Dear Parent / Carer,
Thank you for your responses to the return to school survey. The groupings are being finalised and you will be informed of your child’s return to school day by the start of next week at the very latest. The groups have been carefully planned to meet everyone’s needs. Siblings are on the same day and I have tried my best to keep friends together. Year 6 have been grouped with pupils transitioning to the same group as them in September to help the transition process and the timings should also help parents to collect from different yards without too much of a wait. All teachers have looked over the plans to ensure that we are doing the very best for our pupils.
We received a letter today from our Director of Education and the Chief Executive of NPT Council informing us that they have made the decision to end the term on July 17th as was originally planned. Therefore, the children will be attending school for three weeks from Monday 29th June.
Some questions were raised by the survey.
Will home learning continue through the return to school period?
Yes, as I have mentioned in two previous letters, home learning will continue as it has been set so far. A special project will be set over the summer. More information on this will follow with the summer home learning. We will also look at ways of increasing the variety of ways in which the home learning is set should this continue in September. Staff will look into software such as flip grid and zoom to see how this can be best utilised in the coming months.
Will the phased return continue in September?
This is very difficult to answer and I don’t think anybody knows the answer to this yet. Advice to schools has changed twice in the last week and a half which often makes planning very difficult. Plans for September may not even be clear at the end of term. I will be continuing to work closely with the Local Authority and keep parents updated with our plans over the summer.
Can children return if they have said no but change their mind in week 2 or 3?
Unfortunately, this will not be possible. A lot of work has gone into creating the groups and timetable to enable us to do our very best to keep the children safe. Additional pupils may change the grouping size which may affect times, staffing and use of spaces. This would all have an impact on the safety of the children at this time. I have a duty of care to the pupils and to the parents and will not compromise on this.
Next week teachers will be returning to school to set up the classrooms, put up signage and to prepare individual resources for the children. By the end of the week your child will receive a letter from their teacher explaining how their new classroom and day will look.
By the end of next week, I will also send out a reminder about the new requirements for school. A lot will have changed but we hope to make this experience as pleasant as it can possibly be for the pupils. We really look forward to seeing our pupils from year 1 to year 6 back and to have the chance to say our final goodbyes to our wonderful year 6 pupils.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kind regards,
Mrs. M. Teague.