Letter from Mrs Goodfellow – Friday 3rd July 2020

03 Jul Letter from Mrs Goodfellow – Friday 3rd July 2020

Friday 3^rd July, 2020.

Dear Parents/Carers,

In the last two days, all schools have received some very important documentation and guidance from the government, telling us of the Public Health England advice and Health and Safety expectations for the planned re-opening of schools to all children. Yesterday I received guidance about the procedures schools now need to follow. So now my staff, governors and I are in a position to begin to formulate our plans.

Should you want to read the documentation for yourself, it is publically available on https://www. gov.uk/ 

For the sake of clarification, there will be no childcare in schools across England during the summer holiday this year. All schools are closing for the holiday as usual. When we return to school in the Autumn Term, we will be expecting every child to return to school.

Please note that a lot of information we would normally send out at this point in the year has had to be withheld, because we did not know whether schools would be welcoming their children back in September. Thank you for your kindness and patience. So from now on, you will be receiving information such as holiday dates, Reception parent meeting information and all children from Nursery class 2 up to Year 6 are going to receive their end of school written report before the end of this term.

For the third time in recent months, we are now busy arranging for a different kind of schooling in September. As yet, we do not have all of the answers. We are working on issues such as staggered gate times continuing and considering how we can serve over 300 children their lunches, while they have to be kept in bubbles of one class with restricted school access. We are also considering how to deliver our teaching programmes, which previously relied on mixed aged groups working together. We will get there, but it is taking time.

It is unlikely that we can open up Breakfast Club and Tea Time Club in September due to the expectation that children remain in larger bubbles. However, if this changes and we find that we can, I will let you all know immediately by text.

Somethings we do know already. For example, the government is re-establishing the requirement for every child to be in school for at least 96% of the school year with fines to be imposed for low or non-attendance. We know all of our staff will be back in school in September and that school inspections will resume. We have been very fortunate in gaining a government grant to use our IT system to deliver teaching to older children via Microsoft Teams and we are excited about this. I would ask also that children return to school in September wearing their uniform.

There is some discussion taking place with Gateshead schools at the moment regarding start dates and teacher training dates for September. If our planned starting date has to change I will let you know as soon as possible.

Once again, thank you so much for your patience and understanding. We are doing everything we can to ensure our academy is safe and ready to provide the highest standards of education for your children.

Thank you,

Julie Goodfellow (Headteacher)