Wednesday 1st September

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School.

Welcome back!

We are looking forward to seeing all of our Year 1 to Year 6 children on Thursday, Sept 2nd. Staff will be back on Wednesday Sept 1st for an Inset day.  Reception and Nursery parents have had their start times confirmed at the end of last term.

Covid Restrictions lifted from September

As you know, Covid restrictions have been lifted from September. Whilst school bubbles and social distancing have been removed, we need to bear in mind that any measures that minimise the number and the duration of ‘person to person contact’ reduces the risk of transmission.

Schools will need to be ready to ‘step up’ and ‘step down’ on infection control measures, following advice from public health.

Our main risk assessment is now stripped back to 4 main control measures that include:

• Good Hygiene

• Cleaning

• Ventilation

• Follow Public Health advice for testing, self-isolation and managing confirmed cases

We will be making the following changes:

• There will not be any more class bubbles.

• All children will receive a daily hot lunch.

• We will begin to have some face to face assemblies. 

• We will begin to take children on trips, including residentials, later this year.

• Children will be able to use the whole playground, instead of a small section.

• When a child tests positive for Covid, we no longer need to ask the whole year group or the siblings to self-isolate. 

• Close contacts will now only be identified via NHS test and trace and schools will not be expected to undertake contact tracing.  NHS will work with the individual child and/or parent and follow up with any specific individual named. 

• Parents and staff are no longer asked to wear a face covering, but of course are welcome to do so if they wish.

• To limit the number of people in the building, we will have a ‘mobile office’ in the South main gate playground from 9.00 to 9.10am.  Please wait near the big gate in Smithy Street until 9:00 if you need to speak to office staff.

• In relation to the building works:

  • Morning and afternoon Nursery children can be dropped off through the South Car Park gate in the Nursery playground entrance, accessible from Smithy Street.

  • Morning Nursery children can be picked up from the South Car Park Nursery gate as well. 

The following things have not changed:

• Children who have Covid symptoms will still need to self-isolate until they have a negative Covid test, please do not send them to school before this.  

• Children who test positive for Covid will of course still need to self-isolate for 10 days.

• We will continue to teach children who are self-isolating through remote learning.

Start of day drop off and end of day pick up arrangements:

• • Children in Year 1 to Year 6 can be dropped off at any of the four  school gates from 8.50 am.

  • Reception children can be dropped off at the gate in Redman’s road.

  • Parents can pick their children up from 3.28 pm in the playground, which can be entered from the large Smithy Street gate. Please do not enter the playground from any other gate, in order to avoid congestion.

  • Reception and Nursery children can be picked up from their classes at the end of the day. 

  • Parents can talk to the teacher for a quick chat at the end of the day, but please only do so when other children have been picked up. Any longer chats can be arranged with the teacher at this time too.

Chromebooks and Ipads

Chromebooks and Ipads will be given to children in the first few days.  Like last year, there will be a contract to sign, which outlines your responsibilities in terms of supervision and in terms of duty of care towards the equipment. 

Building Works

The wall between both buildings has finally gone and the playground toilet block is being refurbished. The office has now moved back to the South building.  Check out the pictures on our website.

School uniform

Please make sure that your child comes to school in the correct school uniform. This means:

• Grey trousers, shorts, skirts or dresses

• Purple checked gingham dresses

• Grey or black leggings, only if worn under skirts or dresses

• Purple T-shirts or jumpers with school logo

• White socks

• Black shoes 

The following items are not school uniform:

• Purple cardigans, with or without a school logo

• Leggings, if worn without a skirt or dress

• Tracksuit bottoms (not even if they are grey)

• Jeans (not even if they are grey)

• White T- shirts (only during PE lessons)

• Children should not come to school dressed in their PE clothes

Children are welcome to bring a hat in hot and sunny weather, as it protects them from the sun.  

Classes this year:

• Children will remain in their Oak/ Willow/ Maple and Pine classes. ( for example: 3 Oak will become 4 Oak).

• Nursery and Year 2, 4 and 6 are in the South building 

• Reception and Year 1, 3 and 5 are in the North Building

• Children have visited their new classes during our Resilience day, which took place in the last week of term. They have all met their new teacher and have been shown where to line up in the morning. We will help them find their space in the playground at the start of every morning, and they will soon remember where to go. 

Here are the classes for this year:

 Senior staff this year:

Covid Catch up:

We will soon be re-starting our interventions. In the meantime, the Department of Education has launched an information site for parents, to support children of all age ranges and abilities to catch up on lost learning from the pandemic. The site features advice and support for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as well as programmes, resources and activities for children and young people. It can be found here: 

https://educationcatchup.campaign.gov.uk/ 

And finally:

I am looking forward to starting the second year of Stepney Park Primary school. Let’s hope it’s going to be a bit more settled, without all the Covid measures!

Kind regards,

 

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School