Bacup Holy Trinity Stacksteads C.E. Primary School

IMPORTANT MESSAGES ABOUT THE RETURN TO SCHOOL

MESSAGE 1 - PHASED RETURN - Please check the Home Page of the School Website www.stacksteads.lancs.sch.uk to find out whether your child will be returning to school on either Tuesday 1st September or Wednesday 2nd September.

MESSAGE 2 - STAGGERED START AND FINISH TIMES - The different start times for each year group bubble can also be viewed on the Home Page of the School Website.

MESSAGE 3 – ONE-WAY SYSTEM -  Adults must observe social distancing when on the school grounds. To help maintain social distancing there will be a one-way system in operation on the school grounds. This worked well in the Summer Term due to the co-operation of all parents. Entry will be via the Front Path and exit will be through the Car Park. Due to the staggered start and finish times, parents with more than one child may need to drop-off/collect their first child then leave the premises and re-enter up the front path to drop-off/collect children from other year groups. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable.

MESSAGE 4 – ENTRY AND EXIT - Children will enter and leave the classroom door at the start and end of the day one at a time under the direction of their class teacher. Parents will be shown where to queue and should wait 2 metres from the door when handing over or receiving their child. Please be patient during drop-off and collection times as you may need to wait a short time in a queue. As usual, children up to and including those in Year 4 must be brought to school and collected by a responsible person aged 16 years or over.

MESSAGE 5 – CLOSURE OF THE LANE TO TRAFFIC - As the Car Park exit will be used by all parents and children to leave the school grounds the lane leading to the car park will be completely closed to all traffic from 8.40 a.m. to 9.10 a.m. and 2.55 p.m. to 3.25 p.m. each day. This will help to keep the large numbers of parents and children walking down the lane safe. We cannot have a situation where cars are being driven up the lane, turning around or reversing with so many pedestrians on the lane. Car drivers, please co-operate with this essential safety measure. A warning sign reminding drivers that the lane is closed will be placed at the bottom of the lane.

MESSAGE 6 – BUBBLE ARRANGEMENTS - Each Year Group from Y1 to Y6 will form its own “Bubble”. Nursery and Reception Children will form the E.Y.F.S. Bubble. Each Bubble will be kept isolated from the other Bubbles during the school day. Each Bubble will have its own start and finish time, individual lesson timetable, break times and lunch time during the day. Lessons will start 5 minutes after the arrival time at the beginning of the day so it is important that children are not late. There will be no social distancing between children who are in the same Bubble, but in class all children other than those in the E.Y.F.S. (and in Y1 for the first part of the Autumn Term) will be sat in rows facing the front of the room rather than facing each other around tables.

MESSAGE 7 – LUNCHTIME ARRANGEMENTS AND ASSEMBLY - Each Bubble will eat lunch in their own classrooms. School dinner children will collect their food from the serving hatch and take it back to their classrooms a Bubble at a time. Normal payment arrangements for school meals will be in operation. Whole school gatherings such as Assembly will not take place. Short, daily class assemblies will take place and hopefully a whole school assembly will be held online once per week.

MESSAGE 8 – CLEANING AND DISINFECTION - Enhanced cleaning and disinfection procedures will operate. The children and adults will regularly sanitise their hands and toilets will be disinfected when a Bubble has used them, before use by children from another Bubble. Tables and commonly touched surfaces will be disinfected regularly, and items such as lap tops and Ipads will also be disinfected immediately after use. Home reading books will be disinfected when they are returned to school, before use by another child. Children will sanitise their hands before and after choosing library books or books from the reading shelves. Hand gel will be used as the main method for hand sanitisation (as it is quicker), but handwashing will take place after toilet use and before lunch. Please ensure that your child has washed their hands before they set off for school.

MESSAGE 9 – KEEPING A SAFE DISTANCE -  Other than in the E.Y.F.S. (and Y1 early in the school year), adults will maintain a distance of at least 1 metre from children wherever possible. Clear polycarbonate screens have been made to be placed between the class teacher and a child when the teacher is looking at their work during a lesson or listening to the child read etc. Teachers who are at significantly higher risk of serious illness from Covid-19 will teach behind ceiling-suspended clear Perspex screens when they are teaching the whole class. In other classrooms, where space allows, a gap of 2 metres will be maintained between the front row of pupils and the teacher’s position at the front of the class.

MESSAGE 10 – MASK WEARING – Wearing mask offers some protection to others rather than the mask wearer. Scientific evidence indicates that the children are at extremely low-risk from Covid-19, and that the highest risk to the adults working in school is from other adults. Therefore, members of staff will wear masks when they are; moving around the school building, using staff areas such as the staff room, offices etc and when in discussion with colleagues or other adults, including parents. All other adults or visitors to the school building will be required to wear a face covering. This includes parents who come to the school office or who wish to speak to a member of staff. Current guidelines make it clear that primary-aged children do not need to wear masks in school.

MESSAGE 11 –  AFTER-SCHOOL CLUBS AND YOYO -  We hope to operate some After-School Activities including sports clubs, but these will be offered to individual Bubbles rather than to several year groups as would normally happen. Further information about these will be published in the first couple of weeks of term. YOYO Club will be in operation, with appropriate arrangements in place to keep children from different bubbles separated, in line with Government guidelines. As usual, please speak to Mrs Fitton about the availability of places.

MESSAGE 12 – THE CURRICULUM - Children will be receiving the full range of National Curriculum Subjects. During the Autumn Term, slightly more maths and English will be taught to help children recover some of the lost learning from the Summer Term. To allow this, there will be a small reduction in the amount of time spent each week on Topic Subjects such as geography, history, art, music, D.T. etc. This will be kept under review. Each Bubble will have one P.E. Lesson per week which will be a “double lesson”. P.E. kits cannot be stored in cloakrooms as they normally would. Therefore on P.E. Days children should come to school in their P.E. Kit, sweatshirt and school shoes (with pumps in their bag). Until further notice tracksuit bottoms/leggings will be allowed to be worn for P.E. to avoid children walking to and from school in shorts in cold weather. P.E. lessons will begin from Monday 7^th September and you will be informed on which day P.E. will take place. We await news on when Y4 and Y5 swimming lessons will resume. All other school uniform regulations will be in place. A reminder that uniform can be purchased from Anne’s of Bacup, not from the school office.

MESSAGE 13 – OUT OF SCHOOL PRECAUTIONS -  Other than siblings where it is clearly unavoidable, children from different Bubbles should not meet or play together away from school. If your child exhibits any symptoms of Covid-19 you must keep them at home and seek medical advice. Should Covid-19 be confirmed you must let the school office know immediately.

MESSAGE 14 – SCHOOL BAGS – It is not practical for there to be a ban on bags being brought to school. In the event of a child having Covid-19 in a bubble, the chance of another child contracting it from their bag is a long way down the list of ways it could happen. There is no reason why children should touch the bags of other children so the risk of contamination is very small. Children may bring a bag containing their packed lunch. This should be wiped down with disinfectant each morning before being brought to school as a precaution. They will eat their lunch at their own desk in the classroom.

As with lunch bags, a reading book bag may be brought by a child as long as it is disinfected each morning. Book bags are necessary as they will protect the child’s reading book on the journey to and from school – especially in wet weather. A parent may carry a lunch box or reading book for their child in a bag and hand them to the child when they are going into school if they wish, especially in the case of younger children.

Other than essential items such as a packed lunch, reading book, pumps for P.E. etc, no other items should be brought. This includes pencil cases or toys which must not be brought.

MESSAGE 15 – REMINDER ABOUT PHASED RETURN - A reminder that we have a phased start to the school year. Children whose new class teacher will be; Miss Lougheed (Y1), Mrs Farina (Y2), Mrs Baron (Y3), Mrs Grimshaw & Mrs Toddington (Y4), Mrs Barnes (Y5), Mrs Burns (Y6) should come to school tomorrow (Tuesday 1st September). All other children should return on Wednesday 2nd September.
Please ensure that you know the arrival and departure time for your child’s bubble, and please be on time, so that we avoid large numbers of people being on the school promises at the same time. It may take a few days for all of the new procedures to settle down, and changes may be made if it will help to make them more efficient in the light of experience. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

Welcome back to the new school year that begins tomorrow. It will be wonderful to have all the children back in the building, and everyone is looking forward to getting back to teaching, learning and playing together. The coming months will be challenging for everyone and no-one knows how events will impact on the running of the school. The school environment is as safe as it can reasonably be, but the daily routines are very different in order to achieve this. It may be necessary to change procedures very quickly in light of new Government advice or changes to local conditions and levels of infection. Some of the changes will undoubtedly be inconvenient to parents – just as they are to those of us who work in the school. Please do your bit in making things work by following the rules and procedures that have been put in place. Rapid communication between the school and parents will be even more important than ever. To keep yourself up-to-date you must please; 1. Ensure that your mobile device has the current version of the Mobile App installed, and that you read messages that are sent out through it. Selecting “WHOLE SCHOOL” in Settings >> Notices will mean that you will receive these instant messages. Selecting “ALL” in Settings >> Newsletters will ensure you receive Newsletters to your device. 2. Visit the School Website daily. The regular newsletter can also be accessed from the list towards the top left of the Home Page. Whole School Mobile App Messages will also be placed on the left-hand side of the Home Page underneath the newsletter section. Any parent who has no access to online communication must let the school office know so that alternative arrangements can be made to communicate important messages.

A FINAL MESSAGE - For many children and parents it will be the first time that you have been in school for 6 months, and you may be apprehensive about it. If you have any concerns, please ask. To all parents, please remember that, based on the available scientific and medical evidence, the risk to children of catching Covid-19 is very small, the risk of them becoming seriously unwell is extremely small and the risk of them dying is absolutely tiny. These minimal risks are far-outweighed by the negative impact on their learning and their general health and well-being from not being in school. If you have any concerns please contact the school to discuss them.

Mobile App - The app may need to be updated. One way to do this is to delete the app then re-install it. Enter the school's postcode OL13 0QW and select the school.

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PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND have advised that the Year 4 Bubble should close until Wednesday 14th October due to a child within the group testing positive for Covid-19. Parents of Year 4 children should read the letter that was published today via the mobile app and which is available in the Newsletters section of the website.

ADVICE TO PARENTS SHOULD THEIR CHILD OR A MEMBER OF THEIR HOUSEHOLD TEST POSITIVE - Follow the guidance at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance and must continue to self-isolate for at least 10 days from the onset of their symptoms and then return to school only if they are well (and have not had a high temperature for 48 hours) - note that symptoms of a cough or loss of sense of smell/ taste may persist, as they can last for several weeks once the infection has gone. The 10-day period starts from the day when they first became ill. Other members of their household should continue self-isolating for the full 14 days.

A number of parents are reporting mild cold-like symptoms in their child and asking for advice. Below is an extract from a letter from Public Health England that you should be aware of............... To ensure we identify those with coronavirus while avoiding a huge increase in demand for tests from people without coronavirus symptoms, we ask that you recommend to your pupils, students and staff who feel unwell, that they get tested if: they develop one or more of the main coronavirus symptoms: a high temperature a new, continuous cough the loss or change of their sense of taste or smell, or they are recommended to get tested by a healthcare provider (e.g. GP or nurse) If a pupil, student or staff member develops one or more of the main coronavirus symptoms described above, only they should be tested. There is no need for their households to have a test, unless they are also symptomatic. Unless a pupil, student or staff member has one of the three main coronavirus symptoms, they should only be tested if instructed otherwise by the local authority, health protection team or their GP. As schools and colleges across England return, pupils and students may feel unwell for example with a sore throat, stomach upset or a headache. These pupils and students don’t need to book a test but may need to stay off school or college and seek medical advice through their GP or pharmacist as usual.

SCHOOL CROSSING PATROL - The School Crossing Patrol outside the school ends at 3.25 p.m. Due to insurance issues she is not allowed to cross anyone after this time. Therefore once 3.25 p.m. has been reached she must stop even if there are parents or children still leaving the school grounds. The staggered finishing times mean that all year groups other than Year 6 will have left the building by 3.15 p.m. The Year 6 teachers will make sure that the Y6 children leave promptly at 3.20 p.m. so they will have enough time to make the short walk down the lane to the School Crossing Patrol before she goes off-duty at 3.25 p.m.

CLICK HERE FOR USEFUL WEBSITES TO SUPPORT HOME LEARNING

IF YOU NEED TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE...…...

7.30 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. School Office

01706-877025

E-mail your child's teacher

xx@stacksteads.lancs.sch.uk - insert your child's year group in place of xx e.g. , eyfs, y1, y2, y3, y4, y5, y6 

 E-mail the school office contact@stacksteads.lancs.sch.uk

 Other Useful numbers:

Children's Social Care

03001236720

 NHS Advice: 111

 Childline: 0800 1111

Medical or Other Emergency: 999

Download our updated Mobile App below to get important and urgent messages.

BUBBLE START AND FINISH TIMES

Thank you to the PTA for the Year 6 Leavers' Hoodies!!