Parents' Area

Updates

Wednesday 18th March, 2020

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

 

Tuesday 17th March, 2020

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

Friday 13th March, 2020

Achievement Awards

There was no whole school assembly today so there was individual class celebration. Well done everyone!

Miss Clay’s class- Natalia for a fantastic ‘Chance to Shine’ piece of writing.

Mrs Thomas’ class- Tyler for superb effort in writing and Priya for a truly amazing piece of writing- I was enthralled.

Mr Jackson’s class- Julija for being a kind and considerate member of the class.

Miss Macfarlane’s class- Niamh for writing detailed comments in her reading diary.

Mrs Trevor’s class- Charlotte for always being positive, smiley member of the class. She is ready to learn and is trying hard with her spellings.

Miss Newport’s class- for being a kind friend and for going above and beyond with her reading at home.

Miss Jones’ class- Michael for always putting 100% into everything that he does. You are a superstar.

Mrs Plimmer’s class- Megan for coming into school sensibly and starting work.