Dear Parents/Carers,

We are going full steam ahead with our plans for Christmas with our main aim being that we have an offer that is fun and exciting for the children.

We thought we would be over this pandemic by now but unfortunately Telford and Wrekin Covid 19 data does not reflect that we are. Our data indicates that we have one of the highest infection rates in the West Midlands. It is very difficult for school leaders to judge what is the best way forward with planning Christmas events when there is the threat of ruining staff and family Christmas breaks if people need to isolate; and of course, the potential for people being very poorly with Covid over the holidays. As always, we follow the guidance from the Health Protection Hub, and we look closely at our own data and the outbreaks we have. We also must take into consideration staff and children’s vulnerabilities when decision making.

It is important to remember that not all schools will have the same offer. Schools have their own circumstances which dictate what they can offer. For example, some schools have much larger halls than ours and in some cases they even have two school halls.

As everyone knows, being outside is the safest place to be, which is why we thought long and hard about how we could celebrate Christmas safely, with an event that not only the children would enjoy, but also one that parents could attend to share some of the magic of Christmas with their children. We know from our recent cases that most infections have been passed on to children from their parents and this is why we would rather avoid having groups of parents in school at this time. We do hope that someone from your family can attend, and can only apologise that we have to limit numbers, but again hope you can see why.

We are of course carrying out as many other Christmas activities as we can in school to ensure the children are suitably excited about this special event as we break up for the holidays:

• We booked the pantomime before the pandemic nearly 2 years ago! The cost of this event has been heavily subsidised by school with parents only actually being asked to pay half the amount. We have checked with the theatre and they have their own strict measures in place to reduce the risk of infection. Our staff teams will of course be carrying out all of the usual procedures with hand sanitizing etc. We know the children will love this experience and that it will be something they remember forever!

• We also have the cinema experience for Year 2 – 6; the rest of the school will be enjoying their own cinema experience in school complete with a sweet treat!

• Christmas dinner day will proceed as normal as will our annual visit from Mr and Mrs Claus who kindly come and talk to each class in the hall and tell them about how their preparations are going.

• Teachers will also be offering lots of the normal Christmas activities in class and we are confident that what we have on offer that will be enjoyed by them all.

• Children are invited to wear their Christmas Jumpers or something Christmassy on the day they have their Winter Wonderland experience and also for their Christmas dinner day.

We understand that parents would have liked to see nativity plays and participated in carol concerts, but we really do hope you can see that we have thought carefully about the Newdale offer and struck a fair balance between fun for the children and the safety of everyone leading into the Christmas holidays.

Of course we have everything crossed that we can return to ‘normal’ next year and invite as many of you as possible back into our building. Please believe us when we say we would much rather do this and please do not compare us to other settings as all schools have their own community data to consider along with their own building/space limitations.

Thank you for your patience and hope to see you at our Christmas Wonderland events.

Please note that all dates are posted on our website. I will also ask teachers to message out these dates again, so you are clear.

Miss Cook

Headteacher