June for our school as we have a longer break). The Government's aim is for all Primary pupils to have access to school by the end of the summer term.
Currently we are supporting a small number of key worker pupils and some of our vulnerable pupils within school. With more people gradually returning to work we are already seeing an increase in the number of families of key workers needing this provision and anticipate a further increase over the coming weeks. I would like to assure you that this provision for all key workers will remain in place, the new guidelines are encouraging more children to have access to school.
The next phase of the re-opening proposes that year R, 1 and 6 groups return first, followed by schools gradually increase the numbers of pupils accessing school by year groups. The government ambition is ‘…for all primary year groups to be back to school before the summer holidays, for a month if feasible.’ This is a logistical nightmare within our small school with limited space and mixed year classes. I will be discussing my plans later this week with staff and also with our Trustees. Together we will agree on how this can be achieved at Graveney.
What can I share with you? After 7 years of headship and having taught since the late 90’s (no comments on my age please!), I have been in a privileged position of looking after your children, leading dedicated staff and communities. This has taught me two things: firstly, be truthful and secondly when it comes to children, always keep them safe.
I am being truthful here and categorically tell you there is no such thing as social distancing in a school; it does not exist and would never exist. The reason childhood illnesses spread in a school is no surprise as we are all in contact with each other. I can put two children in opposite classrooms and they will still get chicken pox because that’s how it is in a school. This virus we are led to believe is a super spreader. It is therefore essential that we keep the number of pupils in school low, with small groups our aim will be to keep both you, your children and the staff safe.
Do I want the staff and children back; of course. Many of you will be at the end of your tether at home, of course you are (this is why teachers have school holidays!). However, I am not going to sit here and write to you to say we can achieve social distancing in a school. We can make things safer, we could perhaps reduce the risk slightly, but my experience of normal illnesses in school tells me, the risk will be there.So that leaves us in a quandary doesn’t it? How long can we go on like this for? I am struggling to find solutions. We are hearing that it is OK to put our youngest children back in a school and our oldest; at this time there is no evidence that is putting my mind at rest. There will be some of you that say “let’s just get on with it”, I respect that, but get on with what? There is not a reliable test, a vaccine, an idea about what to do next, there is just the possibility that things will be OK; that’s all we have at the moment and ‘OK’ is not good enough when it comes to the precious gift that is your child.
What is missing from this discussion is a sensible, rational debate around better solutions, such as repeating a year and coming back when we have more science to support us. Believe me, I would rather any child repeats a year than go back to school too soon and have to lose a child; why is this not in the national debate; because it will cost money! So parents, what can you do next? Well, all I can do is pass onto you the information when we have it and you can make your own decision. Parent power is quite something when it is applied nationally; perhaps you too have some great ideas that can be brought before our politicians. As I have said before, I will share plans for how we will be operating under these new guidelines with you as soon as possible but please do not hesitate to get in touch if you want to share any concerns.
If you are a parent from, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 or a key worker, I would love to hear from you regarding how you feel about your child returning. I now need to have numbers in order to plan our provision.
The guidelines on attendance clearly state that parents will not be fined for non-attendance at this time. I would like to reassure you all that your child’s space here at Graveney is secure, should you decide that home is the safest place for your child to remain, at this current time.
Thank you once again for your constant support and understanding, sending virtual hugs to all our families.
With my kindest regards
Alison Blackwell
Headteacher
-
Re-opening News
Mon 11 May 202011th May 2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
I’m sure many of you will have watched the Prime Minister’s address to the nation last night.
You will have heard the Prime Minister indicating that the government believes it may be in a position to implement a phased re-opening of schools for certain year groups from the 1st June. This is part of the government’s conditional plan, which it says will remain under regular review.
I’m sure as parents, you will have many questions over this recent announcement, which will range from exactly which children may come back into school first to how we are going to keep them safe; including social distancing measures.
Unfortunately, I will be unable to answer many of your questions at this time, however I would like to reassure you that the safety and well-being of our children and the community will remain my priority.
Detailed guidance from the government is due to be published in the coming days. Once I receive this I will be in a position to define the best approach for Graveney Primary, and what a possible return to school for more children could look like for us.
In the short term, the school site will remain open for children of Key workers and we will be here to support all our other parents remotely, as we have done over the past few weeks.
I will be in touch again when I have more information for you.
Keep Safe
Alison Blackwell
Headteacher
Page 1 of 1