Hertford Junior School

4^th September 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcoming the children back in September

I am delighted to be writing my first letter to you as in this new academic year of 2020-21!

I am excited to be back at school, although admittedly part of me might have liked a more straightforward start to the new school year. I’d like to begin though by thanking you as parents and carers for your support and your feedback as we navigated such new waters.

Back in March we had to move our physical schools on-line with just a day or two notice, whilst re-opening for many children alongside this and for the most part we did that well, but if we do go into a regional lockdown situation again we will be far better prepared as we have had the time to research online learning platforms thoroughly. I am aware that See-Saw is up and running for you as families and already there have been positive interactions with the new class teachers! We are very excited about the potential of the new learning platform and will be able to provide consistently high quality education.

We wrote to you all at the end of the term informing you of the changes and adaptations that we have had to make to how the school operates and I would appreciate it if you would take some time to discuss these with your child before the start of term.

As a reminder, we are staggering the start of the school year as follows, to allow us to stress test some of our new systems so we can ensure the safest possible environment for the whole of our community.

We ask at this time that parents and carers do not come into the office but email or call the school office with their queries. In addition, meetings can only be held if an appointment is made.

The term starts on Monday 7^th September for all children (except the new Nursery/Reception children with staggered start dates), and will be open for all children from Years R to 6 all week. The new staggered opening times will look like this:

We want the main focus for everyone to be on the well-being of all students and staff and on great teaching and learning. Let’s all work together, then, to ensure that excellent behaviour and a positive attitude to school means we can all hit the ground running together, minimising any further disruption to learning.  

We ask that, as parents and carers, you also follow the social distancing advice that we are expecting of the children and adhere to the staggered times to keep our community safe.

Uniform

We do expect all students to be in our very practical and sensible uniform in September. Apart from the school jumper, high street alternatives are completely acceptable. (Please be aware that we do not expect children to purchase the new school jumper if they have an old jumper that fits).

On Forest School days the children can wear their suitable outdoor clothing for the day.

And additionally, this year…all students to have a waterproof coat with hood in case of rain (We will be more reliant than ever on our outside areas to keep safe during the Covid pandemic.)

PE Kits

When you are aware of the P.E days for your child, we advise that your child comes in to school in their P.E kit.

PLEASE make sure that all clothes/kit is labelled and stored in a bag for your child.

One-way system

Infants - There will be a strict one-way system in place, with the idea that external routes are employed as much as possible. Time will be spent on the first day back walking through the one-way system and working out routes to and from their classrooms.

Juniors - There are different dropping off and collecting zones for the different year groups as described in the table above.

Assemblies

Digital on-line assemblies will be shared during class time, in place of more traditional large assemblies.

Symptoms

Please do not send your child to school if they appear to have any symptoms of the coronavirus including a temperature, a new and persistent cough and a change or loss to sense of taste or smell. Please remember to report this to the school office. The schools need your support to help keep everyone safe in these continued unprecedented times.

Dates

Please be aware that the meetings and dates that are planned at this time may be subject to change. Staff will be discussing the planned dates and events over the next two days and creating solutions together as to how we can meet safely.

Water Bottles and Snacks

All children please bring in a NAMED water bottle, with water only.

Infant children will have a fruit snack (provided by the school) in the morning. Junior children, please bring in their own fruit, vegetable or rice cake snack.

Hub Club after school – please ensure your child has their water bottle and a small snack to take to Hub Club.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you all on Monday. Please do take the time this weekend to go through the key messages that are outlined in this letter and check the website for your times of arrival.

It is paramount that all families stick to the staggered timetable for arrival and collection to avoid mixing of year groups bubbles across our schools. If late- you must wait! A member of SLT will be on site and will ask you to come in when it is safe to do so.

Thank you for your continued support as we journey this time together.   

Warm wishes,

Zoe McGuigan

4th Sept 2020

We are looking forward to seeing you all soon. Here is a link for some information and services which may be useful as our children return to school. www.e-wellbeing.co.uk/schools

17^th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Looking forward to September

After what has been such a challenging few months for everyone, we are so pleased to be planning for all our children to return in September. We are continuing to work through the Government recommendations to ensure our return will be safe and calm in September, however this letter contains some of the essential details you will need to know. Please ensure you read it carefully and keep it for your reference.

Bubbles and safety

To keep all the children and staff safe, we are going to be working in “bubbles”; these will be class bubbles inside and year group bubbles outside and in communal areas of the school. Nursery and Reception will be a bubble together. We will still be doing additional handwashing with all the children and extra cleaning throughout the day as well as following other Government recommendations for schools.

Uniform

We are expecting children to be wearing school uniform in September. We will be spending more time outside so it is really important that your child also has a waterproof coat, sensible shoes and a cap or sunhat if the weather is good. However, we understand that if you are wanting to air or wash your child’s clothes more frequently, there might be some occasions when this is not possible. Please just try your best.

PE

On P.E. days your child can come to school in P.E kit: T-Shirt, joggers or leggings (shorts if the weather is warm enough) trainers and their school sweatshirt. Older children should keep a spare T-Shirt in their locker, in case they need to change. All PE will be outside as much as possible so please make sure they have appropriate kit.

Staggered break and lunch times

As a safety measure we will need to stagger the children’s lunch and break times and ensure that each Year group bubble has their own play equipment to use. We will go through all of this with the children on their first day back.

Resources and equipment

We have been making up resource packs for every child, this has all the equipment that they will need including stationery and some learning tools like 100 squares and word lists in them. Your child will not be able to bring in or use their own stationery we will provide them with everything they need.

What should my child bring in?

• Named coat in case of bad weather
• Named sunhat or cap if the weather is good
• Named water bottle- this is very important
• A bag to keep their reading book, and the things identified here in
• If your child is bringing in a mobile phone please make sure you have signed the permission forms, phones will be stored in year group boxes collected in the classroom then taken to the office for safe keepin
• Other items from home

It is really important your child does not bring in any other toys or items from home at this time. If they do bring things in we will need to ask you to take them away with you. This is to help keep everybody safe.

Reading books

Children being able to borrow reading books and read at home is extremely important. We will be putting systems in place to ensure that all children will be able to safely borrow books and so that when they are returned they can be left for the recommended period of time before anyone else uses them again.

Start and finish times

To avoid overcrowding at the school gates we need to make some different arrangements at the start and end of the day. The grid below shows the start and finish time for each year group and where your child should be dropped off or picked up from. We understand that for some of you with children in more than one year group this may be difficult. Please don’t worry, arrive at the earliest time that your children should be in and then work your way around, we will understand! It is important, however that those who can arrive at allocated time slots do- this is to keep us all safe. We are still asking that you keep family members to a minimum at drop off and pick up, to avoid lots of people in the same place at the same time. We have ensured that all children get their full hours in school.

Speaking to teachers/ access to the office

The teachers will need to be with the children at the start and end of day, if you have an important message for that day, please phone or email the office and they will get it to your child’s class teacher. However, we do still very much want to keep our home school contact going so please, if you do want to speak with your child’s teacher, contact the office and ask them to call you or arrange for a meeting. We are aiming to bring Parents Evenings forward this year so that we can all be in touch and discuss the children’s needs and achievements sooner than we would normally do. Unfortunately, we are still not in a position where parents can come into school. If you need to be in for any reason then you must phone or email the office in advance and make an appointment unless we have arranged a meeting with you.

Breakfast and After School Club

We will be running breakfast club as normal however, to ensure the children are kept safe in their bubbles each year group will have an area to eat and play in. Infant start time is 7.50am Junior start time is 7.45am.

After school club will look different in the Autumn Term due to restrictions on numbers and recommendations around not mixing. We will be able to provide after school HUB clubs, but these will need to be on the separate sites and will run from 3.00pm until 5.00pm for the Autumn Term. We will not be able to provide a meal for the children. This will be reviewed ready for the Spring when hopefully we will be able to offer a full service again. To express and interest please email the relevant school office.

We will not be running after school enrichment clubs on either site in the autumn term. We are planning for all enrichment clubs to re-start in the spring term.

Please ensure you contact us via email at: admin@hertfordinf.brighton-hove.sch.uk OR admin@hertfordjun.brighton-hove.sch.uk if you require Breakfast and/ or After School provision then the office will send you the relevant booking forms. Breakfast club at the Juniors will now require booking, and spaces are limited.

Finally, then, it remains for me to wish you and your family a happy and peaceful summer, to thank you for your support and understanding during this difficult time and to ask you to bear with us as, once again, as we plan for the unknown.

I need to say a special thanks to all our staff, all of whom have been dealing with their own personal lockdown circumstances, but who have risen to the challenge of this difficult time superbly! It has not been easy for any of us and we have really appreciated your kind messages of support and appreciation.

I wish all staff and families a wonderful summer break- do take care and please, do keep safe.

Kind regards,

Hertford team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48j6pMpDkis