Nursery

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6 years ago
Posted on 19th Mar 2020 by

Easter Egg Raffle Winner!

Congratulations to Jamie from year 2 on winning the Easter raffle. The draw was done this morning due to recent events. The total amount raised was £32 and this will be put towards the fire shelter in the base camp/ forest school area.

6 years ago
Posted on 19th Mar 2020 by

Important Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

Dear Parents/Carers,

Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils

As you will already know,  we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday, until further notice.

As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.

We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means and exactly who this applies to. We will let you know shortly, as to how to let us know, if you believe your child falls into one of these categories.

All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards unless you have received notification from us.

Please note that this is a national closure – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is.

Home Learning –

Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn.

Teachers have been and continue to be very busy organising ‘Home Learning’ for your children.

Today there will be a suggested timetable sent out for you to use, clearly this is only for you to use if you would like to.

Your child’s teacher will inform you as to how communication will be managed. In the majority of cases this will be digital, but we know there will be exceptions and that will be arranged separately.

If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this, with support from a scheme that the government has just announced.

This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.

As you can imagine the office staff are under enormous pressure trying to answer as many questions as they can.

We will undoubtedly get a lot more information from the Local Authority today and in the meantime are very busy planning how our partial opening and home learning offer will operate.

We ask that you trust that we are doing our best under very difficult circumstances and that as ever, we have children at the centre of all of our decision making.

And remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.

Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.

Miss Cook

Headteacher

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6 years ago
Posted on 18th Mar 2020 by

Message from Miss Cook

Source: BBC News.

We believe this article useful by way of answering some of the questions you may have…

Why is my child’s school still open?

At the moment, the government is advising schools to stay open.

But the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told MPs at a hearing on Tuesday afternoon that closing schools was still “on the table”, as one of the measures that could be used to fight the virus.

The UK’s approach is that children are not as vulnerable to the effects of coronavirus as adults.

The government is also concerned that closing schools would cause widespread disruption.

Many parents – including much-needed NHS staff – would have to take time off work to look after their children.

And there are concerns that if grandparents – a vulnerable group – were drafted in to help with childcare, infected children could transmit the disease to them.

There are also fears that vulnerable children, such as those in danger of neglect, could be at risk if schools were closed for a long period of time.

Could my child’s school be closed?

The government has the power to close schools.

On Monday, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson met head teachers about the challenges facing schools as a result of the coronavirus.

“The most immediately pressing challenge is the difficulty in keeping schools open with growing numbers of staff having to self-isolate,” head teachers’ leaders said.

“It is likely that a number of schools will have to close because there are too few staff available to teach, support and supervise children.”

Exactly what action schools are asked to take may differ around the UK.

 

Keeping England’s schools open is the “best course of action”, Mr Williamson has said.

 

We will of course keep you as updated as we can as things progress here at Newdale.

 

Miss Cook

 

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6 years ago
Posted on 17th Mar 2020 by

Coronavirus Update

Dear Parents/Carers,

Whilst we remain open as a school, we are very conscious of doing all we can to reduce the risks to our community. We therefore want to inform you of some of the actions we have taken so far:

  • All assemblies will be class based until further notice
  • Where possible, children will not be asked to sit closely with each other on the classroom carpets
  • Cross country training on Wednesday has now been cancelled, as have all the scheduled races
  • Children continue to wash their hands thoroughly throughout the day
  • Parents dropping off at Nursery and breakfast clubs will now need to drop their children off at the door and not come into school
  • Nursery children will be released via the front door and also the garden gate to try and reduce the gathering of parents
  • From Wednesday 18th March all volunteer readers will stop coming into school
  • Coffee mornings are cancelled until further notice
  • Parents evenings this week have been cancelled – with summary information being sent out instead, with some phone calls being made for cases where the teacher feels it important to go into much more detail
  • Teacher training courses have been cancelled to allow staff to stay in school and therefore reduce the risk to them, with staff shortages potentially leaving us with a depleted workforce.
  • Deploying more staff into the dinner hall to ensure a rapid flow of dinners and the best possible use of the space we have

Please refer to the NHS website for advice about whether or not to send your child in to school or keep them at home. The school is following all the latest Government and DfE advice. As a school we can not advise you what to do, but please be assured that we are keeping abreast of developments and are doing all we can. Please appreciate that this advice is constantly being updated by Government.

The Newdale team, as ever, are going above and beyond to ensure we operate as normally as we can, with as many precautions being inputted as possible to keep everyone safe. I will continue to keep you updated with any information I receive as soon as I am able. Please keep in touch via the school website, as this is the most efficient way of keeping you informed.

We have had some parents ask about children bringing in their own wash bags with soap etc inside. We have school approved soap and ask that children use that for the time being. We cannot monitor the ingredients of hand moisturizers and therefore cannot allow them in school due to some of children having nut allergies.

Thank you for your continued support during this challenging time.

Miss Cook

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6 years ago
Posted on 17th Mar 2020 by

Nursery water bottles

In light of the current situation we are looking at all things to keep your child safe.  One of our idea’s is to avoid unnecessary contamination is for you to leave your child’s water bottle in Nursery.  We would then ensure that they are cleaned frequently (at least once a day) by staff members.

 

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6 years ago
Posted on 17th Mar 2020 by

Drop off and collection

Nursery parents- Please can we ask that you drop off and collect your child/children from the nursery garden at 8.30, 11.30, 12.20. 3.20. Many thanks

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6 years ago
Posted on 13th Mar 2020 by

Nursery’s new visitors

We are so lucky to have two different species of insects to watch hatch and grow in Nursery . (Caterpillars and stick insects). The children have named the adult insects Steve and Sophie, hopefully soon we will see their eggs hatch.