15th September 2020
Amendments to arrangements for collection on a Wednesday afternoon
Dear Parents and Carers,
Firstly, thank you for the positive response about not entering the school site of St Philomena’s and St Mary’s until 5 minutes before entry time, there has been a positive change here although we do need this to be all families in the future. In light of the government announcements about people not collecting in groups of more than 6, it is important that we manage this in school as far as we can with appropriate social distancing being applied. If we are unable to achieve this, we may need to adopt other practice of having a complete one-way system with entry restricted to certain gates but we don’t really want to implement this due to consideration for your preferred entry onto the site.
We continue to take adjustments on both sites for your convenience but still need to encourage parents to allow pupils in year 5 & 6 to walk to school independently – hopefully we can then work towards the same for at least year 4 children.
Following a safeguarding meeting with Ms Noone, Headteacher of St Philomena’s High School, St Mary’s finishing time on a Wednesday will be delayed until 2.05pm and not 1.45 pm as previously communicated coming in to affect from tomorrow 16th September. This is to safeguard the students who attend St Philomena’s School as well as those attending St Mary’s. Hopefully the small adjustment will not be a problem for our families and I apologise for the short notice but it is important to respond immediately in these situations.
The schedule of not entering our sites until 5 minutes before will still be in place with gates opening at 2pm as this allows the high school students to return to class safely after their lunch. The school are committed to working with our families and to safeguard all children and thank you for your cooperation, patience and ongoing support when we need to adjust systems.
Thank you all once again for your patience and to reiterate also that the children are working really well and have adjusted to the new school year.
With Kind regards
Mrs Hulme, MA, NPQH
Executive Headteacher
Dear Parents and Carers,
Further to previous information shared, I am writing to give notice of the road use restrictions that come into force from Monday 14th September 2020.
This information has been communicated from the: -
Sustainable Travel Officer
Highways and Transport
Kingston and Sutton Shared Environment Service
London Borough of Sutton
Sutton School Streets Trial: St Philomena's and St Mary's
We want to make the streets outside our schools safer and the air cleaner for our children. To help achieve this, we are trialling School Streets in a number of areas across the borough. A School Street is where the road outside a school is closed to motor vehicles during school drop-off and pick-up times.
Why are we doing this?
Many local people have really enjoyed the lower levels of traffic and improved air quality during the recent lockdown. We also know that children are among the most adversely affected by high air pollution levels. To help continue these benefits, and improve the health and wellbeing of children in the borough, we are trialling School Streets.
School Streets will help support our ambitious aims to tackle air pollution and encourage people to be more active. This scheme has been developed based on feedback from residents and the school and aims to address:
? Congestion and poor parking around the school
? Parked vehicles with their engines running, contributing to air pollution, and
? Road safety and lower traffic speeds
The School Street will help make the road safer and calmer for pupils at school start and finish times. Parents who drive to the school are requested to park further away.
What will this mean?
From
Monday 14 September 2020 we will be trialling a ‘School Street’ scheme for six months on Shorts Road from the junction with Colston Avenue roundabout and the junction with Alma Road.
This section of Shorts Road will be closed to motor vehicles during school drop-off and pick-up times, between 8:15-9:15am and 2:15-3:30pm Monday to Friday, only during school term times.
Kind regards
Mrs Hulme, MA NPQH
Executive Headteacher
7th September 2020
Welcome back to a new school year 2020/2021
Dear Parents and Carers,
Firstly, we are delighted to have the children back in school. They settled very quickly and everything (apart from keeping to bubbles) feels almost back to pre-lockdown. We most sincerely hope that we will be able to continue like this, having the children back in full time education whilst getting to know each of them again and putting recovery in place for their emotional and learning needs.
Thank you for the many messages of understanding in supporting the staff across the federation, it certainly has been a very different period of time. The holidays have been busy as usual with maintenance work completed and extra safety measures put in place.
We have tried to keep everyone informed by using email, Google and adding to the school website. However, having more to communicate has been a challenge. It is difficult to maintain this, as new class groups only get updated on school systems as children start their attendance at the start of a new school year. This same system also updates the Google site so we hope you have retrieved class welcomes from your previous class and these will be updated over the coming week. We have had a few little hitches with our computer system as everyone wants to get access at the same time after a quiet period, thank you for being patient during this time.
Thank you to those families who have responded positively to the requests shared in previous letters about coming onto the school grounds. Please would you share this with all adults who drop and collect children for their convenience.
Important measures and risk assessments have been carefully thought out to ensure maximum protection for our children, staff, pupils who attend St Philomena’s and our wider family groups. Sadly, some of these requests have been overlooked and we really want to ensure we can minimise infection in school in order to keep the school open thus allowing parents to be able to be free for their own work commitments too.
It is really Important that we respect all who share the school sites.
To repeat the polite requests:
Please let us continue to work together to make this work for all involved and please be the one who sets the best examples especially to our children.
School milk
This will be operating as normal.
Fresh Fruit
The government initiative for supplying fresh fruit daily for children in the infant school will resume.
Drop off times
As we have amended the session times to ensure maximum curriculum learning time takes place- the window for drop off is at the given time e.g. 8.30 am. not as previous when a 10-minute window was allocated. Children arriving late will need to be signed in at the office, resulting with an indication of this on the child’s attendance record. This is particularly important for those families at the infant school, for the safety of all – the request is to stay away from school until your entry time to alleviate the public space around the school site. - thank you for your cooperation in this. However, we are currently looking at improving the efficiency of entry at the infant school.
We would also ask that you consider your child walking in from the entrance to school grounds (as appropriate for age, independently), unless there is a specific need. Pupils in years 5 and 6 could be doing this and for other year groups in the junior school - take the opportunity to remind them of road safety. This measure would also reduce the number of adults on site considerably.
On this second day in school, we thank and congratulate all of you for being here together and to the good Lord for enabling this too. May we all stay safe whilst working side by side in St Mary’s community.
Have a wonderful first whole week.
With kind regards
Mrs Hulme MA, NPQH
Executive Headteacher
2nd September 2020
Information regarding opening Friday 4th September (2)
Dear Parents and Carers,
Rather than bombarding you with information all in one letter, we are going to send you a number of updates as the days proceed.
Firstly, the arrangements for drop off and collection
Drop off, Collection and Social Distancing
We continue to ask parents to follow the social distancing requests and follow signage in each school. We have carefully thought this out and designated routes will only be effective if everyone follows the guidance. For the safety of both children and adults we have worked out one way routes with opportunities for wider circulation and as included in the previous letter we ask all adults to wear masks when entering the school grounds. Children can wear masks on arrival but will need a small plastic receptacle to put them in once entering the school building. This is to stop them fiddling with them in class and possibly raising contamination levels.
Designated drop off areas will be in place with only one adult accompanying their children to school. Adults must keep to designated drop off areas and leave the school site immediately. No parents will be allowed in school without an appointment and we ask that you arrive promptly to prevent pupils entering late via the office as parents would need to sign them in for these occasions.
The School Day
As notified previously the school will have an early closure on a Wednesday afternoon until further notice. Learning time has been taken account of and will be fulfilled by an earlier start in the day and shorter lunchtimes, ensuring statutory teaching time remains. This time on a Wednesday will also allow additional cleaning to be carried out.
|
Year Groups |
Entry time into school |
Drop off and collection point |
Time for collection |
|
Nursery |
8.55 am (morning session 12.15 pm (afternoon session) |
Gate 5 |
3.15 pm |
|
Reception |
8.40 am |
Gate 4 |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 1 |
8.35 am |
Gate 3 |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 2 |
8.35 am |
Gate 6 |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 3 |
8.30 am |
Walled Courtyard- front of school |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 4 |
8.30 am |
Lower Playground via ramp |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 5 |
8.30 am |
Upper Playground using pathway below MUGA to external classroom doors |
3.15 pm |
|
Year 6 |
8.30 am |
Upper Playground using upper pathway behind MUGA to external classroom doors |
3.15 pm |
|
NB . Collection time on a Wednesday for all year groups |
1.45 pm |
||
School Policies
All school policies will be in operation in full from the start of this new term this includes the wearing of full school uniform, expectations for hair styles and resuming normal teaching. PE lessons will remain as a crucial part of our school timetable and all children will be expected to have a full PE kit for both indoor and outdoor lessons. School back packs (juniors) and book bags (infants) will now come back into use but it would make a great difference to cloakrooms if school coats could be stored in their school bag (juniors) for those children who already have a lightweight navy coat. Daily reading at home will also be re-introduced with the use of reading diaries. The Home School Agreements will be sent home shortly to be completed to signify parental support of school policies. We thank you in advance for this cooperation, especially in these challenging times.
Lunchtime Routines
Lunches are back to normal – infant children -enjoying a school lunch under the Universal School Meal Scheme and juniors either school lunch or packed lunch. This information can be found within the school prospectus on the website.
Zones will be used to keep year group children in their own bubble outdoors.
Music lessons
The school is awaiting clarification on this which will be communicated to parents as soon as we know.
Swimming
We are awaiting clarification on this also.
School Feast Day
Sadly, this year we will not be celebrating this day in the same way. However, we will have a whole school Liturgy and with weather permitting a school picnic for children and staff. Those who normally have school dinners will enjoy a take away lunch on this day.
Welcome to St Mary’s
Again, this will not take place in the same way as other years and we will not be able to welcome you into school to meet the teacher. Each year group will communicate the usual messages through Google Classrooms instead. They will include information about expectation and routines in the presentation to be posted on Google. Hopefully you can give each member of staff a safe wave at drop off or collection. Please follow policy for other communication via school email – thank you.
Planning for Recovery
Please send any information into school that has been significant to your child’s wellbeing that has happened since 20th March if you haven’t done so already. It is important to keep these lines of communication open and will help in our repair planning for individual children and families.
Track and Trace
Please inform the school if your child or any member of the family has been in isolation and for what reason. We will be keeping a record of this information to have an up to date picture. This information will be confidential unless action needs to be taken for any class bubble. We anticipate that all families will welcome the sharing of these facts to reduce any contamination and thank you in advance for co operating in this matter. Children presenting symptoms should remain at home with school being informed.
Please do contact the school if you have concerns or issues that are pertinent to your own family circumstances. We are trying to anticipate parent queries and get information to you but in return we ask that you show respect to the staff in trying to solve any issues, everyone is working hard in preparing the schools for safe opening on 4th September whilst trying to keep abreast of new guidance that sometimes appears late in the evening. We thank you for your support in these situations and are very much looking forward to a complete re opening of the school from Friday 4th September, with the children in Early Years joining us later.
With kind regards
Mrs Hulme MA, NPQH
Executive Headteacher
1st September 2020
Notification of Friday 4th September
Dear Parents and Carers,
I am writing to you in regard to school opening for the academic year of 2020/2021. On behalf of the staff and school governors, we are delighted to be opening the school for the majority of pupils from Friday 4th September and children in Nursery and Reception will have a graduated start over a couple of weeks.
Although we want to make this next period as normal as possible, we have put certain additional measures in place for the wellbeing of both children and all adults and these will be continuously reviewed through the ongoing comprehensive risk assessment document that the governors monitor.
The purpose of this quick letter is to reassure you that many aspects will be shared with you all as they are developed and as staff return after the summer break.
We will continue to adopt the points of being COVID safe as stated by Government guidance including following systems of control for protection and prevention measures.
Within this letter I am also going to outline how the schools will function for the first half term and this will be continually monitored and reviewed.
Drop off, Collection and Social Distancing
There will be a slight variation of time with consideration for a better flow of pedestrian traffic especially in the morning.
Designated drop off areas will be in place with only one adult accompanying their children to school. Adults must keep to designated drop off areas and leave the school site immediately. It is very important that no adults form groups in any area of the school grounds and are asked to wear a mask when entering the school grounds.
The need for the passing on of information or a request for a meeting with a member of staff should be done by email to the school office. We ask that you to respect distancing for all staff and not to approach them adhoc as we do have members where further measures have been put in place e.g. for those who are pregnant.
The School Day
The school will have an early closure on a Wednesday afternoon, currently planned until half term. This allows us to restrict teachers from working over more than one extended bubble thus reducing possible contamination. Some virtual practice will also continue e.g. whole school assemblies and music lessons. Learning time has been taken account of and will be fulfilled by an earlier start in the day and shorter lunchtimes, ensuring statutory teaching time remains. This time on a Wednesday afternoon will also allow additional cleaning to be carried out.
Planning for Recovery
Staff INSET will have designated time to continue the planning for next term that will include a Recovery, Repair & Renew Curriculum with consideration for both children and adults. This will be based on pupil surveys/ information received, previous attainment and personal circumstances. Additional PSHE lessons will be delivered to ensure that all children receive appropriate learning and recovery. Year group specific information will be posted on the Google Platform as relevant.
Track and Trace
Information about how this will work should we have reported cases will be available.
However, we do ask for your patience in this matter as information may change and staff need the opportunity to review new guidance as and when it happens.
After School Cubs
There are currently no after school clubs arranged to start in September but we will keep you informed should this position change.
Access to Shorts Road School Entrance
Please note this prior warning in regard to an Experimental Traffic Management Order from 14th September. There will be restricted access and fines will be applied in regard to the stretch of road outside the school gate in Shorts Road. Further information will be sent to you as we receive this from Sutton Council.
We hope you have all been able to take the opportunities to be with family and are now ready to take the next step in supporting school policies in full, moving into September as a new school year.
With kind regards to all of our families in St Mary’s community as we look forward to seeing you all again next Friday 4th September.
Mrs Hulme MA, NPQH
Executive Headteacher
office@stmarysinfschool.org.uk