AUTUMN TERM 2020
WEEKLY UPDATE – October 10th 2020
Dear All,
I hope you are all well.
I have sent out some additional information this week including dates and the Governors’ Annual report to Parents.
If you have not received these, please let me know. Please send any questions regarding the report to me as soon as possible, for the Governors to discuss and respond to at the meeting on Tuesday evening.
Next week we will be celebrating Harvest on Tuesday 13th October. Children can come to school dressed in Autumn colours and we would like them to bring a food donation for the Abergavenny Food bank. Please put any donations of non-perishable items, packets, tins etc. in the boxes outside each classroom. Thank you.
Please find attached our updated complaints policy. This is also available on our website.
We were hoping to have further information regarding poppy merchandise, which we will be selling after half-term, but this has not yet been received.
Robins Class
Just a reminder that next week the Robins’ Class will be doing their Show and Tell. A letter has already been sent out, but if you need any further information, please contact Mrs Thomas.
Little Sparks
At the moment our numbers in Little Sparks are very low.
Please share the link below, as we are hoping to boost our numbers in order to maintain this lively, fun , caring pre-school setting.
Thank you.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Kathryn Marshall
WEEKLY UPDATE – October 2nd 2020
Dear All,
Another lovely week. We all seem to be settling into the ‘new normal’ and things have gone really well this week.
On Monday I will be sending out updated Complaints and Safeguarding policies and a (short) date sheet for this half term.
KS2
Children in ks2 should bring in a pair of outdoor shoes, to wear on the field on wet days. These can be wellies, or any other shoes, but they do need to be waterproof. These can be left in school.
Dates
Due to the current restrictions in place we do not have many dates booked into the diary, but next week I will send out a list of planned dates and events, for this term. Please be aware these may change, if guidance/restrictions change.
COVID UPDATES
We are constantly reviewing our procedures and responding to Government Advice and Guidance. As a result, we have decided to split our ks2 into 2 separate cohorts. Hopefully this will mean, should we have a confirmed case of COVID-19 only 1 cohort will have to isolate, rather than the whole of KS2, allowing at least half of ks2 to continue attending school. The children will have different play areas and lunchtime seating areas. They are using the same toilets, as we don’t have an alternative, but we are controlling who is in the toilet at any one time. This also means that children are not mixing during breakfast club.
We have significantly reduced the number of visitors attending school, but in line with current guidance, we are having some visitors and volunteers. All visitors and volunteers will need to complete a COVID questionnaire and provide contact details, to help Track, Trace and Prevent. All visitors are fully informed of, and follow, our COVID procedures.
Have a great weekend.
Kind regards,
Kathryn Marshall
WEEKLY UPDATE – September 25th 2020
Dear All,
Thank you
A massive thank you to Jennie Edwards who, once again, has donated over £700 to school, from her plant stall. We are always appreciative of Jennie’s generosity, but this year in particular, as we have obviously not been able to hold any of our usual fund-raising activities, which will have a huge impact on what we are able to buy for the children.
Parent Consultation Meeting
This week we had our Virtual Parent Consultations, which I hope you found useful. If you did not make an appointment, or need a further appointment to discuss any other issues, please contact your child’s teacher.
Governors
Our Governors’ AGM has been arranged for October 13th. The report will be sent out in advance.
Reading Books
In line with Welsh Government Guidance, we are quarantining books for 72 hours, once they have been returned to school. It is important that all books returned to school are left in the quarantine boxes, as this will ensure they are not sent home with another child within 72 hours.
This system means we have less books available to send home with children. However, in response to some parents’ concerns over reading, we will endeavour to ensure all children have a current reading book, every night. This will be dependent on how many of each book we have available. Children can of course read any other material eg comics, online books etc.
Hand sanitiser
Powys have advised us to only use the hand sanitiser they are providing, to ensure it meets minimum standards, and contains 70% alcohol, so please do not send sanitiser into school, unless your child needs a specific make due to allergies etc. If this is the case, please let your child’s class teacher know, so we can keep it somewhere safe and out of the reach of other children. Thank you.
Clothing
Please ensure all clothes are clearly labelled. We have a lot of unidentifiable jumpers/cardigans etc left in school.
Polite reminder
Please email teachers with any issues, rather than pass messages on at the door. We need to keep entrances/exits clear, to ensure social distancing, but also, all staff need to be supervising children entering and leaving the building to support children with handwashing and sanitising.
Please do not drive into school, or park on the hill leading to school, as children are moving around at various times during the day.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support in these strange times. Current procedures are working really well, which is down to everyone’s co-operation.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
WEEKLY UPDATE – September 18th 2020
Dear All,
Another great week. Thank you to everyone for their continued support.
I have attached some information regarding illness and Covid symptoms, which you may find helpful when deciding if you should send your child to school.
Next week we are holding the first of our Virtual Parent Consultation Meetings. You should have received confirmation of the date and time of your appointment, but please contact your child’s class teacher, if you have not yet received yours. This will be new for all of us, so please bear with us. In order to ensure everyone gets their meeting on time, staff will be ending the meetings after 10mins. If you need a longer meeting, please contact your child’s class teacher, using the email above; they will be happy to arrange a further meeting, at a convenient time.
Breakfast club is up and running smoothly and all of the COVID safety procedures are working well. If you haven’t yet accessed this provision and you need to, or would like to, all children are welcome.
Unfortunately, for us, Mrs Jo Caines, Little Sparks Lead, is leaving us at the end of this half -term. Jo has been an amazing asset to the setting and we are very sad to be losing her, but wish her lots of luck in her new post.
Miss Kate Dykes will be covering the Lead role, on a temporary basis.
A polite reminder that all children with long hair should have their hair tied back. We have had a few ‘near miss’ incidents on the play equipment, due to long hair getting caught. It presents a hygiene risk, particularly at the moment, but is also a safety issue.
Thank you for your support.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Kathryn Marshall
WEEKLY UPDATE – September 4th 2020
Dear All,
These two days have been pretty busy, and presented some challenges, but it has been great to have everyone back in school and see all of the children playing so happily with each other.
A big welcome to our new children in Reception; a very strange start to school life, but they have taken it in their stride and had a lovely two days.
We have reviewed our procedures and feel, on the whole things have run smoothly, but will be making a slight change to pick up times. We have found that reducing the day by 30 minutes is having an impact on the amount of learning time children have, so from Monday children can be collected between 3:15 and 3:40pm. This will still allow parents to socially distance and avoid any congestion with parking.
Class letters will be sent home next week, providing information about individual classes, homework, PE days etc.
Parent Consultation Meetings-Powys have advised that face to face meetings should not take place, so we will be arranging TEAMs meetings, or phone calls to catch up. These will take place week beginning 21st September. Further information will be sent home next week.
Dates:
The dates for October Half-Term have now been confirmed as Monday 19th to Friday 30th October. All children return to school on Monday 2nd November.
We had planned school photographs for 9th November, but we have cancelled these, as advice is to limit the number of people coming into school. I have re-booked the photographer for the Spring Term.
Y1/2 reading books will be sent home next week, as we are still assessing reading levels and sorting out books.
Homework will start next week for all classes.
Reminders:
Please can you check that all clothes are clearly labelled.
There are still a lot of reading books which have not been returned. These need to be returned , before we can send out new books.
Children do not need PE kits in school at the moment, as they can come to school dressed in kit (plain leggings/tracksuit bottoms/t-shirt/trainers) on their PE days, which will be confirmed next week.
Best wishes,
Kathryn Marshall