Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope everyone remains safe and well as we reach the end of our first full week back this term. We are now settling into this new routine of remote learning and face to face learning and I have established a staff rota which ensures we are covering both styles of learning and minimising the number of staff who need to be in school on any one day which works out at about 50% of staff. As I mentioned last week we also have staff shielding as before or self-isolating but at the moment we are able to cover all the bases.
For the majority of our pupils, learning will continue to take place remotely online at home. School will continue to provide online learning for children remaining at home from Year 3 to Year 6 and this will be updated on a regular basis. The staff are working very hard to fine tune and add to the online curriculum, often in their own time in the evenings and at weekends and are checking in daily to see which children are logging in and doing the work set. We held two sessions this week for teachers to meet together either face to face or remotely to update how it is going, share good practice and ensure good levels of consistency across the year groups and we will continue to do this. If you are having difficulties with the remote learning then please ring the school and ask for me. I will assess what the issue is and then if needed pass you on to our IT Systems Manager Mr Couch who can provide expert technical advice. We will look at each case individually and come up with the best solution we can. This week we have been able to help around 15 families on a range of issues.
School is open to vulnerable children and children of critical workers. The advice remains that if you are a key worker and working from home, then if you can, please keep your child at home. As of today we have probably now reached a safe limit as to how many pupils we can have in school on any one day, particularly in Year 4 and Year 5, given the measures and restrictions we still have to put in place. As I mentioned above, I need to allow staff to be able to run the remote learning effectively while other staff run the face to face lessons in school. I cannot expect staff to do both at the same time. If you wish to send your child into school from next week onwards, you need to ring and speak to me first so again I can assess the situation and make a decision. I will now have to prioritise cases e.g. where both parents or carers are critical workers over where one parent or carer works and another is at home and I can no longer guarantee places and your child may have to go on a waiting list.
Again I have to say a big thank you so far to parents as you have all been very good and supportive in communicating with the school to check the arrangements and inform us of any changes. This makes it so much easier to manage the current situation.
Key Worker/Vulnerable Group.
For the pupils who are currently in school, these are the arrangements to ensure we can provide as normal an experience as possible for the children. We have organised them into year groups so there are 4 groups for learning rather than the 8 classes. They will not necessarily always be taught by their regular class teacher as some weeks they may be doing the remote learning for the other pupils at home. If your child normally has a school dinner that will still be the case as we will be providing hot meals as normal. The school day will run from 9:00am to 3:00pm (we are not currently running our Breakfast Club or After School Club). The children should be in full school uniform each day; Friday will still be non-uniform but the children do not need to bring £1. We will not be using the sports coaches at this time but still want to do PE in school. I have timetabled myself to do some PE with the groups. Next week the children will have PE on the following days so should come to school in their PE kit on that day: Monday – Year 6, Tuesday – Year 4, Thursday – Year 3.
Covid-19
We ask that you continue to remain vigilant to any symptoms of Coronavirus within members of your household and do not send your child to school if they display any of the symptoms (even if they are key worker or vulnerable pupils). If in doubt, please get yourselves or your child tested. All Waltham Forest residents are able to get tested even if they are not showing any Coronavirus symptoms, as this will reduce the spread of infection to others. If your child or a member of your family tests positive for Coronavirus, you will need to self-isolate as a family for 10 days and inform the school, even if your child is working at home. This is going to be the situation in school until at least 12th February. The government will review this regularly so we will need to wait and see if we are able to fully reopen after half term. The school will continue to follow all aspects of enhanced cleaning and protocols outlined in risk assessments, which will be reviewed. We understand that these are very challenging times for us all, both emotionally and physically. The safety of our school and community remains paramount and we ask for your support at this time. We will continue to be in touch through texts and newsletters to keep you updated of the situation as it progresses and teachers will be in regular contact via the remote learning platforms. We will continue to be here if you should need any support and please do not hesitate to get in touch by phone or email.
Parental Consultations
You should all have received a communication on Tuesday evening to allow you to book a time to speak with your child’s teacher next week. Thank you to everyone who has replied and we are currently setting up the timetables for the meetings. If you book a slot that is already taken, we will contact you to arrange another suitable time. The days for the consultations are: Monday 18th – Year 6, Tuesday 19th – Year 4, Wednesday 20th – Year 5, Thursday 21st – Year 3. All times are between 9:00am and 12:00pm and 1:00pm and 4:00pm. The teachers are looking forward to catching up with all of you next week and hopefully sharing lots of positive things. If you haven’t booked a time as yet, please do so over the weekend or early next week.
Friday Assembly
I resumed the Friday assemblies today and we still want to reward both the pupils who are working in school and children working remotely. As I did last term, I will list the children who have been given an award in the Friday newsletter.
Remote Learning Awards:
3K – Nehemiah, Jakub and Sloan
3H – Beatrice, Alexandra and Amber
4P- Tyrone, Gracee and Jakub
4RC – Patryk, Nicole and Byron
5L – Leondrea, Lucas and Lily
5O – Leila, Axel and Acacia
6PM – Anita, Tristan and Janet
6C – Karolina, Joshua and Kelsie
Key Worker/Vulnerable Pupil Awards:
Year 3 – Jake, Oscar and Catherine
Year 4 – Dawid, Nathan and Milan
Year 5 – Malgorzata, Tomas P and Michael
Year 6 – Whole group this week
Group of the Week – Year 6 for their outstanding sportsmanship and teamwork in the Mini Handball Tournament in school on Wednesday.
Congratulations to all the winners today.
Federation
Just to update everyone on the timeline towards the federation of the two schools in 2021. The new federated governing body held their first meeting last night and discussed what needs to be done this term to prepare for the federation between the two schools which is still due to take place at Easter. I will of course continue to keep you updated throughout the next few weeks.
Confirmed Covid-19 Case in School
Unfortunately since writing this letter, today we have had another confirmed case in school. I have identified all the pupils and staff who would have been in close contact with the individual case and they have all been informed by letter today. Obviously this will only affect the staff and pupils who have been in school this week and they will switch to remote learning for the time they have to self-isolate. The other groups who are currently in school can continue to attend next week.
Meanwhile I continue to wish all our families the very best and hope and pray you all keep safe and look out for each other. As I said last week, although things seem very bleak and dark at this time, together we will get through this and our Patron St Joseph will protect his school and community.
Yours sincerely,
J Alexander (Head teacher)
