10th July 2020
Dear Parent / Carer,
Thank you for your support and patience over the last term. In order to meet health and safety requirements and reduce the risk of spread of the coronavirus, we have had to limit the number of pupils coming into school. Thank you also for your continued support for your child’s school; many of you have been in touch to say how much you appreciate the work of the staff in school, who have been working hard to stay in touch and provide learning to be completed both in school and at home. Thank you also for supporting your children to engage with the home learning provided at distance during this unusual time. I am pleased to be able to write to you now about our plans for the new school year and the full return of all pupils in September.
From the start of September our schools will be open for all pupils, with careful measures in place to ensure that we comply with Public Health England’s guidance and ‘system of controls’ which will help to continue to minimise the risk of spread of the coronavirus. We will be putting these measures in place as well as making sure that our curriculum is ambitious and broad, offering all children the best possible opportunity to make up for lost time in school and be successful.
The ‘system of controls’ mean that it will continue to be essential that any pupil showing any of the common symptoms of coronavirus (high temperature (fever), a new continuous cough, loss of smell/taste) must stay at home and not come to school – anyone showing symptoms can and should get a test to confirm whether or not they have Covid‐19. You must report a positive test result to your child’s school if they have been in school in the 48‐ hour period prior to the test.
In school there will be measures in place that continue to minimise the risk of infection for everyone in our community:
- frequent thorough hand washing as part of everyday routine
- good respiratory hygiene habits, ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’
- enhanced regular cleaning arrangements
- active engagement with the NHS Test and Trace system
school day arrangements that reduce contacts between groups of pupils as far as possible - maximising distancing between those in school as far as possible.
In order to maintain distance between groups of pupils we will need to make some changes to our timetables. This might include different arrival and departure times for different groups of pupils, staggered break and lunchtimes and some changes in how pupils move around our school buildings. Arrangements will be specific to each school and your Academy will communicate with you with the details about the school day and week for your child.
The first weeks of term in September will be a staggered start for pupils.
- Monday 31 August is the Bank Holiday.
- Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 September – these will be INSET days for all of our CLF schools. This time will be essential for us to review the current rate of infections in our area and to prepare our sites and staff thoroughly in the control measures that will continue to reduce risks for everyone.
- From Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September we will begin to welcome pupils into school, starting with inducting our new Year 7 and gradually bringing in other year groups.
- From Monday 7 September we will gradually bring back pupils in all year groups.
Your child’s Academy will communicate the local arrangements with you so that you know when your child/children will be starting back.
We know that for many of our families, being able to use additional ‘out of hours’ provision before and after school is essential. Our aim is to be able to support pupils and working parents who rely on this provision. We want to be able to offer this safely and in a way that complements the school day and it is likely that this service will be limited by a number of factors in September. It is our aim to ensure that out of hours provision is resumed fully as soon as is safely possible and we are working hard with our Health and Safety experts to achieve this. Your Academy will communicate the local arrangements for September with you.
The measures we are putting in place in our schools have been carefully planned with the advice of our Health and Safety experts in the trust to minimise the contact that your child has with others beyond their class and year group ‘bubble’ within school. We appreciate your support in continuing this outside of school by minimising the number of contacts your child has with others beyond the groups they are part of in school so that we can continue to minimise any potential spread of the coronavirus and keep our schools healthy and open.
I appreciate that you may have further questions about your child’s return to school in September. We have put together responses to Frequently Asked Questions on our website which you can access here: https://clf.uk/frequently‐asked‐questions/.
I wish you and your family a happy and healthy summer break and look forward to welcoming your child/children back to school in September.
Yours faithfully
Steve Taylor
CEO
