Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School,

First of all: a very warm welcome to all of our new children and families, both in EYFS and in the other year groups. We are very glad you have joined us!

Thank you to all parents  for your great support and positivity during our first week at Stepney Park Primary School. We have managed to iron out most of the initial teething issues with drop off and pick up, and I am very glad to say this is now going very smoothly.

We are working on a good system for EYFS as well, please bear with us until we have found the best possible and safest way to do this, we may need to tweak plans along the way. 

Drop off (between 8.50 and 9.00)

• From Monday, we are asking parents who have EYFS children to use the Redman’s road North building playground entrance for dropping off their children. This may include older children;  they can make their own way across the playground towards their lining up spots.

• All 4 entrances can be used to drop off Year 1 to Year 6 children. Please make sure you line up outside the gates with social distancing in mind. 

Pick up (between 3.20 and 3.40)

All parents, including those of EYFS children,  need to come to the Smithy Street  South playground entrance and pick up their children. Parents need to pick up children following the one way route until they have reached the North playground cage, and can  then decide one of the following options:

• Having picked up children in Year 2,4,6, turn right, walk around the North cage  and leave through the North playground exit. 

• Walk through the North cage, pick up Year 5 children, exit the North cage to the right and then leave through the North playground exit. 

• Walk through the North cage, exit the North cage to the left, pick up Year 1 and 3, and then leave through the North playground exit.

• Walk through the North cage, exit the cage to the left, pick up EYFS children, following the EYFS one way system, and then return to the North playground and then leave through the North playground exit.

Rainy days:

We have ordered a rain poncho with the school logo on for each Year 1 to Year 6 child. Children will be given this poncho free of charge, so they can wear it should there be heavy rain at the end of the day. Please make sure children bring their poncho to school every day in their book bag, as we do not have spare and we do not have shelter for all children.  We can only give the children one poncho free of charge, but our uniform suppliers  will also stock them, should you need a new or additional one. Parents are welcome and encouraged  to buy their own rain or waterproof coat for children as well, the poncho does not form part of our compulsory school uniform.

School uniform:

I would like to remind parents that our school uniform T-shirt colour is purple. A number of children are wearing white T-shirts. White T-shirts can be worn underneath purple school jumpers this year, but should not be worn other than that. All children were given a free T-shirt at the start of the year. 

Illness symptoms:

In order to protect all staff and children in the school:

• Following NHS guidance, if a child vomits or has diarrhoea  , they should not return to school for 48 hours.

• Coronavirus symptoms:

  • a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature, although it would be useful if you did do this using a digital thermometer )

  • a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

  • a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

• What to do if you or your child have symptoms:

  • Get a test to check if you or they have coronavirus as soon as possible.

  • The whole family needs to stay at home and do not have visitors until the  test result has returned – only leave your home to have a test.

  • If the test is negative: please call us before you return your child to school

  • If the test is positive: please let us know and follow the self isolating guidelines 

Messages to teachers and other staff:

We know that not being able to speak to the teachers to pass on messages has been very difficult for parents. However, following Government guidelines, we can not allow parents on the school grounds, unless they have an appointment. We have asked parents to call the office instead, and leave a message. We have employed an extra member of staff, whose job it is to deal with phone calls from parents. I know it is very hard to get through  to the office at certain times, due to the number of phone calls. There are a few  other ways to get a message to the right person: 

• Write your message on a piece of paper and ask the child to give it to the teacher. It could be a message to ask the teacher to call you.

• Email the office at: admin@stepneypark.towerhamlets.sch.uk 

• For very urgent/ emergency   messages that can not be left until later : wait by the main entrance until all children have entered the school building. A member of staff will speak to you and assess whether your message needs to be passed on immediately, or if you can call or email the office instead .

I hope you will enjoy reading the rest of this newsletter and find out about some of the learning our Stepney Park children have done in their first week.

Kindest regards,

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School.