Keep up to date with all the news happening in school at the moment.

• Birthday Celebrations & more...

  Fri 26 Mar 2021 Mr A

  Good afternoon

   

  I cannot believe how quickly the term is passing.  Today we celebrate all our pupils who have had birthdays during January, February and March.  They all received a lovely cup cake made by our lovely cook, Miss Harris and her fabulous assistant Mrs Parmenter - what a great pair!

   

  We will continue our parties until the end of the school year, celebrating the last Friday in each month.  For those children whose birthday falls in August, we will add their names to the celebrations in July.

   

  Next Week

  World Book Day.  We are looking forward to celebrating our world book day and the theme is bright colours and sparkles.  I do hope parents come along dressed in bright colours and sparkles too - we can grab some wonderful photos on the school gate.  Staff will be coming as a colouring crayon - which colour will we be?

   

  Just to remind parents that we break up next Thursday for the Easter break, giving staff and pupils two weeks off to recharge their batteries.  We come back to school on Monday 19th April.  Social distance measures will still be in place that week and I will release the new roadmap of how we are going to get back to some sort of normal school life as the country eases restrictions.

   

  As we come to the end of Term 4, our end of term reports are due out, these should come direct to your email account as usual.  If you have changed your email, please update us before Wednesday, when the reports will be sent home.

   

  I hope you have a great weekend, albeit in lockdown - grab some exercise and enjoy nature.

   

  Mr A

  

• Red Nose Day

  Fri 19 Mar 2021 Mr A

  Finally, the sun has arrived and we are all enjoying the lovely weather.

   

  Red Nose Day

  Thank you to everyone who dressed up and celebrated RND.  What a great day it was.  Everyone thought about the theme differently and the challenges the children came up with were fabulous.  See pictures below of how some of the children dressed to impress today.

   

  Wrap Around Care

  Just to remind you that under our roadmap, breakfast club and after school care are now fully open and can be used as before.  It is important that children stay within their hubs within the wrap around care, to minimise the risk to staff and other children.  

   

  Play Park

  I know that it is exciting to see the sun and for the children to see friends but may I remind you that we are still currently under lockdown conditions.  We strive to keep the children in their hubs at school, to help keep everyone safe, to see them mixing hubs after school is concerning.  Please help us keep our school COViD free, as I wouldn't want to close a hub or multiple hubs if children have mixed and we have a case in school.  Thank you for your understanding.

   

  Weekend

  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if we get some sunshine that you enjoy relaxing in the sun.  

   

  

• Preparation for Monday 8th March

  Tue 02 Mar 2021 Mr A

  I hope you are all looking forward to returning to school on Monday.  We are almost ready to welcome you all back, with the final parts being completed on Friday, allowing the deep clean to be fresh ready for staff and children on Monday.

   

  Here is some DfE guidance and Chiseldon's non-negotiable to help pupils, parents and staff return safely.  I am sure that we all agree that working together and following the roadmap back to school and guidance we can help keep our school a safe place.

   

  DfE Guidance	Chiseldon's non-negotiables
  Attendance	Pupils of compulsory school age must be in school unless a statutory reason applies. Where a pupil is unable to attend school because they are complying with clinical and/or public heath advice, absence will not be penalised. Remote learning will be provided. Pupils who are reluctant or anxious about returning or who are at risk of disengagement will be identified and plans developed for re-engagement. Remote learning will only be provided for children who are isolating or who are clinically extremely vulnerable. It will not be provided for any other reason.
  School Uniform	Pupils will wear full uniform and school PE kit on PE days. Children can wear additional items of clothing underneath their school uniform, if they wish, due to increased ventilation of the classrooms.  We understand that you may not be able to buy school shoes so we will allow alternative suitable shoes for the rest of the school year. E.g. sensible trainers or enclosed flat shoes.
  Face coverings for parents, staff and pupils	We require parents to wear a face covering when on the school grounds, unless you are exempt, we can then provide a face shield. Staff may choose to wear visors or masks when working closely with a child. Children in primary school do not need to wear a face covering. However, you may request that your child does wear a face covering in school. A separate from will be sent home for you to complete.
  Engage with the NHS Test and Trace  Vaccinations	We will use the NHS Test and Trace process and contact local Public Health England health protection team if there is a confirmed positive case within the school. Staff are taking part in bi-weekly lateral flow testing. If a member of staff were to test positive through this process then the bubble would close and more information would follow. Primary school pupils are not required to undertake weekly testing in school – however NEWS from 1st March is that families and children will have access to Lateral flow tests (LFT) which can be administered at home twice a week (see end of this blog for the DfE announcement). There are currently no plans from Public Health to vaccinate children.
  Classroom ventilation	A window in a classroom and the internal door are open at all times. This will create a through put of air.  Outer doors will remain open during the day to allow further air flow.
  Minimise contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible	We are continuing to do everything possible to minimise contacts and mixing while delivering a broad and balanced curriculum.  The overarching principle continues to be to reduce the number of contacts between children and staff. We will be in hubs both inside and in the playground. We need to continue to limit the amount of equipment pupils bring into school each day, to essentials such as lunch boxes and one school bag.
  Minimise contact with individuals who are unwell by ensuring that those who have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, or who have someone in their household who does, do not attend school	Pupils, staff and other adults must not come into the school if they have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms and will be sent home if these develop during the school day.  If anyone in your household or support bubble is awaiting a Covid test result or has had a positive result, all other members of your household must also isolate. In the event of a child displaying symptoms, PPE must be worn by staff caring for that child while they await collection.  The member of staff and the child will be in isolation until the parent arrives. Everyone must wash their hands thoroughly for 20 seconds with soap and running water or use hand sanitiser after any contact with someone who is unwell.
  Transport/Travelling to and from school	We continue to encourage parents, staff and pupils to walk or cycle to school.  Please avoid car sharing as this is a high risk factor. If a pupil uses public transport or dedicated school transport, they must use hand sanitiser upon boarding and disembarking and distance themselves from others not in their group/bubble.
  Extra-Curricular Provision	We will resume our breakfast club from 15th March. Parents should limit their use of out of school childcare provision to only one provider e.g. childminders, after school clubs and childcare bubbles.
  Curriculum expectations and key principles	The curriculum remains broad and ambitious: all pupils will continue to be taught a wide range of subjects. Remote education will be provided, where needed.
  Clean hands thoroughly more often than usual	Pupils must clean their hands regularly, including when they arrive at school, when they return from breaks, before and after eating. We have hand sanitiser units available in classrooms and outside of the halls.

   

  Rapid lateral flow testing for households and hubs of school pupils and staff

  Around 1 in 3 people with coronavirus (COVID-19) do not have symptoms but can still pass it on to others. Regular testing of people without symptoms (asymptomatic testing) is important to help stop the virus spreading. As lockdown restrictions gradually ease, we all need to play our part to help protect each other. 

  The Department of Health and Social Care have announced, households with primary school, secondary school and college age children, including childcare and support bubbles, can test themselves twice every week at home as schools return from Monday 8 March. The twice-weekly test kits can be accessed:

  via employers if they offer testing to employees at a local test site (the current local site is Hungerford) by collecting a home test kit from a test site (these can be collected from Wroughton test centre and Broadgreen Community centre). You can be issued with 4x7 tests from the test centre. by ordering a home test kit online. You would be issued with 1 box of 7 tests.

  Unfortunately, we are not authorised or permitted to give test kits to parents, carers or household members and we cannot order test kits on your behalf. You can check the guidance on who can be tested and access information on where to collect tests by clicking on the ‘guidance’  link above.

   

  I do understand that this is a lot to take in and organise over the coming days but we had the vast majority of this in place from September and as a school we did really well in maintaining high standards.  The slight difference of face masks/shields to be worn by parents when entering the school site is one of the biggest changes for us in Chiseldon.  

   

  I hope you have a lovely long weekend, enjoying a little sunshine hopefully, and I will see you all on Monday.

   

  Mr A