Friday 14th January, 2022

 

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School,

First of all, I would like to extend a warm welcome back to you all and wish you a very happy and healthy 2022.

Return to school

The children have returned to school happy and eager to learn. We have made a very positive start to the term so far. Clubs have restarted and Year 6 are loving their time on school journey at Mersea. 

Staff Absences and Covid

Like many other schools in the country, we are now beginning to feel the impact Omicron is having on staff absences. Five teachers were off work with Covid this week and last week, and we sadly had to make the difficult decision to close our Nursery for H&S and safeguarding related reasons for a few days. We will do everything we can in our power to avoid any further year group closures, and will keep parents informed at all times. 

Please make sure that you help us by ensuring children who are unwell with cold and flu-like symptoms do not attend school until they have had a negative PCR test.

School uniform

Please do not allow your child to wear tracksuit bottoms or leggings instead of grey school trousers.

Tight leggings can only be worn underneath a dress or a skirt. 

Website updates

We are in the process of updating our school website. Our web address is  https://www.stepneypark.towerhamlets.sch.uk/ 

Our website has the following sections:

• Our school 

• Curriculum

• Personal Development

• Information

• Parental Engagement

• News

I hope you will find the wealth of information about the ‘Stepney Park Primary School offer’ to children and parents very useful. There are also many photos of our children hard at work and enjoying their learning.

In order to promote our lovely website, I will share a little segment of our website in this part of my letter each time.

I have started with the Personal Development section, which can be found in full here: https://www.stepneypark.towerhamlets.sch.uk/page/?title=Personal+Development&pid=91 

Here is the introduction to the Personal Development section:

"Stepney Park Primary School is located in an area of London where there is significant socio-economic deprivation and high levels of pupil mobility. Almost all of our pupils come from ethnic minority backgrounds. The vast majority (around 90%) are of Bangladeshi heritage, although many other countries and cultures are also represented.

With this knowledge of the backgrounds of our pupils, our beliefs about high quality education, our values, and our aims for our pupils while at the school and as global citizens beyond it, our main curriculum driver in the school is Communication.  

We also recognise that some of our pupils’ experiences may be limited by their family circumstances so we ensure that enrichment opportunities are offered in our curriculum to support their acquisition of cultural capital.

At Stepney Park Primary School, we believe that Personal Development plays a fundamental role in the education of the whole child. As a school we must provide children with an education that prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities, challenges and experiences of life in modern society. Effective Personal Development, which incorporates PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development), Character Education and RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) is essential to enable our children to make informed decisions about their lives. 

We aim to work in partnership with our children and our school community, consulting with them regularly on the content and delivery of our Personal Development curriculum. We also recognise that a range of people from the wider community, such as health professionals, can help enhance and enrich the delivery of our programme. Additionally, we will ensure that anyone coming into school to support the delivery of the curriculum is aware of the school's values and approach to Personal Development."

Schools Street

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets has committed to delivering 50 School Streets by the end of 2022, and Stepney Park Primary School is one of the schools targeted for this initiative.

The council wants to create areas where children can safely walk or wheel to and from school. School Streets aim to encourage activity, reduce pollution and help growth, learning and development.

The council is currently consulting on making Smithy Street a car free zone at the start and the end of the school day. 

This is how it would work:

• Restricting traffic at the start and end of school days.  Smithy Street would be made a pedestrian and cycle only zone between 8.30-9.15am and 3.00-4.00pm on school days.

• Access for residents and businesses of these streets, school staff, blue badge users and SEND pupils will be allowed if the vehicle is registered for an exemption; which can be requested free of charge using a form online.

• When in operation (between 8.30-9.15am and 3.00-4.00pm) other vehicles driven by visitors, parents and delivery vehicles will not be permitted to enter the zone

• Vehicles not registered within the restricted streets can leave during operational hours but cannot return between 8.30-9.15am and 3.00-4.00pm on school days

• The zones will be enforced by cameras and any vehicles entering them that have not been registered for an exemption will be automatically issued a penalty charge notice

• Tree planting along the school entrance

Please make your views heard here by responding to their consultation:  https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/schoolstreets/survey_tools/stepneypark 
 

Kind regards,
 

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School.